Big-screen Sizzle: It's going to be a busy summer - 96 new films are hitting theaters

Rogelio Rodriguez gets the chills thinking about the start of summer blockbuster season.

It's not because he's a big movie buff - it's because he's the guy serving popcorn to what seem like never-ending lines of those buffs all summer long. (Click here to check out movie trailers)

The summer blockbuster movie list sparks many long days and nights for Rodriguez behind the concessions counter at Carmike Cinemas in Edinburg.

The last time Rodriguez saw lines extend out the front lobby doors of the theater was on Dec. 17, when I am Legend starring Will Smith hit theaters.

Then May 2 rolled around - the kick-off to the summer movie season - and Iron Man erupted on the big screen.

"Even between show times, people were getting here early," he said. "It never stopped. Iron Man didn't end."

Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr., reeled in more than $185 million in the United States during the first two weeks of its opening date - only $1 million under its production budget.

Still, Rodriguez ain't seen nothing yet.

Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is set to open nationwide today.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skill is slated to open next week.

And HBO's Sex and the City is in the pipeline to hit silver screens the last week of May.

In fact, this month is one of the busiest for movie screens nationwide - 32 new movies are scheduled for release.

The end of the summer movie season, in August, is slated for the next highest amount of debut movies: 26.

All together, 96 new titles are slated for release this summer.

Of all the fanfare flicks, Rodriguez and his co-workers think one will easily reign supreme: The Dark Knight, slated for a July 18 release. It features the much-anticipated reunion of Batman and the Joker.

Making the movie even more of a draw, the Joker is played by Heath Ledger, who died in January of a presumed drug overdose at the age of 28. The Dark Night showcases his last full body of work.

"The reinvention of the Joker has everyone interested," Rodriguez said. "Before they were gearing (him) toward kids; (now) he kind of carries a melancholy psychoticness."

Last year, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End raked in the most summer ticket sales in the world with more than $952 million.
"The problem with the summer blockbuster, now, it is saturated," said David Carren, a television-film professor at the University of Texas-Pan American, who also wrote screenplays in Hollywood for years.

"When it was new, they would be releasing 10 or 15 in the summer; now they are releasing five or six a week. I saw Iron Man and I could have plotted Iron Man on a napkin. They are catering to that kid market."

Carren said summer blockbusters saved the dying industry decades ago by marketing to teenagers and children.

"A little film called Star Wars changed all that," he said.

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Jackie Leatherman covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments at The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4424.