May 2024’s blockbuster season kicks off with a star-studded action-comedy featuring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt
As summer draws near, it signals the start of the blockbuster season for movie enthusiasts. Already, the season is heating up with major hits such as Dune: Part Two ($667.5M), Kung Fu Panda 4 ($419.5M), and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($367.5M), all making substantial gains at the box office. With these successes paving the way, the stage is set for the arrival of the year’s most anticipated releases.
Starting in May, the summer lineup promises an exciting cinematic journey with a diverse range of films to suit various preferences. From adrenaline-pumping action flicks and heartwarming family stories to spine-chilling thrillers, here’s a look at some of the upcoming blockbusters in May:
The Fall Guy – 02 May 2024
Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama
Cast: Emily Blunt, Ryan Gosling, Aaron – Taylor Johnson
The Fall Guy follows Colt Seavers, an out-of-work stuntman, who is asked by his ex-girlfriend(movie director) to help with stunts for a troublesome action star. When the actor disappears, Colt sets out to rescue him, facing the darker side of Hollywood. Along the way, he hopes to win back his ex, rescue the film, and prove himself as the best stuntman.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – 02 May 2024
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Cast: Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Annie Potts
The new rendition of the beloved horror fantasy franchise, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire introduces a new villain and the Ghostbusters, old and new, as they unite to save the world from an ancient evil threatening a second ice age.
Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 – 02 May 2024
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Cast: Scott Chambers, Craig David Dowsett, Chris Cordell, Nikolai Leo
The sequel to the horror parody of A.A. Milne’s children’s story, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2, picks up shortly after the first film’s events. The new movie will continue the murderous rampage of the residents of the Hundred-Acre Wood.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – 09 May 2024
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Cast: Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, William H. Macy
Decades after Caesar’s sacrifice, a new ape society grapples with a power struggle. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” rewrites the future in an epic clash for dominance. Will peace prevail, or will humanity rise again?
IF – 16 May 2024
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Cailey Fleming
A young girl sees the forgotten imaginary friends of grown-ups! With Ryan Reynolds as her guide, she embarks on a heartwarming adventure to reunite lost friends and reignite the magic of childhood.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 – 16 May 2024
Genre: Horror
Cast: Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, Rachel Shenton
Is your home truly safe? “The Strangers: Chapter 1” rips open the idyllic facade of a quiet evening. Prepare for a night of bone-chilling terror as masked intruders turn a dream getaway into a desperate fight for survival.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – 23 May 2024
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Charlee Fraser
War rages across the Wasteland. Before she became the Imperator, Furiosa clawed her way to freedom. Witness her origin story in “Mad Max: Furiosa.” Anya Taylor-Joy ignites the screen in a high-octane prequel filled with sand, fury, and the fight for a future.
The Garfield Movie – 23 May 2024
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Cast: Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham
Garfield is about to go on a wild outdoor adventure. After an unexpected reunion with his long-lost father – the cat Vic – Garfield and Odie are forced to abandon their pampered life to join Vic in a hilarious, high-stakes heist.
Tarot – 30 May 2024
Genre: Horror
Cast: Avantika, Olwen Fouéré, Jacob Batalon
Don’t peek into your future…it might stare back. “Tarot” unlocks a deck of nightmares. A group of friends dabble in forbidden rituals, unleashing a terrifying entity. Can they escape the chilling fate foretold in the cards?
For brands seeking to engage their target audience in a captivating and immersive setting, the summer season offers an unmatched opportunity to create lasting impressions and foster meaningful connections. Click here to start your cinema advertising journey.
Download our Screentalk Movie Planner to explore all the blockbuster releases coming in Q2 2024!
The cinema industry successfully ushered global audiences back into theatre in 2022 largely owing to the steadier flow of blockbusters in comparison to 2021, with Top Gun: Maverick, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Avatar: The Way of Water leading the long list of successful titles this year.
While 2021 was a dress rehearsal for the future of cinemas, 2022 has proved that cinema is back for real. This was especially evident in Saudi Arabia, when the country overtook Italy in annual box office revenue (in US$ terms), highlighting the prominence of cinema in the region.
Box office in 2022 had its first test with Scream which grossed nearly US$1M in the UAE alone and marked the successful return of the horror genre in the region since the pandemic. This was followed by the chartbuster performance of Matt Reeve’s The Batman, which earned a combined US$12M in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which earned US$6.7M in the UAE.
Summer blockbusters highly contributed to the recovery of the global box office in 2022, with Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick grossing a combined US$21.2M in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and over US$1.5 billion globally. Jurassic World: Dominion and Minions: The Rise of Gru also performed well, grossing over US$1.7M and US$1.64M in UAE and Saudi Arabia, respectively.
August to October was a challenging phase for cinemas in the region due to a weaker movie release schedule owing to pandemic-related delays. The year however ended on a high note with the release of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, which earned close to US$10M in the UAE in its opening weeks. Arabic titles such as Bahebek, 3amohom, and Men Agl Zeko also topped the 2022 charts across GCC.
