Five takeaways from the weirdest summer in movie history

Peter Howell

Movie Critic

You couldn’t make up a summer movie season as wacky as this one, even if Hollywood screenwriters hadn’t been striking all through it.

Many of the expected heavy hitters of the season — “Fast X,” “Indy 5,” “Mission: Impossible 7” and “The Flash” — came up way short of expectations, for a variety of reasons.

Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” meanwhile, a novelty comedy about a plastic doll that yearns to be human, shocked everybody by selling more than a billion dollars worth of tickets worldwide. Just this week it topped “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and became the most successful film of 2023.

★ TIFF 2023 tweet-o-rama

★ "The Manchurian Candidate” has history’s weirdest movie dialogue

Even more surprising was how “Barbie” was serendipitously yoked to Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” a serious biopic about a nuclear scientist. The two films together have helped push the box office close to $4 billion (all figures U.S.) during the warm-weather months, marking a return to pre-pandemic highs.

As Labour Day approaches and green leaves begin to turn red, here are five take-aways from the weirdest summer movie season ever:

FULL STORY: tinyurl.com/yrjtv74r