Why Hollywood Needs to Bring Back the August Blockbuster (+ My Three Favourites)
General Reviews
They did it. They finally made a good Fantastic Four movie. As of this writing, Fantastic Four: The First Steps has an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. I love to see it, but I wish that Disney had released the movie in August.
Fantastic Four’s box office revenue started strong, but it cratered within a couple weeks. It seemed like most people who were going to see this movie saw it early.
Marvel Studios launched Fantastic Four just two weeks after DC’s Superman summer offering. Two superhero movies releasing so close together likely hurt Fantastic Four’s box office revenue. Comics fans likely opted for one or the other. If Fantastic Four released two weeks later, on say, August 8, Superman would have had a month to play in theatres. It would likely have exhausted most of its potential revenue at that point and lose screens at cinemas. Fantastic Four could have swooped in to give the people a superhero movie for August.
It’s not just comic book adaptations. This year, the studios have been stuffing their blockbusters in the first half of the summer. Disney’s live-action Lilo and Stitch released in late May, Universal’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon released in June, and Universal’s Jurassic World: Rebirth released in July. When I look at Hollywood’s release slate for August 2025, it’s pretty barren. The most commercial offering, honestly, might be Freakier Friday.
I know it has been a struggle for studios to adapt to the post-COVID theatrical market. Marvel Studios has decelerated its output as superhero movies are not the guaranteed box office hits that they were in the 2010s. Other studios have been experimenting. In some cases, it’s paid off. Paramount released the Mean Girls Musical in theatres in early 2024. It was originally intended as a direct-to-streaming flick. The film made more than three times its small budget in theatres.
I propose that in this transitional, experimental period, studios bring back the August blockbuster.
Before I dive into the characteristics of an August blockbuster, I’ll start with a breakdown of what a year typically looks like for movie releases based on my observation.
- January: This is when studios release movies that they want to dump. It’s typically slow season at the box office, and the little traffic movie theatres do get tends to be people watching award contenders in the weeks leading up to the Oscars and holdovers from holiday blockbusters.
- February-April: The warmup for Blockbuster season. Some animated movies opt for March releases (Zootopia, Onward). It correlates with when many North American schools are on Spring Break. Some superhero movies release at this time. Black Panther and Captain Marvel lined up their release dates with Black History Month and International Women’s Day, respectively.
- May-August: Core blockbuster season
- September-October: Fall festival season and the warmup for awards season. On the more commercial side, you get horror movies in the eight weeks leading up to Halloween.
- November-December: The holiday/ “wintery” blockbuster season. This is a time for releasing nostalgic blockbusters that remind people of the holidays. Not necessarily Christmas movies, but movies that are great for marathoning during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Think Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. The week of American Thanksgiving seems like prime real estate for movie releases. Those movies carry over into the weeks leading up to Christmas. People can see them on holiday shopping outings. One of my favourite blockbusters from this season is 2017’s Coco, initially released on November 22, 2017. Coco is, of course, about Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos, but its family themes apply to holidays around the world. Christmas Day is big for movie releases as well. There is a long history of going to the cinema on Christmas. It’s the only thing that’s open! James Cameron loves Christmas Day releases. This window is also when the movies that get nominated for Oscars typically release.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s turn our attention to core blockbuster season: May to August. August is historically a time when studios release their riskier movies that have the potential to be blockbusters but are not guaranteed hits. Let’s look at my three favourites.
1. The Sixth Sense (1999)
This one just… looks like a fall release, right? The fall foliage, the Northeastern US setting, and the fact that it’s, well, a horror movie. Nope. The studio went for an August release. They didn’t want to compete with Stir of Echoes, a horror movie set for release that September. The Sixth Sense came in a strong, competitive year for Hollywood films. There’s a book written about it- Best. Movie. Year. Ever.: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raferty. The Blair Witch Project released a month before The Sixth Sense. How did Shyamalan’s film compete, sandwiched between two other excellent horror flicks? It had a PG-13 rating. People from all age groups flocked to The Sixth Sense. Word of mouth got out that the movie had a great twist. It held the title for the highest-grossing horror film of all time until It: Chapter One released in 2017. I first saw The Sixth Sense in a Grade 12 Philosophy class during a unit on metaphysics. That was fourteen years after its release. I’m glad no one spoiled it for me.