Here’s our 2022 wrap-up featuring the top movie releases in the eight countries we cover, the most watched genres across the region, the top 15 cinema ads booked through us that lit up the big screen, and last but not least, the new cinema locations added to our circuit and our milestones:
UAE
Saudi Arabia
Egypt
Oman
Kuwait
Bahrain
Qatar
Lebanon
The 15 blockbuster ads (in no particular order) – booked through Motivate Val Morgan, that lit up the big screen in 2022 (also featured in Campaign Middle East):
Brand: Mercedes-Benz Burmester
Title: Innovations by Mercedes-Benz: Dolby Atmos
Media Agency: OMD
Brand: NEOM
Title: Trojena – Journey To New Heights
Media Agency: Starcom
Brand: Emirates
Title: Gerry the Goose Flies Better
Media Agency: UM MENA
Brand: Rolex
Title: Rolex & Cinema – The Path
Media Agency: Mindshare
Brand: Sephora
Title: Amna Al Qubaisi – Emirati F3 Driver – Redefining Beauty with Sephora
Media Agency: Spark Foundry – Publicis Media
Brand: Malabar Gold
Title: Brides of India
Brand: Hermès
Title: Terre d’Hermès
Media Agency: Havas Media
Brand: Thailand Tourism
Title: Amazing Thailand
Media Agency: Media Republic
Brand: Hayatna
Title: Grow Your World With Hayatna
Media Agency: Hearts & Science
Brand: Riyadh Book Fair
Media Agency: Blue Horizon
Brand: Infiniti QX60
Title: Take the Wheel
Media Agency: OMD
Brand: Jindal Shadeed
Media Agency: United Media Services
Brand: Theeb
Brand: Yas Island
Title: Yas Yas Baby
Media Agency: Initiative Media
Brand: Al Nahdi Pharmacies
2022 saw our cinema circuit expand with several new locations:
Our dedicated cinema buying platform – CinePlan and CineMeasure, was launched, which enables data-driven, audience-based buying across our network of cinemas in the Middle East. The platform was also recognized as one of Campaign Middle East’s Top 10 Media Milestones of 2022.
Get ready for an exciting year at the movies in 2023! Here are the top 20 movies to look forward to over the year ahead:
For more on the movies coming out in 2023, be sure to check out our sizzle reel
‘Spooktober’ has finally arrived, and there’s no better way to celebrate Halloween than to watch a spine-tingling horror movie on the biggest screen of them all!.
With a number of new horror releases in cinema this Halloween – from Jordan Peele’s genre bending thriller, the final conclusion to the Halloween franchise, and a good old-fashioned exorcism, both audiences and advertisers are in for a treat.. no tricks!
Check out the movie line-up, and have yourself a bloodcurdling and wicked time at the cinema:
Orphan: First Kill
Release Date: now playing
Cast: Isabelle Fuhrman, Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland
Nope
Release Date: now playing
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Steven Yeun, Keke Palmer
The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.
The Invitation
Release Date: now playing
Cast: Nathalie Emmanuel, Thomas Doherty, Stephanie Corneliussen, Sean Pertwee
A young woman is courted and swept off her feet, only to realize a gothic conspiracy is afoot.
Jeepers Creepers: Reborn
Release Date: now playing
Cast: Sydney Craven, Imran Adams, Jarreau Benjamin
Forced to travel with her boyfriend, Laine begins to experience premonitions associated with the urban myth of The Creeper. She believes that something supernatural has been summoned – and that she is at the center of it all.
Don’t Worry Darling
Release Date: now playing
Cast: Harry Styles, Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan
A 1950s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company could be hiding disturbing secrets.
Smile
Release Date: now playing
Cast: Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner, Robin Weigert, Jessie T. Usher
After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain. As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.
Halloween Ends
Release Date: 13 October 2022
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Kyle Richards, Will Patton
Halloween Ends kicks off four years after the events of Halloween Kills, where Laurie is living with her granddaughter Allyson and is finishing writing her memoir. When a young man is accused of killing a boy he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that will force Laurie to finally confront the evil she can’t control, once and for all.
Prey for the Devil
Release Date: 27 October 2022
Cast: Virginia Madsen, Jacqueline Byers, Nicholas Ralph
A nun prepares to perform an exorcism and comes face to face with a demonic force with mysterious ties to her past.
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Source: IMDB and YouTube
Shot with IMAX Cameras, Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated sci-fi thriller, from Warner Bros., Tenet will release in cinemas across the UAE, KSA and Lebanon on Thursday 27th August (Wednesday 26th August in Egypt).
Towards the end of July, Warner Bros. confirmed that Tenet would release in cinema, towards the end of August, in 70 overseas territories including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United Kingdom.
The studio is still waiting for the go-ahead to debut Tenet in China – the world’s second-largest movie market. When theatres in the country first started to reopen, there were concerns that Tenet wouldn’t be able to screen there as exhibitors were not able to play movies that exceeded two hours in length — and Tenet clocks in at just over 2 hours and 30 minutes. But cinema owners have recently booked Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Inception and other old titles with lengthy runtimes, suggesting that China has eased up or doesn’t plan to enforce the restriction.
Warner Bros. also confirmed that the studio plans to move away from traditional global day-and-date release — a surprising break from tradition since North America is the world’s biggest film market and remains pivotal for major movies to turn a profit. Instead of a global day-and-date release, the studio hopes to innovate and recalibrate given the fact that foreign markets are already starting to reopen safely and is in desperate need for new Hollywood movies to entice audiences.
AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron praised Warner Bros. for sticking to its promise of a theatrical release for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, saying the studio is “doing something heroic.”
Watch the trailer for Tenet below:
Advertisers… here’s your chance to return to the BIG screen in a BIG way, alongside the first summer blockbuster release of 2020. Check out our Tenet offers below:
Hurry! This is an opportunity not to miss out on.
Contact a member of our sales team for more information on cinema advertising opportunities alongside this MEGA Blockbuster!
Source: Variety
