Footage shows Steven Spielberg embracing Tom Cruise and praising him for saving a theater during a recent Oscar nominees luncheon. The blockbuster triumph of Top Gun: Maverick (2022) stands among cinema’s highest-grossing titles. The moment underlined Cruise’s film as a catalyst for a blockbuster resurgence. Ídolos del aire (1989) could have faded into obscurity, yet it did not.
Since its May premiere, Top Gun: Maverick has grossed over 1.493 billion dollars worldwide. A wave of entertainment releases followed, many dazzling tentpoles with substantial budgets. Some, like Avatar: The Sense of Water (2022), were anticipated successes, while others surprised audiences in unexpected ways.
Setting aside the year’s biggest thrillers and horror hits such as Smile and Barbarian, the focus moves to broader, crowd-pleasing films that dominated box offices in the United States and beyond. Entries like M3GAN (2022), Creed III (2023), Scream VI (2023), and Vicious Bear (2023) drew massive audiences. The Last of Us, opening March 31, is described as an action dark comedy about a bear who spirals after a cocaine shipment.
“Well Done” Movies
Why is this happening? Have you ever longed to return to the cinema? Perhaps the secret lies in recapturing the mood of cinema’s past. It goes beyond simple nostalgia, marking a chance to enjoy theaters again in an environment that favors packed showings, packaging, adventure, and emotion front and center.
The reasons are many and varied. Audiences sometimes tire of familiar universes and superhero cycles. The box office response to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) illustrated this fatigue for some, while other fans crave fresh takes within familiar franchises.
On one hand, viewers seek new storytelling, which helps explain the popularity of M3GAN, Vicious Bear, or Knock at the Cabin (2023). On the other hand, there is a appetite for well-crafted films that feel finished and cinematic rather than hollow or rushed. Audiences respond to productions that look distinct from television adaptations of the same universes, where the magic of performance can feel staged or overproduced. The blockbuster titles mentioned here meet standards that have risen in recent years, and many are celebrated for their strong execution.
Room as Playground
There is another factor behind these films’ success: the public’s desire to reclaim their living rooms as spaces for shared entertainment. The feeling resembles the excitement of large concerts, where collective celebration becomes part of the experience that the pandemic and isolation briefly sidelined.
When people weigh options, the breadth of cinema offerings on streaming platforms is vast, yet many still choose to leave home and watch these grand, festive films on the big screen. The appeal is clear in titles like John Wick (2023), Dungeons & Dragons (2023), and Super Mario Bros.: The Movie (2023), the latter two especially aimed at younger audiences. New releases are expected in the coming weeks.
Looking ahead to a year expected to be packed with blockbusters, titles on the radar include Infernal Possession: The Awakening (April); The Little Mermaid, Fast X, and Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 (May); Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (June); Oppenheimer and Mission: Impossible – Deadly Judgment Part 1 (July); Dune: Part 2 (November); and Barbie this summer.