Summer 2022 preview: What to look forward to in media and entertainment
By Brian Stelter, CNN Business
Will June’s public hearings by the January 6 committee, some in prime time, shock viewers and sway public opinion? Will the Supreme Court’s impending abortion ruling reshape state and national politics? Will Elon Musk complete his takeover of Twitter? Will Covid case counts disrupt plans or come to be accepted as a new normal?
Those are some of the summer’s unknowns. But hopefully this season will give us as many reasons to smile as Tom Cruise. “Top Gun: Maverick” made upwards of $150 million over Memorial Day Weekend, a very welcome boost for movie theaters.
“In the weeks ahead,” Brooks Barnes of The New York Times wrote, “Hollywood will serve up a murderers’ row of sequels and prequels” for moviegoers. Mooky Greidinger, the CEO of Regal Cinemas owner Cineworld, told him, “We are very, very optimistic for the rest of the year.” After all, he said, “Moviegoing begets moviegoing.”
So with that optimistic spirit in mind, here is a look at some of the summer’s key dates and releases:
Some notable June dates
June 8: The TIME 100 gala. June 8: The Tribeca Festival begins in NYC. June 14: Joseph Kahn officially becomes executive editor of The New York Times. June 17: The 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. June 19: Juneteenth. June 20: Cannes Lions gets underway. June 22: The Glastonbury Festival begins. Plus “whatever else the world throws our way,” as Katie Harbath wrote, “because we know it will…”
This summer in entertainment
Compiled with help from Brian Lowry:
June 8: “Ms. Marvel” premieres on Disney+
June 10: “Jurassic World: Dominion” roars into theaters
June 17: “Lightyear,” Pixar’s “Toy Story” spinoff, hits theaters
June 24: “Elvis” makes its debut
June 26: “Westworld” returns to HBO after a two-year break
July 1: “Stranger Things” drops this season’s super-sized last two episodes, and “Minions: The Rise of Gru” hits theaters
July 8: “Thor: Love and Thunder” arrives in theaters
July 11: The final farewell for “Better Call Saul” begins on AMC
July 15: Netflix launches “The Gray Man” with Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling
July 22: Jordan Peele’s “Nope” arrives in theaters
Aug. 17: “She-Hulk” launches on Disney+
Aug. 21: “House of the Dragon,” the “Game of Thrones” prequel, premieres on HBO
For more: Check out Rotten Tomatoes’ list of summer TV and streaming shows, IndieWire’s list of “23 shows we can’t wait to watch,” TIME’s list of the season’s 46 most anticipated movies, and the NYT’s list of 101 movies…
This summer in documentary
June 8: “The Janes,” about pre-Roe abortion activists, debuts on HBO Max
June 14: The Jennifer Lopez feature “Halftime” premieres on Netflix
June 19: “Civil: Ben Crump” comes to Netflix
June 26: “Citizen Ashe,” about the trailblazing 3-time Grand Slam tennis pro and humanitarian Arthur Ashe, premieres on TV on CNN
July 1: “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song” comes to theaters
July 6: “Fire of Love” opens in theaters
July 15: “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down,” from CNN Films, debuts in theaters
This summer in nonfiction
June 6: James Patterson’s “The Stories of My Life”
June 7: “Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA Media Are Destroying America” by Dan Pfeiffer
June 14: Sen. Raphael Warnock’s “A Way Out of No Way,” Katy Tur’s “Rough Draft,” and Kaitlyn Tiffany’s “Everything I Need I Get from You”
June 28: “Rogues,” a collection of twelve true stories “of grifters, killers, rebels and crooks,” by Patrick Radden Keefe
July 12: Mark Leibovich’s “Thank You for Your Servitude” and Ken Auletta’s “Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence”
July 19: Victoria Shepherd’s “A History of Delusions” and Isaac Fitzgerald’s “Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional”
August 9: Jared Kushner’s “Breaking History”
August 16: “Raising Lazarus,” about America’s overdose crisis, from “Dopesick” author Beth Macy
August 23: “Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House . . . Yet” by Ali Vitali
This summer in fiction
The NYT’s summer reading preview has lists of “thrillers, true crime, romances and plenty more,” with 88 books in total. Goodreads has a full list of readers’ most anticipated books of the season. And Publishers Weekly’s summer reads section is the most-read link on its site.
This summer in tech
>> Will Musk win a lower price for Twitter? “I suspect such negotiations are already well underway given how relatively quiet Elon has been about Twitter in the last few weeks,” Puck’s William D. Cohan wrote over the weekend.
>> In DC, Democratic leaders want to “put bipartisan tech antitrust legislation up for a vote” this summer, Politico and Axios reported last week.
>> In California, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will begin with a June 6 keynote.
Further reading
— Madeline Roth lists “all the 2022 ‘Song of the Summer’ contenders, from Harry Styles and Lizzo to Bad Bunny…” (The Daily Beast)
— Michelle Hyun Kim lists “36 albums we can’t wait to hear this summer…” (Vulture)
— Nicholas Quah offers “10 podcasts we can’t wait to listen to…” (Vulture)
— Polygon has “14 exciting video games we’re anticipating this summer…” (Polygon)
— And via Harry Enten, here are five statistics to mark the summer occasion… (CNN)
A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can sign up for free right here.
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