With another summer about to kick off, The Fall Guy will be the first non-Marvel Summer opener in 18 years! (excl. 2020/2021 for obvious reasons).

Here is a list of summer openers for the last four decades.

1982 Rocky III or Conan the Barbarian
1983 Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi
1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
1985 Rambo II
1986 Top Gun
1987 Beverly Hills Cop III
1988 Crocodile Dundee 2 / Rambo III
1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1990 Back to the Future Part III
1991 Backdraft
1992 Lethal Weapon 3
1993 Cliffhanger
1994 Maverick
1995 Crimson Tide
1996 Twister
1997 The Fifth Element
1998 Deep Impact
1999 The Mummy
2000 Gladiator
2001 The Mummy Returns
2002 Spider-man
2003 X2
2004 Van Helsing
2005 Kingdom of Heaven
2006 Mission Impossible 3
2007 Spider-man 3
2008 Iron Man
2009 Wolverine Origins
2010 Iron Man 2
2011 Thor
2012 The Avengers
2013 Iron Man 3
2014 The Amazing Spider-Man 2
2015 Avengers : Age of Ultron
2016 Captain America : Civil War
2017 Guardians of the Galaxy 2
2018 Avengers : Infinity War
2019 Avengers : Endgame
2022 Doctor Strange : Multiverse of Madness
2023 Guardians of the Galaxy 3

* Pre 1994 are generally Memorial Day films with a few exceptions. Earlier May films became summer starters by the mid 90s. April came in to play more recently with Marvel.

What are your Top 20 favourites or best summer openers?

Rank all of them or pick your favourite films or box office stories...

How do the Marvel films stack up?


Note: have purposely put in the BO Forum as this can be both a film and BO discussion/ranking thread.

Rambo First Blood Part II and Rocky III. Not only masterpieces but they defined the years they were released, box office wise and culturally significant.

They certainly were of their era. I was 4 and 7 when they were released and certainly aware of them.

Anecdote here - early 1983 and various school classes were going on a trip to watch a film. My mum told me that we were going to see Rocky. I couldn't wait and told all the kids that we were going to see Rocky. A few of them laughed and said "No, we arent seeing Rocky - we are going to see Dusty"

Dusty is an Aussie film about a farm dog

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083860/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

Nice to see the list

The Marvel one kind of blurs together so it's nice to have a more unique summer opener like Van Helsing/Kingdom of Heaven in the Fall Guy.

Wow, ive seen everyone one of the films since Last Crusade in theatres when they first came out.

Ranked in terms of awesome + pop culture impact:


A+
1. 2002 Spider-Man
2. 1983 Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi
3. 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
4. 2012 The Avengers
5. 2000 Gladiator

A
6. 1986 Top Gun
7. 1999 The Mummy
8. 1996 Twister
9. 2008 Iron Man
10. 2003 X2

A-
11. 2018 Avengers : Infinity War
12. 2019 Avengers : Endgame
13. 1982 Rocky III
14. 1985 Rambo II

B+
15. 2023 Guardians of the Galaxy 3
16. 1995 Crimson Tide
17. 1990 Back to the Future Part III
18. 2006 Mission Impossible 3

B
19. 2016 Captain America : Civil War
20. 2017 Guardians of the Galaxy 2

B-
21. 2022 Doctor Strange : Multiverse of Madness
22. 1993 Cliffhanger
23. 1991 Backdraft

C+
24. 2011 Thor
25. 2015 Avengers : Age of Ultron
26. 2010 Iron Man 2

C
27. 1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
28. 2001 The Mummy Returns

C-
29. 2014 The Amazing Spider-Man 2
30. 1998 Deep Impact

D
31. 2004 Van Helsing
32. 2007 Spider-man 3

F
33. 1992 Lethal Weapon 3
34. 1987 Beverly Hills Cop III
35. 1988 Crocodile Dundee 2 / Rambo III
36. 2013 Iron Man 3
37. 2009 Wolverine Origins
38. 1997 The Fifth Element
39. 2005 Kingdom of Heaven

Haven't seen:
1994 Maverick

I have Twister at #1. Yes Spidy was a bigger pop cultural event but Twister really set the norm of first weekend of May launches. Big movies came out Memorial Weekend for ages before but to launch a movie on a non-holiday weekend outside of peak summer (Memorial Weekend - late July), Thanksgiving, or Christmas holidays, especially a high profile tentpole really was unheard of.

