These are my picks for the 5 potential sleeper hits of the summer movie season:
“BOOK CLUB” (Today)
There haven’t been many films lately aimed at an older audience. This all-star rom-com looks to capture the 60+ demo with a light piece of escapism. Last year’s “Going in Style”, with Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin and Michael Caine, earned $45 million, and 2013’s “Last Vegas”, starring Freeman, Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline and Michael Douglas grossed $64 million. Now it’s the ladies’ turn, with Oscar winners Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda and Mary Steenburgen and Oscar nominee Candice Bergen taking centerstage.
“WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?” (June 8 – Limited)
This highly-anticipated Mister Rogers documentary, released on the 50th anniversary year of his iconic program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”, has been getting a hefty marketing push from studio Focus Features, with an emotional trailer that includes dozens of glowing quotes from its Sundance Film Festival screening in January.
“UNCLE DREW” (June 29)
Basketball great Kyrie Irving joins Shaq, Lil Rel Howrey and Tiffany Haddish in this b-ball comedy. It’s sure to bring-in NBA fans, as well as African American audiences, for what could be the funniest movie of the summer.
“TEEN TITANS GO! TO THE MOVIES” (July 27)
Not every animated TV series gets turned into a movie – let alone one that gets a theatrical release. But Warner Bros. has confidence that the fandom of the popular Cartoon Network series will come-out in force for the big screen film adaptation. However, with a plot that revolves around superhero movies, and a script that has free reign to name them and include all of the characters (including Superman, voiced by Nicolas Cage, and Batman, voiced by Jimmy Kimmel), some older DC fans may be curious enough to check this out.
“THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME” (August 3)
Last August, Lionsgate struck gold with the Ryan Reynolds/Samuel L. Jackson action comedy “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”. Now, the studio’s female answer to that hit is the pairing of Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon. Like “Bodyguard”, this one could linger well past Labor Day.