"People Like Us" and Other Summer Movies in Real-World Settings Now he has directed a summer movie called "People Like Us." It is not about outer space, but about family life in contemporary America. "People want to see themselves represented on screen in real ways, not just fantasy," Mr. Kurtzman said in an interview. His film is one in a small cluster of pictures that will try to defy modern economic forces in the movie industry; they will bring realistic stories about recognizable characters in a familiar world to major studio schedules, at the height of the summer blockbuster season. It is a daring step. Last year Hollywood's top 20 domestic box office performers included just two movies - "The Help" and "Bridesmaids" - with realistic stories about American life, contemporary or otherwise, according to boxofficemojo.com. The rest took place in a fantasy world, like "Thor," or abroad, like "The Hangover Part II" and "Fast Five." In 1992, by contrast, 15 of the 20 best-selling American films were rooted in realistic, if sometimes twisted, American experiences. Those included "Sister Act," "Lethal Weapon 3," "A League of Their Own," "Unforgiven" and "Boomerang," all of which were released from May to August of that year. By 2010, pressure to generate international sales, which now account for about 70 percent of Hollywood's worldwide ticket revenue, had pushed the simple portrayal of American lives almost completely off the big studio schedules in May, June and July. "They've ceded the cultural mirror role to TV," said Martin Kaplan, a professor of entertainment, media and society at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, referring to the studios" diminishing taste for films that reflect the home audience. "Shows like "South Park," "Family Guy" and "Modern Family" are where Americans now go to try to figure out who we are." Still, this summer's studio films will stick a little closer to home. On June 29 Disney and DreamWorks will release Mr. Kurtzman's film, with Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks and Michelle Pfeiffer among its stars. Written with Roberto Orci and Jody Lambert, "People Like Us" is set in present-day Los Angeles. Its protagonist is a young man who comes to terms with the secret second family of his dead father, who had been a flamboyant record producer. Similarly set in the Los Angeles rock scene, but in the 1980s, "Rock of Ages" arrives this Friday from Warner Brothers, with Tom Cruise in a lead role as a famous rock star who gets involved with two aspiring young singers pursuing their dreams. It is followed a week later by Steven Soderbergh's "Magic Mike," also from Warner, with Channing Tatum in a Florida story about male strippers. In competition with "Rock of Ages," Sony Pictures this Friday will open "That's My Boy," a domestic comedy with Adam Sandler. In August that studio releases "Hope Springs," "Sparkle" and "Premium Rush," all fantasy-free stories set in the United States. Warner will respond with "The Campaign," a farce about a North Carolina political contest, on Aug. 10. In an e-mail last week, Mr. Soderbergh described Warner's decision to acquire rights to "Magic Mike" and to give it wide release in fantasy season as "bold moves, in my view." As for the studio's thinking on the matter, Mr. Soderbergh referred questions to Warner executives, who declined to comment. Most likely, the slightly heavier stream of American-focused stories this summer is a blip on the schedule, an accidental configuration that may not predict any long-term swing in studio thinking, which remains locked on the need for revenue from international markets. To some extent, state tax credits have fed the supply of American films, even when they face uncertain prospects abroad. "Magic Mike" and "Rock of Ages" both took advantage of generous subsidies in Florida, while "People Like Us" was among a handful of films that were partly underwritten by a narrower credit from California. (And sometimes globalization has worked in reverse. Alexander Rodnyansky, a producer based in Russia, recently used tax credits from Georgia to help tell an American tale, "Jayne Mansfield's Car," set for release by Roadside Attractions next year. Written by Tom Epperson and its director, Billy Bob Thornton, the film is about British visitors, led by John Hurt, who collide with a Southern clan headed by Robert Duvall. "It is like an American version of a Chekhov play," Mr. Rodnyansky remembers Mr. Hurt telling him.) Typically, though, big studios have been wary of projects without obvious foreign elements or culture-spanning fantasy themes. "You have to show them it can break out," said Mark Ciardi, a producer whose Mayhem Pictures made "Secretariat" for Disney. With his producing partner, Gordon Gray, he has been trying to arouse interest at Disney or elsewhere in a number of American stories, though "Secretariat," which was released in the fall of 2010, sold few tickets abroad. Domestic stories like "The Social Network" and "Moneyball" have often been consigned to the year-end awards season, when box office expectations are usually lower. But even there, it can be tough going. For the last four years the best picture Oscar has gone to films - "The Artist," "The King's Speech," "The Hurt Locker" and "Slumdog Millionaire" - with stories, settings or actors and filmmakers from abroad. That Disney and DreamWorks were willing to squeeze "People Like Us" between fantasies like "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," which 20th Century Fox will open on June 22, and "The Amazing Spider-Man," due from Sony on July 3, owes something to the two companies" experience last year with "The Help," Mr. Kurtzman said. That film, about personal struggles with racial bias in the South, became a surprise hit, with sales of about $170 million at the domestic box office (and only modest sales abroad), after Disney and DreamWorks released it in August. Another impetus, said Mr. Kurtzman, who is 38, was a growing hunger among viewers of his own generation for studio-level pictures that are a shade less fantastic, and more like his own favorite films from Mr. Soderbergh, James Brooks or Cameron Crowe. All of them have told stories rooted in dilemmas that American viewers could readily recognize as their own. "Going to the movies," Mr. Kurtzman noted, "is supposed to be a deeply emotional experience."