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Summer

Six franchises made for the season that invented the blockbuster, back when that meant something specific.

6 picks

The summer blockbuster is a genre as much as a release window, and it has a specific shape: big, loud, front-loaded, and asking nothing of you except that you sit still.

These are the franchises that are best in exactly that mood. None of them is a chore.

  1. 01

    Jurassic Park

    9 titles · Sci-Fi & Fantasy

    The summer film against which the others are measured. Still holds up on a big screen with the lights off.

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  2. 02

    Mission: Impossible

    8 titles · Action & Thriller

    Eight films of practical stunt work that get better as they go, which almost no franchise manages.

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  3. 03

    Mad Max

    5 titles · Action & Thriller

    Two hours of one chase. If the heat has taken your concentration, this asks for none of it.

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  4. 04

    MonsterVerse

    8 titles · Sci-Fi & Fantasy

    Very large things hitting each other. There is a time and a place, and a July evening is both.

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  5. 05

    Men in Black

    4 titles · Sci-Fi & Fantasy

    A ninety-minute summer comedy that is still funny, and one of the great uses of a July release.

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  6. 06

    Sonic

    5 titles · Sci-Fi & Fantasy

    The one to put on when the school holidays have gone on slightly too long.

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