The summer of 2021 brought teens a variety of hit TV shows and movies. While some enjoyed the popular teen dramas, with the release of the new season of Outer Banks, others loved the action and adventure of the new Marvel movie, Black Widow. While there is a variety of opinions on the list of new things to watch, it seems that this summer was far from lacking in entertainment.

A survey given to the Newton High School student body shows the participating student’s opinions on these hits. The TV show or movie seen by the most students was the new Disney movie, Luca, with 59% of students having seen it. Following the popularity of Luca were, Loki with 43.3% watched, Black Widow with 41.6% watched and Outer Banks with 39.8% of students having watched it.

“My favorite from this list is Black Widow because I really like the Marvel series and watching any movie or TV series they make,” senior Seth Bruey said. “It’s also a really good action movie to watch with your family.”

The two most watched movies, from a list of summer hits, were Luca and Black Widow. Luca, released on Jun. 18, is a new animated movie produced by Disney. It earned $32.4 million at the box office and received a 7.5/10 rating on IMDb. Another huge hit this summer was the latest Marvel superhero installment, Black Widow. Black Widow, released Jul. 9, earned $370.5 million at the box office and received a 6.8/10 rating on IMDb. 

“People find the movie Black Widow appealing because it gives a backstory of a character that we’ve seen since Iron Man and it’s just a really cool movie,” Bruey said.

While not the most-watched, the favorite amongst the trending TV shows and movies at NHS seems to be the teen drama, Outer Banks. Approximately 20% of students said that their favorite trending TV show or movie is Outer Banks, which recently had its second season released on Netflix.

“I like Outer Banks because of the plot, the characters and the overall idea of the show is easy to get into,” sophomore Aliyah Rossiter said.

With a compelling storyline, interesting characters and the elements of different TV show genres, it’s no surprise that Outer Banks is a hit amongst teenagers. According to Statista, at the end of the summer, the most watched original streaming series title was Outer Banks. From the week of Jul. 26 to Aug. 1, the Netflix original had over 1.4 billion minutes viewed making it more popular than the other shows at that time. By the end of the month of August, Outer Banks still remained on Netflix’s list at number six in TV shows in the U.S. today.

“A lot of people like [Outer Banks] for the characters, but besides that, the plot is fast moving, the characters are sort of complete opposites and they just click together, and the whole show is a dry type of comedy,” Rossiter said.