With a summer that’s brought an unprecedented number of heatwaves across the UK, it could be suggested that the lure of a dark air-conditioned auditorium is the reason behind this year’s box office boom. Yet those hoping to escape the warm weather outdoors might be surprised at how much it’s heating up inside the cinema, with a selection of raunchy films currently screening. From the dystopian One Night Only, depicting a world in which single people are legally allowed to copulate on just one night a year, to I Want Your Sex, a dark comedy about a naïve assistant entering a BDSM relationship with his boss, there is no shortage of sex on screen.It’s a bold move for Hollywood, who were said to be shying away from racy content in recent years in a bid to lure in Gen Z viewers. Since 2000, the number of sex scenes in cinema has flopped by 40 per cent, with polls taken among the under-30s showing that younger viewers are more interested in seeing platonic friendships than hot hookups. Yet this year, Hollywood appears to have taken a gamble on raunchy scripts once more, with an explosion of bonkbusters at the box office. Gen Z were meant to have ‘killed off’ the bonkbuster – so why is sex back at the cinema this summer? And could it be here to stay?Speaking to BBC, film critic and erotic thriller specialist Travis Woods mused: ‘Movies are getting horny again. Perhaps not overtly, and certainly not to the level of the sweaty and vivid [erotic films] of the 1980s and 1990s. ‘But filmmakers are – however gently – beginning to explore sex and sexuality once again, on increasingly mainstream canvases. ‘And why not? Sex is an essential component to the human experience.’Meanwhile film critic Rafaela Bassili penned for The Guardian: ‘Recently it’s as though culture has been recalibrated to make up for the youth’s apparent frigidity. ‘“Smut” literature is on the rise, prestige TV is now depicting OnlyFans models, and indie films have taken a turn towards kink. ‘This summer, through confused young protagonists and their sexual misadventures, the movies are zeroing in on generational attitudes about sex…’After decades of unrealistic depictions of sex on screen and a few worrisome years when it seemed likely that sex would disappear from the movies altogether, it’s a relief to see sex return to screen – messy awkwardness and all.’This year’s reliance on bonkbusters has also been hailed as introducing Gen Z to the idea of more sex-themed films. Film critic for The New York Times, Natalia Winkelman, mused: ‘In recent years, film fans, critics and makers have been told again and again that younger audiences prefer chaste fare. ‘Whatever the merits of those claims, these recent movies can be understood as cautious – and sometimes tongue-in-cheek – efforts to reintroduce sex to theaters, with the comfort of a built-in chaperone.’ So what are this summer’s bonkbusters? And why is sex so integral to their stories? One Night Only Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro take the lead in a dystopian comedy set in a near-future USA, where an authoritarian government has outlawed premarital sex for 364 days a yearCallum Turner and Monica Barbaro take the lead in a dystopian comedy set in a near-future United States, where an authoritarian government has outlawed premarital sex for 364 days a year, permitting it only during a single 12-hour window. Trying to find a connection on arguably the least romantic night of the year leads the pair on a wild night out in New York where they attempt to find their person, only to keep bumping into each other. While there are no explicit sex scenes shown in the film, the entire premise is based around trying to have it, with lust-mad singletons seen packing on the PDA throughout. Travis Braun, the film’s writer, said that he wanted to write about the attempt to find real connection in the midst of so much casual sex – but that sex can still trigger a connection in itself. He shared: ‘Just because this sort of [casual] sex gets a negative connotation doesn’t mean that there isn’t a bigger goal connected – to that of love and connection.’ IMDB’s sex and nudity rating: MildI Want Your Sex Olivia Wilde, often seen topless or in bondage gear, takes on the role of artist Erika who enlists Cooper Hoffman’s character Elliot to be her ‘sexual muse’ in I Want Your SexArguably the raunchiest film of the summer, I Want Your Sex not only relates to sexual relationships but graphically shows them. Olivia Wilde, often seen topless or in bondage gear, takes on the role of artist Erika who enlists Cooper Hoffman’s character Elliot to be her ‘sexual muse’. Filled with graphic scenes and no nuance, the 18-rated film actively pokes fun at Gen Z for being ‘sexually repressed’, with dominatrix Olivia on a mission to right this. When asked in an interview what advice Olivia would give young people who are embarrassed by sex, she said: ‘Every embarrassing thing that will ever happen to you is a badge of honour. ‘If you live a life without embarrassing moments, you’ve lived a boring life.’Director Gregg Araki said of the project: ‘I call it a sex-positive love letter to Gen Z. ‘It’s not my intent to lecture or sermonize, but I do very much relate to Erika in that my work – like her work – is all about sex and sexuality. It’s also controversial and provocative, like her work is. ‘There’s even a scene where Olivia and Cooper are arguing about Gen Z not having sex, and that’s very much her talking for me. While I was writing the script, I read an article about how Gen Z kids aren’t having sex, and this film became my reaction to that. ‘If it had been made five years ago, it would not be the same movie at all.’IMDB’s sex and nudity rating: SevereThe Invite Olivia’s character in The Invite couldn’t be more different, playing uptight homemaker Angela whose sex life with husband Joe (Seth Rogen) has stagnatedOlivia also stars in, and this time directs, another one of the summer’s sex-based films, The Invite.This time, however, her character couldn’t be more different, playing uptight homemaker Angela whose sex life with husband Joe (Seth Rogen) has stagnated. Yet once they invite neighbours Piña (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) over and learn the couple are swingers, their eyes are opened to a world of new sexual possibilities. While the film centres around the exploration of non-monogamy, Olivia revealed that filming helped her become ‘so much more romantic’. She explained: ‘It’s melted the cynic out of me. I have spoken to people who have been through so much with their partners, and people have been in marriages for 40, 50, 60 years. ‘They told me it was a very honest depiction of their own experience of really having several relationships with the same person.’Olivia added: ‘In terms of the reality of cinema today and the theatrical landscape, in terms of romance and whether or not it’s dead, in terms of young people and their appetite for adult kinds of storytelling, this whole experience has made me much more optimistic.’IMDB’s sex and nudity rating: ModerateTeenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma stars Hannah Einbinder as a filmmaker tasked with remaking a slasher film, who becomes romantically entangled with the lead Gillian AndersonTeenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma stars Hannah Einbinder as a filmmaker tasked with remaking a cult slasher film.In the process she becomes obsessed with the idea of casting the original picture’s ‘final girl’ (Gillian Anderson), sparking a frenzy of psychosexual mania.Throughout the film sex is the underlying theme. Even the film’s villain is called ‘Little Death’ – a euphemism for orgasm. Director Jane Schoenbrun, who is transfeminine and nonbinary, said of the film: ‘Our relationship to sex as a culture is so unhealthy. ‘So, of course we try to compartmentalise it or keep it on our browser window and never share it with another human being. ‘I don’t think that is serving us as a people. I think that repression is the enemy, and especially the enemy of the artist, and this is a movie against repression.’They added that there was ‘intention in making a movie about coming into one’s self sexually after transition, and undoing a lot of trauma and dissociation, and just terror and avoidance around sex’.IMDB’s sex and nudity rating: ModerateGail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass follows Zoey Deutch’s character on a mission to sleep with Jon Hamm because her fiancé (Michael Cassidy) slept with his ‘celebrity hall pass’Looking at sex from a comic perspective is Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, a film that follows Zoey Deutch as small town hairdresser Gail Daughtry on a mission to sleep with Jon Hamm. Why? Because she and her fiancé (Michael Cassidy) agreed to a celebrity hall pass – a typically hypothetical agreement between partners giving them permission to have sex with a specific celebrity without it counting as cheating.Unfortunately for Gail, her fiancé manages to meet and sleep with his celebrity ‘pass’, Jennifer Aniston, which prompts her to go on a mission to find hers. Thus the mission ensues to track down Mad Men star Jon, sleep with him, and ‘even the scales’. While the film is brimming with crude jokes, innuendo and explicit sexual comments, the sexual acts themselves are depicted in a comedic manner without nudity. Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass has yet to receive a score on IMDB’s sex and nudity rating.