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
This movie released the summer I turned 14, a month before I started high school. It was a great summer at the movies- Inception, How to Train Your Dragon, Toy Story 3. That last one hit hard, having grown up watching the Toy Story movies. I saw it when my family went camping with two other families. One family had an album full of bootleg DVDs, including Toy Story 3. The kids- aged seven to fourteen (I was the oldest)- watched it on a small, portable DVD player. You know, the kind that parents gave to their kids so they could watch movies in the car before iPads took over? It was August, and it didn’t get dark until after 9:00 pm on the Lake Erie shore. We had a late movie night. You know, like adults. Watching Andy as a college kid hit me like a ton of bricks, but I didn’t think the movie lived up to Toy Story 2. I still think Toy Story 2 is the best one.
Scott Pilgrim arrived on August 13, 2010- Friday the thirteenth. My brother almost saw it with his friend. The scheduling didn’t work out. My mom offered to take me, but it fell through when my brother didn’t go. We ended up renting the movie on Rogers OnDemand on December 30, 2010. I fell in love. We rented the movie at Blockbuster for my fifteenth birthday party six months later. My friends didn’t get it, but I watched it at least five times over that week-long rental period. That local Blockbuster closed less than a year later.
Scott Pilgrim bombed at the box office. There was just too much competition that summer. It’s also a movie with a very niche sensibility. In 2010, the music (including many original songs) and humor style appealed to an urban, Northeastern-Midwestern indie rock crowd, and that’s about it. The movie has aged spectacularly. It’s interesting to rewatch it as an adult. You realize that Scott is a loser and Knives is, in fact, too cool for him anyway. I’m a believer that the best movies are the ones that you can watch at different ages and enjoy them in different ways. Scott Pilgrim is no exception. The film is also stuffed with cast members who went on to have fantastic careers. Kieran Culkin, Aubrey Plaza, and Jason Schwartzman are all among my favourite actors working right now. While none of them started their careers with Scott Pilgrim, I’m not sure anyone in 2010 could have predicted what they’ve become.
I adore How to Train Your Dragon and Inception, but, if I’m being honest with myself, I think Scott Pilgrim vs. the World might be my favourite summer 2010 movie. Who am I kidding? It’s my favourite 2010 movie, period. Yes, even over The Social Network.
3. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Guardians of the Galaxy was Marvel’s first franchise launch after The Avengers showed us that crossovers are not just for comic books and TV shows. Marvel released Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World in 2013 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier in April 2014. Guardians came in August 2014. The film was a gamble. I remember seeing the movie poster with the talking raccoon and thinking, What the hell? The film’s five main characters were niche even among comic book fans. Guardians ended up outgrossing Winter Soldier.
The Guardians franchise helped shape the MCU for years to come. The movies became light-hearted and full of humor. Guardians of the Galaxy might be my favourite MCU movie. Steven Spielberg has also cited it as his favourite superhero movie.
I’m going to predict right now that the highest-grossing film released in August 2025 will be Freakier Friday. I saw Freaky Friday in theatres with my mom as an eight-year-old. I caught it on TV many times in the years after its theatrical run. I don’t know if I want to see the sequel, but it could be a summer hit that appeals to women. Really, I shouldn’t assume that a movie is “non-commercial” just because it’s not an action flick. Those have been thriving at the box office over the past few years: Barbie, It Ends with Us, Wicked. The Mean Girls musical (mentioned earlier in this article) was a smaller hit, but undoubtedly profitable. I hope Freakier Friday does well and pushes studios to bring back the August blockbuster.
Sources:
Asmelash, L. (2024, December 22). If you spend Christmas at the movies, you’re not alone. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/22/entertainment/christmas-movie-theaters-tradition-cec
Jennings, C. (2025, May 19). Steven Spielberg Picked This MCU Underdog as the Superhero Movie That Impressed Him Most — and It’s Not Hard To See Why. Collider. https://collider.com/steven-spielberg-guardians-of-the-galaxy-most-impressive-superhero-movie/
Mean Girls (2024 film). Wikipedia. (n.d.-a). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_Girls_(2024_film)
Rubin, R. (2025, August 3). Box Office: “Fantastic Four” Craters by 66% in Second Weekend, “Naked Gun” Debuts to $17 Million . Variety. https://variety.com/2025/film/box-office/fantastic-four-box-office-craters-naked-gun-opening-weekend-1236477352/
Sad Boom Media. (2024, April 29). The Sixth Sense. What Went Wrong. episode.
Vary, A. (2017, May 3). Marvel’s Dark And Twisted Guardian. Buzzfeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adambvary/james-gunn-guardians-of-the-galaxy
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