That ultimately led to studios testing out other launch pads for high profile films like high concept horror in January, big tentpoles in March, the push of summer into April with Fast launching first week of April to massive results, and lots of other big successes. Twister sort of was the precedent for the year long scheduling trend. Endgame in April (biggest OW of all time) probably wouldn't have happened if Twister didn't start that trajectory.

Twister is indeed fucking awesome and I would be thrilled if Twisters can recapture some of the magic.

For perspective, Kingdom of Heaven (2005), seen as a massive flop at the time with $19.6M 3day OW would now adjust to $34.3M. That had a $135M budget (in 2005 dollars), so $200M+ now.

Fall Guy post tax credits was $130M but realistically likely closer to $180-190M pre marketing.

Just shows how much expectations game has changed since then. $28.5M won't be seen as an outright disaster though underwhelming.

You can't really adjust budgets the same as box offie. There are too many variables with the advancements of post production, and filming locations, etc. Napoleon also only cost 130 million, while Robin Hood was god knows what 130-240 million. Based on the location of filming, it's quite possible KOH may have only cost exactly the same today, definitely not has much as Dune II.

This might be the weakest may since 2006 or 2004. Fall Guy is probably even did worse than Poseidon back in 06, though that even looked better at the time. Horrible marketing job.

Here's a look at the adjusted OW's post Twister for summer openers. 2020, 2021 weren't included due to Covid. Also didn't include The Fifth Element for 1997 as it wasn't as formal a summer launch off preceeding JP2.

Apr 26, 2019 Avengers: Endgame $437,083,817.30
Apr 27, 2018 Avengers: Infinity War $317,135,660.73
May 4, 2012 The Avengers $292,165,432.55
May 1, 2015 Avengers: Age of Ultron $254,374,692.43
May 4, 2007 Spider-Man 3 $246,249,634.33
May 3, 2013 Iron Man 3 $240,143,883.32
May 6, 2016 Captain America: Civil War $232,180,895.81
May 3, 2002 Spider-Man $221,607,633.96
May 6, 2022 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness $199,545,516.88
May 5, 2017 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 $183,116,396.65
May 7, 2010 Iron Man 2 $182,054,087.17
May 2, 2003 X2: X-Men United $159,073,970.98
May 2, 2008 Iron Man $153,987,968.06
May 4, 2001 The Mummy Returns $134,968,259.57
May 1, 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine $127,146,971.10
May 2, 2014 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 $125,708,615.39
May 5, 2023 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 $122,808,813.34
May 10, 1996 Twister $104,145,973.15
May 8, 1998 Deep Impact $98,372,602.69
May 7, 1999 The Mummy $95,713,711.01
May 7, 2004 Van Helsing $93,423,128.19
May 6, 2011 Thor $92,917,715.89
May 5, 2006 Mission: Impossible III $81,718,989.66
May 5, 2000 Gladiator $72,423,555.36
May 4, 2005 Kingdom of Heaven $34,343,694.00
May 3, 2024 Fall Guy $28,500,000.00

Fall Guy ranks as the worst summer opener of the last 28 years. Every summer opener has done $72M+ including Gladiator other than FG and KOH.

Very strange to see MLK weekend > May first weekend with Mean Girls, same with Feb long weekend and One Love > May first long weekend.

fix this egregious error 3 came out in 1994

fingers crossed very much looking forward to it. looks great

Summer '93 & '94 back to back was probably my fav time going to the theaters. Had friends working at both of the theaters in my city and I got to watch most of them for free

1993 May:
Cliffhanger
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
Menace II Society

1993 June:
Jurassic Park
Sleepless in Seattle
Last Action Hero
What's Love Got to Do with It

1993 July:
Rookie of the Year
The Firm
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Poetic Justice
Free Willy
In the Line of Fire

1993 Aug:
The Fugitive
Hard Target
Searching for Bobby Fischer
The Meteor Man

1994 May:
The Crow
The Flintstones
The Maverick
Beverly Hills Cop III (with a George Lucas cameo )

1994 June:
The Lion King
Speed
Wolf
Renaissance Man

1994 July:
Forrest Gump
True Lies
The Mask
The Shadow
Angels in the Outfield

1994 Aug:
Clear and Present Danger
The Little Rascals
Natural Born Killers
Blankman

Endgame #1 on both quality of movie and quality of opening weekend.

Spider-Man was my first summer kick off weekend. Probably played a big part in why I've continued to follow these charts and love record breaking openings so much.

One could argue that Fast Five was the real kickoff of 2011?

I remember my mom buying out a lowes theater Memorial Day weekend for my 10th birthday to see the lost world. I don’t think she actually bought it out, just had my birthday party at the theater.

Nice