Brian Lair on WNYC and we'll end our show with the next installment of our summer culture calendar

pledge miniseries.

Did I say summer culture calendar?

Easy for me to say. Today we'll look at some of the

exciting new movies coming to the big screen over the next few months. We'll have another wild

Barbenheimer-esque weekend, perhaps, where excited moviegoers hit the theaters for a doubleheader

experience.

Let's see if we will.

Joining me now to share what film she's anticipating this summer season is Dana Stevens,

film critic at Slate, co-host of the Slate Culture Gabfest podcast, author of the 2022 book,

Camerman, Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the invention of the 20th century.

Dana, hi, welcome back to WNIC.

Hey, Brian.

Nice to be here.

So I'll start off with the question I posted in the intro back in the summer of 23.

The box office got its groove back post-COVID with the same-day releases of the Barbie movie and Oppenheimer.

How's the film industry now, and do you anticipate a similar Barbenheimer-type

phenomenon happening this year?

As I heard you saying that, Brian, I was scanning the release dates, trying to see if any of

the big anticipated blockbusters are coming out the same weekend.

And it doesn't seem like it.

It seems like rather than try to have a Barbenheimer weekend, they're trying to avoid competition because they're pretty spaced out.

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