The Fast & Furious franchise has been an ATM for Universal for years now. The last four films have made over $200 million in the U.S. and the last two topped a billion internationally. It only made sense for them to try an extend a franchise that, you’d think, can only do so much with Vin Diesel mumbling about familia over BBQs and stolen cars.

The Lion King has been a part of pop culture for 25 years now. We all instinctively define Hakuna Matata as having no worries for the rest of our days without even having to hum the song. Scar isn’t just something that happens when trying to open the fourth Ikea box with a utility knife to your kids new bedroom set that he apparently needs assembled right now or he’ll never fall asleep again; it’s also one of the most notorious villains of all-time. It even spawned the most successful stage musical of all-time and has earned literally over $8 billion!!! Elton John might as well just sing “Can you see the green tonight.”

Only once in Summer Movie Pool history has a Spider-Man film not finished in the Top 5. The film that didn’t, 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Yes, the film we all like to pretend didn’t exist as it was mostly a 500 Days of Spidey rom-com with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone hemming and hawing through their lines in so many on-again/off-again scenes we just wanted them off. Still, even that film ended up #6 for the season. That’s a pretty remarkable run for a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, so it’s only fitting that people continued to come out in droves when he took his act out on the road.

There was a great meme going around last week about how the 90’s want their movies back. Theater marquees were advertising Men in Black, Aladdin, Child’s Play, and Toy Story. Unfortunately, that statement in only half true. They definitely want their Whole New World and their Snake in my Boot. However, we’ve already had our memory erased about Men In Black: International and folks have sent Chucky back to the store.

Anyone else remember the 90’s? Len was trying to Steal My Sunshine, NBC Comedy Thursday Nights even included Wings, and 4th of July Weekends meant another big Will Smith movie was coming out. The Men in Black series represented two of those historic 4th of July weekends with splashy debuts and destiny paving the way for Top 5 finishes. As my Fantastic Sams “hair stylist” once had to tell me, “This is no longer the 90’s, sir.”

Who knows whether it was NBA finals games, NHL finals games, Women’s World Cup games, or Fortnite games, but movie goers were having none of the box-office games this weekend. Two big-budget, super-hyped films entered the Thunderdome and both went home with their legs between their tails… Probably, literally in one of the movie’s cases since it’s about animals. How could this have happened?! I suspect Miss Scarlet in the Lounge with the lead pipe.

The onslaught of films at the end of May has brought one contender, a couple pretenders, some nice alternatives if cgi battles aren’t your thing, and, most importantly, helped us forget films like Uglydolls even came out. Now if only Spotify would recognize that liking Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” does not mean I want songs from the Uglydolls soundtrack. It’s like when Thumbs-Upping ABBA music gets you Mamma Mia Movie versions with Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep singing. Not the same thing!