The Surprising Film That Started the Summer Movie Season in May

by

As the much-anticipated movie “Thunderbolts” hits theaters on May 2nd, it marks the unofficial start of summer 2025’s moviegoing season, a tradition that has become almost sacred with live-action Marvel Comics adaptations leading off the first weekend in May. This trend, popularized by “Spider-Man” in 2002, has been continued by blockbusters like “The Avengers”, “Captain America: Civil War”, and “Spider-Man 3” (to name a few), consistently yielding massive opening weekends that can positively impact the rest of the season.

It’s enticing to attribute the beginning of summer moviegoing during May to Spider-Man. Yet, that’s not entirely accurate. Six years prior to this Sam Raimi production, another film premiered and earned substantial box office success, marking a shift in when summer moviegoing traditionally began.

The Blockbuster That Blew Away Summer Movie Scheduling Norms

For quite some time, Memorial Day weekend had been known as the beginning of the summer movie-watching season. This period, made famous by the original Star Wars trilogy, was essentially Hollywood’s chosen moment to launch the most significant part of their year. Even as late as 1994, the film “3 Ninjas Kick Back,” which opened on May 6-8, wasn’t a blockbuster like the Avengers. The following summer saw the largest movie opening over the first weekend of May being the romantic comedy “French Kiss.” It was more like the early May weekends were a farewell to spring movies rather than an exciting start to the summer movie season.

By the mid-’90s, it was evident that Hollywood aimed to extend the summer movie season by a couple of weeks. Films like “Maverick” and “Die Hard with a Vengeance,” both launched prior to Memorial Day weekend in 1994, demonstrated this trend. In May 1995, “Crimson Tide” was released, earning decent profits over the May 12-14 weekend. However, it was in May 1996 that the traditional summer movie release pattern was significantly altered. This was when “Twister” debuted on May 10-12 and grossed an impressive $241.72 million, positioning itself as the second highest-grossing film of the season, surpassed only by “Independence Day.” It turned out that audiences were more than willing to attend a summer blockbuster well before Memorial Day weekend.

Funny enough, I intentionally moved the release date of Twister to dodge a head-on clash with that year’s Memorial Day blockbuster. Initially set for May 17-19, the pre-Memorial Day weekend frame, Warner Bros. and Universal decided to advance Twister by a week to avoid being flattened by the latest Tom Cruise movie. Ironically, it was Twister that ended up outperforming Mission: Impossible significantly on its new date. The underdog of May 1996 had grown into a giant. Hollywood would start paying attention as summer blockbusters began to debut before the traditional Memorial Day weekend kick-off.

The Immediate Impact of Twister’s Success

During the summer of 1997, the initial weekend in May saw two films break into the top 15 highest-grossing movies of the season: “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” and “Breakdown”. Neither film monopolized cinemas, but they outperformed previous May openings such as “3 Ninjas Kick Back”, leaving it far behind. “The Fifth Element”, conversely, premiered during the second weekend of May, a spot where “Twister” had thrived the year prior. This second weekend was no mere warm-up to Memorial Day; instead, it stood tall and independent. The film “Deep Impact” would go on to become the third highest-grossing movie of summer 1998 after its release during the second weekend of May, further emphasizing May’s significance.

At the tail end of the 20th century, a significant follow-up to the groundbreaking release date of Twister was marked by Universal Pictures. They chose to debut The Mummy during the initial weekend of May 1999, which turned out to be a brilliant move as it ended up being the sixth highest-grossing film of the season. Following Twister’s influence in pushing summer starts forward, The Mummy cemented that first weekend of May as an unspoken beginning for summer movie-going.

In May 2002, when Spider-Man set a record by earning over $100 million during its first three days in theaters, it seemed like the start of every May was always going to kick off the summer box office. However, this wasn’t always the case for new releases throughout much of cinema history. The shift towards May debuts for blockbusters like Spider-Man can be traced back to Twister, which revolutionized summer moviegoing release dates in 1996.

Twister is now streaming on Prime Video.

Read More

2025-05-03 17:41