Back in 1993, the Summer movie season was being declared the Summer of Sequels because of the large number of non-original movies releasing to the theaters. That year, along with many other recent years, have nothing on this season. From May through August, no fewer than sixteen sequels, reboots and remakes are releasing to the box office and this includes limited releases (Before Midnight is the third film from Richard Linklater in his “Before” series). Since the reliance is on assured box office with less advertising push, this will become the norm unless we see more break-out hits among the newcomers (though, they’ll just be retooled later for a sequel anyway). There are a few original films releasing in the next four months that could prove to be popular enough, but most of the success will be reserved for the non-original.

To introduce you to the upcoming films, there will be two preview articles every month and this introduction every four months. The Season Preview article will focus on one of three seasons Spring Season (January through April), Tentpole Season (May through August) and Oscar Season (September through December). In these introductory articles, I will give you the current release schedule for the specified season, which may change as the release dates get closer.

May 3-5, 2013

Iron Man 3 (Wide)
The Iceman (Limited)
What Maisie Knew (Limited)