Barbenheimer is just the beginning of this year’s summer blockbuster season

After all the mermaids, superheroes, talking robots, and superspies that have already invaded theaters over the past few weeks, you might have gotten the sense that this year’s season of summer blockbusters was already upon us. It’s wild to consider given all the new movies that have recently debuted, but the truth is that things are only just beginning — especially for the film buffs who’ve been patiently waiting to take in Barbie and Oppenheimer (Barbenheimer, if you will) double features. Here’s a little guide to all the features we’re looking forward to seeing and digging into.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Barbie movie from director Greta Gerwig has already so thoroughly saturated the pop culture discourse that the movie’s going to have a hell of a time living up to the hype when it finally hits theaters this July. But even if Barbie, the movie, doesn’t end up being particularly interesting, Barbie, the phenomenon — this corporate-owned IP event that’s gotten pulled into controversy and political theatrics — has been fascinating to live through. And it feels like something we’ll be talking about at the end of the year when we look back on how odd 2023 was.

In addition to being one of director Christopher Nolan’s longest films, Oppenheimer is also shaping up to be one of his most massive in scale, judging from a new featurette from Universal that details all of the practical effects that went into the project’s creation. Somewhat similar to Barbie, Oppenheimer’s already gotten caught up in an unexpected wave of backlash that has a bit more to do with what people are bringing to the movie than the substance of the project itself. But this also feels like a sign that Oppenheimer is set to become one of the year’s more popular and overanalyzed debuts when it hits theaters.

On a day when a lot of people will be packing into theaters to lose themselves in stories about living dolls and / or audacious bomb-makers, Netflix’s They Cloned Tyrone is going to feel like the perfect counterprogramming for everyone planning to stay home. The blaxploitation-inspired sci-fi comedy from director Juel Taylor brings John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, and Jamie Foxx together as an unlikely trio who become the rallying force against a secret governmental plot to prey on poor Black people. It’s tough to really describe the film without giving too much of it away, but fans of new classics like Attack the Block and The Blackening are going to want to check this one out.

We won’t know for sure until the movie’s actually in theaters, but each trailer for Disney’s upcoming Haunted Mansion remake from director Justin Simien has made the movie look surprisingly… decent? It’s not that the movie’s going to properly scare anyone, but it feels like it has a solid sense of what it wants to be (cool and unsettling) and a genuine desire to translate the feeling of being on a wild ride into movie form, which could end up making for an interesting filmgoing experience.

Even if the OG Turtles weren’t exactly your bag, it’s hard to deny how inspired and exciting the visuals in Paramount’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem seem like they’re going to be. Mutant Mayhem might be the seventh movie in the 35-year history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise and mark Paramount’s third attempt at rebooting the IP in the past decade. But the thing looks like a delight and the sort of reimagining that could mint an entire new generation of fans.

The brilliant thing about Julio Torres’ Problemista is that even if you’ve never personally dreamt of immigrating and moving to a big city to become a toymaker, chances are solid that you have worked for an overbearing boss who doesn’t exactly see you as a person with a rich, complex interiority. It’s a tale as old as time — and one that’s way more relatable than it should be. But it’s probably going to make for one of A24’s more interesting new releases this year.