Heritage’s summer break officially started on May 23rd, 2025. This gave every student a little bit more freedom to do what they wanted all day, rather than being forced to sit at home and do homework. Everyone spends their summer a little differently, whether that be staying home the whole time, or going out and doing a hike, but there’s one thing everyone’s summer has in common: The movies.
A movie of the summer can be described as a movie that influences others’ summers in some way, shape, or form. Whether this be pop culture or emotionally to the person specifically, it influences them in some way that, in turn, influences their summer.
For 2025, the movie Sinners struck Heritage particularly hard. A poll went around Heritage, and within a few days, 50% had voted for Sinners. It’s a horror film written and directed by Ryan Coogler, known for Black Panther (2018) and Creed (2015). Most notably, Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld acted in this movie, which helped boost it’s popularity. The movie is set in 1932, and follows two identical twins and World War I veterans Elijah and Elias Moore. They return to Clarksdale, Mississippi after seven years of being away to start a new life. Throughout the movie, they have to fight against vampires and unknown forces they haven’t yet faced. Not only did Sinners gross a total of $365.9 million, profiting around $275.9 million, but it also achieved commercial success, and sent a message about letting people keep their power unchecked.
For 2024, the movie Deadpool & Wolverine had made its mark. It’s an American superhero film based on various Marvel comics and was produced by Marvel Studios. This movie is the third in the Deadpool film series, and starred Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as the two main characters. The plot follows Wade Wilson as he explores the multiverse to find a replacement variant of “Logan” (also known as Wolverine) as he is the only being keeping his timeline together and intact. He finds out that this will not work, and is sent to the Void along with Wolverine, where the two have to find their way out. Surprisingly, Deadpool & Wolverine grossed over $1.34 billion worldwide, which makes it the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time. They did many promotions, including DiGiorno, Jack in the Box, and Heinz, which made this movie very influential to the masses. Many people participated in the *NSYNC dance that was featured in the movie. Overall, this movie made history and brought lost song relics back to fame. It was so influential, many people relate their summer to this movie.
But how do these two movies differentiate, and how are they similar at the same time? For one, Deadpool & Wolverine grossed more, and profited more overall. On the other hand, Sinners related more to the masses, and added themes and messages that can be used in your everyday life. Both of these movies were R-rated, and they both contributed to making people’s summers better in some way, whether that had been emotionally or physically. Most notably for Sinners, Kaya Bradford, a junior here at Heritage, said, “The movie fluctuates between gut-wrenching sad moments to being so scared, I wanted to scream.”
Overall, even though these two movies are vastly different in both genres and comic relief, they’re both also very similar. It goes to show that even though we’re growing up, and even though we’re learning new things about ourselves and our life, our movies still stay the same in some aspects.
