A Twist on Summer Movies

Old-school movie fans flocked to theaters for Universal’s superhero-free storm chaser Twisters, the rare big-budget tentpole with regular people in extraordinary situations.

In many ways, Twisters recalls tentpole hits of the 1980s and 1990s, which largely featured regular people engaged in more or less regular activities. Photo: Courtesy of Universal

Scott Mendelson

July 23, 2024

To the relief of many in Hollywood, the encouraging $81.5 million domestic launch of Universal’s Twisters—a loose sequel to the 1996 blockbuster Twister—continued a two-month streak of overperforming openings for summer tentpoles, following Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, and A Quiet Place: Day One. Much has been made (correctly) of how aggressively Universal sold the Lee Isaac Chung-directed tornado melodrama to “Middle America,” but a key element of the movie’s appeal was how it stood out from the typical summer tentpole offering.