There was a rather nasty chill in the air when the summer season officially kicked off back in early May. After last year’s Barbenheimer mania (the two films made almost $2.4bn combined) proved for the umpteenth time that yes, cinema really was back, the industry hoped and prayed that the historically most profitable few months of the year would once again pay off.
But initial big bets made little money and we were flooded with alarmist headlines insisting that cinema was really not back after all (despite spring hits like Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Kung Fu Panda 4). It turned out that was, unsurprisingly, not the case but was a later boost enough to save the whole season?
