Summer sadness? Not in the cinema

Good morning and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Saturday August 31stHere’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

What does the summer box office mean for the future of Hollywood?

Labor Day weekend marks the end of a magical time of year for pop culture: the summer movie season. And the past few months have offered a glimmer of hope for Hollywood, which has struggled as audiences have become more accustomed to streaming TV devices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bright spot? This summer’s box office gross is estimated at about $3.6 billion through Labor Day weekend, my colleagues Samantha Masunaga and Christi Carras report.

That’s down from last year’s “Barbenheimer” summer, which brought in $4 billion. But it’s still higher than the summer totals in 2022, 2021 and 2020.

“I don’t like hitting the ball on the five-yard line, but I think we’re on the right track,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of Imax Corp., the giant screen-technology company that operates out of Playa Vista. “We’re definitely on our way back.”

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, left, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in “Deadpool & Wolverine.”

(Jay Maidment / 20th Century Studios)

Animated films and superheroes helped save the day

The summer box office initially looked bleak for theater owners and studio executives who had endured a disappointing winter and spring of limited and underperforming films. A sense of panic gripped the industry as Memorial Day weekend brought the worst box office in nearly three decades.

But in June, theater attendance picked up again, a revival thanks in part to Inside Out 2, which became the summer’s most popular movie and the highest-grossing animated film of all time.

The success of the Pixar sequel, along with “Despicable Me 4,” surprised some industry observers. Animation was “one of the genres slowest to recover from the pandemic due to families’ reluctance to return to theaters and the ease of watching movies on streaming platforms,” Samantha and Christi report.

Then came the R-rated “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which grossed $1 billion worldwide and became the second-highest-grossing film of the summer.

A sense of optimism for a sector in turmoil

The summer box office success comes as the country’s entertainment industry is in the throes of a major downturn. As my colleague Christi previously reported, Hollywood has been battling a major decline in film and television production for nearly two years, resulting in mass unemployment and a mental health crisis among entertainment workers.

The summer box office was welcome news in an otherwise bleak year. And a long-awaited fall and winter slate of films — including “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Wicked” and “Moana 2” — has industry insiders sounding more optimistic for the end of the year and beyond.

“If we can sustain the momentum that we have this summer into the fall and then into early 2025, I think the show will be very happy,” said Jim Orr, president of theatrical distribution at Universal Pictures. “We can truly say we’re back.”

The biggest stories of the week

Pharmacist Deep Patel (left) prepares flu and COVID-19 vaccines for Brandon Guerrero, 34, of Compton, Wednesday at CVS in Huntington Park.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Even more contagious COVID strain is ‘just getting started’ amid California surge

• Doctors and scientists are also keeping an eye on another subvariant of the coronavirus, XEC. This variant could surpass the latest hyperinfectious strain, KP.3.1.1, which is now thought to be the most prevalent variant across the country.
• New COVID vaccines released just before Labor Day weekend may still provide good protection against XEC, said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

Explaining California’s School Cell Phone Ban

• State lawmakers have passed a landmark law requiring schools to develop plans to limit or ban students’ use of cell phones on campus, in an effort to curb distractions in the classroom and harmful use of social media.
• Schools across Los Angeles have bans and restrictions in place, but they’re struggling to enforce them. Some students are skirting the rules by bringing multiple phones to school, for example.

Stories from all over the world

More big stories

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Column one

Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and long-form journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week:

(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)

‘I Don’t Want Him to Go Away’: An Autistic Teen and His Family Face Tough Choices An autistic child. The fight for help. The 911 calls. This is the harrowing story of how one mother raced to get help for her son and keep her head above water.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your weekend

Jeremy Strong, left, and Sebastian Stan in the movie “The Apprentice.”

(Cannes Festival)

Going out

• 🍹 Looking for a great rooftop restaurant or bar to visit this holiday weekend in LA? Here are 52 places to check out.
• 🎞️ “The Apprentice,” a controversial biopic about former President Trump, hits theaters on October 11.
• ☕ Here’s How NFL Hall of Fame Tight End Tony Gonzalez Enjoys Sundays in LA
• 🎥 “Reagan,” a venerable biopic about the 40th president, is historical nonsense, writes critic Robert Abele.

Stay in

How well did you follow the news this week? Take our quiz.

(Photos by Times staff and Wire News Agency)

Southern California restaurant chain Koo Koo Roo, which plans to reopen next year after closing in 2014, was known for what dish? Plus nine other questions from our weekly news quiz.

On behalf of the Essential California team, we wish you a wonderful weekend.

Hunter Clauss, multiplatform editor

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