The summer movie season goes into high-gear in July, with the arrival of the seventh “Mission: Impossible” movie followed by the “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” showdown on July 21.
Not that you have to choose one or the other — as Tom Cruise said on Twitter, “I love a double feature, and it doesn’t get more explosive (or more pink) than the one with Oppenheimer and Barbie.”
August also promises a new take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and introduces a new DC superhero, Blue Beetle.
Here’s a month-by-month guide of this summer’s new movies.
In theaters
“Insidious: The Red Door” (Sony, theaters): Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne are back to scare everyone in the fifth edition.
“Joy Ride” (Lionsgate, theaters): Adele Lim directs this raucous comedy about a friends trip to China to find someone’s birth mother, starring Ashley Park, Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu.
“The Lesson” (Bleecker Street, theaters): A young novelist helps an acclaimed author in this thriller with Richard E. Grant.
“Biosphere” (IFC, theaters and VOD): Mark Duplass and Sterling K. Brown are the last two men on Earth.
“Earth Mama” (A24, theaters): This acclaimed debut from Savannah Leaf focuses on a woman, single and pregnant with two kids in foster care, trying to reclaim her family in the Bay Area.
“Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part I” (Paramount, theaters, on July 12): Tom Cruise? Death-defying stunts in Venice? The return of Kittridge? What more do you need?
“Theater Camp” (Searchlight, theaters): Musical theater nerds (and comedy fans) will delight in this loving satire of a childhood institution, with Ben Platt and Molly Gordon.
“The Miracle Club” (Sony Pictures Classics, theaters): Lifetime friends (Kathy Bates, Maggie Smith, Agnes O’Casey) in a small Dublin community in 1967 dream of a trip to Lourdes, a town in France where miracles are supposed to happen. Laura Linney co-stars.
“ Afire” (Janus Films, theaters): This drama from German director Christian Petzold is set at a vacation home by the Baltic Sea where tensions rise between a writer, a photographer and a mysterious guest (Paula Beer) as a wildfire looms.
“ They Cloned Tyrone” (Netflix): John Boyega, Teyonah Parris and Jamie Foxx lead this mystery caper.
July 21
“Oppenheimer” (Universal, theaters): Christopher Nolan takes audiences into the mind of the “father of the atomic bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer ( Cillian Murphy ) as he and his peers build up to the trinity test at Los Alamos.
“Barbie” (Warner Bros., theaters): Margot Robbie plays the world’s most famous doll (as do many others) opposite Ryan Gosling’s Ken in Greta Gerwig’s comedic look at their perfect world.
“Stephen Curry: Underrated” (Apple TV+): Peter Nicks directs a documentary about the four-time NBA champion.
“The Beanie Bubble” (in select theaters; on Apple TV+ on July 28): Zach Galifianakis stars as the man behind Beanie Babies in this comedic drama, co-starring Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook and Geraldine Viswanathan.
July 28
“Haunted Mansion” (Disney, theaters): A Disney ride comes to life in with the help of Rosario Dawson, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson and Danny DeVito.
“Talk to Me” (A24, theaters): A group of friends conjure spirits in this horror starring Sophie Wilde and Joe Bird.
“Happiness for Beginners” (Netflix, on July 27): Ellie Kemper is a newly divorced woman looking to shake things up.
“Sympathy for the Devil” (RLJE Films): Joel Kinnaman is forced to drive a mysterious gunman (Nicolas Cage) in this thriller.
“Kokomo City” (Magnolia): A documentary following four Black transgender sex workers. One of the subjects, Koko Da Doll, was shot and killed in April.
Aug. 4
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” (Paramount, theaters): This animated movie puts the teenage back in the equation with a very funny voice cast including Seth Rogen and John Cena as Bebop and Rocksteady.
“Shortcomings” (Sony Pictures Classics, theaters): Randall Park directs this adaptation of Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel about Asian American friends in the Bay Area starring Sherry Cola as Alice, Ally Maki as Miko and Justin H. Min as Ben.
“Meg 2: The Trench” (Warner Bros., theaters): Jason Statham is back fighting sharks.
“Passages” (Mubi): The relationship of a longtime couple (Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw) is thrown when one begins an affair with a woman (Adèle Exarchopoulos).
“A Compassionate Spy” (Magnolia): Steve James’ documentary about the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project who fed information to the Soviets.
“Dreamin’ Wild” (Roadside Attractions, theaters): Casey Affleck stars in this film about musical duo Donnie and Joe Emerson.
“Problemista” (A24, theaters): Julio Torres plays an aspiring toy designer in this surreal comedy co-starring Tilda Swinton that he also wrote, directed and produced.
Aug. 11
“Gran Turismo” (Sony, theaters): A gamer gets a chance to drive a professional course in this video game adaptation starring David Harbour and Orlando Bloom.
“The Last Voyage of the Demeter” (Universal, theaters): This supernatural horror film draws from a chapter of “Dracula.”
“Heart of Stone” (Netflix): Gal Gadot played an intelligence operative in this action thriller, with Jamie Dornan.
“The Eternal Memory” (MTV Documentary Films): This documentary explores a marriage and Alzheimer’s disease.
“The Pod Generation” (Vertical, theaters): Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor star in this sci-fi comedy about a new path to parenthood.
“Jules” (Bleecker Street, theaters): Ben Kingsley stars in this film about a UFO that crashes in his backyard in rural Pennsylvania.
Aug. 18
“Blue Beetle” (Warner Bros., theaters): Xolo Maridueña plays the DC superhero Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle in this origin story.
“Strays” (Universal, theaters): Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx voice dogs in this not-animated, R-rated comedy.
“birth/rebirth” (IFC, theaters): A woman and a morgue technician bring a little girl back to life in this horror.
“White Bird” (Lionsgate, theaters): Helen Mirren tells her grandson, expelled from school for bullying, a story about herself in Nazi-occupied France.
“Landscape with Invisible Hand” (MGM, theaters): Teens come up with a unique moneymaking scheme in a world taken over by aliens.
Aug. 25
“They Listen” (Sony, theaters): John Cho and Katherine Waterston lead this secretive Blumhouse horror.
“Golda” (Bleecker Street): Helen Mirren stars in this drama about Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
“Bottoms” (MGM, theaters): Two unpopular teenage girls (Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri) start a fight club to impress the cheerleaders they want to lose their virginity to in this parody of the teen sex comedy.
“The Dive” (RLJE Films): In this suspense pic about two sisters out for a dive, one gets hurt and is trapped underwater.
“Scrapper” (Kino Lorber, theaters): A 12-year-old girl (Lola Campbell) is living alone in a London flat until her estranged father (Harris Dickinson) shows up.
“Fremont” (Music Box Films, theaters): A former army translator in Afghanistan (Anaita Wali Zada) relocates to Fremont, California and gets a job at a fortune cookie factory. “The Bear’s” Jeremy Allen White co-stars.
“The Hill” (Briarcliff Entertainment): This baseball drama starring Dennis Quaid is based on the true story of Rickey Hill.
Sept. 1
“The Equalizer 3” (Sony, theaters): Denzel Washington is back as Robert McCall, who is supposed to be retired from the assassin business but things get complicated in Southern Italy.
