Watch Our Roundup of the 10 Best Movies of the Summer
It wasn’t the best of movie times this summer. From Alice Though the Looking Glass to The Legend of Tarzan, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out of the Shadows to Independence Day: Resurgence, from Warcraft to Ben-Hur, the season was marked by a host of CGI-heavy tentpoles, reboots and sequels that underwhelmed audiences and critics alike.
Related: 2016 End-of-Summer Box-Office Report: ‘Sausage’ Sizzles, ‘Ben-Hur’ Falls on Its Sword, and Much More
Yet despite these disappointments, a select group of films managed to buck the downward trend and deliver the laughs, scares and excitement that their pedigrees and early promos promised. Even if 2016’s litany of high-profile flops suggests that Hollywood might want to rethink its May through August strategy, our picks for the 10 best films of the summer serve as welcome bright spots. Moviegoers were well served by these gems that ranged from the indie delights of The Lobster, to the superhero theatrics of Captain America: Civil War, to the popcorn thrills of The Shallows. They all separated themselves from the pack and reminded us why going to the movies during our hottest months remains such an annual joy.
