Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Mid-Term Box Office Update

It has happened, summer is beginning to wind down. I want to wish a happy belated Independence Day for all my visitors from Liberia, United States and Canada.  If you need to know what movies are coming out for the remainder of the summer check out my Summer Movie Guide. Now that it is August is upon us, we are almost through the summer movie season. Like each season there are hits and misses. Bare with me as I breakdown what has been hot and what has not been this summer.

The summer box office started off with a bang with the highly anticipated  Iron Man 3. Iron Man 3 is the highest grossing film of the summer and has surpassed the grosses of its predecessors with a red hot gross of $407 million at the US box office. Third highest grossing film of the summer is the Superman reboot  Man of Steel which has grossed a spectacular $286 million at the box office. I don't think anyone is surprised that two superhero movies are two of the highest grossing films of the summer.. The Wolverine opened over the weekend and grossed over $55 million at the box office. It was not a spectacular opening but I feel that it may still have life in it.

Besides superheroes this summer has belonged to the kids. Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University are bona fide hits at the box-office. Despicable Me 2 has surpassed  Man of Steel over the weekend and is the second highest grossing film of the summer with an outstanding $306 million. Monsters University was another solid hit for Pixar, grossing $255 million at the US box office. The other animated films Epic  and Turbo may not have been huge blockbusters but they have performed solidly at the box office.  It will be interesting to see how Planes and Smurfs 2 pane out next month

Sequels and adaptations also had an incredible summer. The sixth installment of the Fast & Furious grossed $237 million at the US box office. Rounding out the top ten films of the summer are Star Trek Into Darkness, World War Z, The Great Gatsby and The Heat. One of the biggest surprises of the summer was  the success of the film Now You See Me. That film surpassed all predictions and has grossed $114 million to date. After two weekends I am certain the horror hit The Conjuring will end its run in the top ten highest grossing films of the summer. Not surprising Adam Sandler earned another his 14th $100 million grossing film with Grown Ups 2. Interestingly, there was no indie hit this summer. There have been a few pictures that have done well at the box office but no runaway hit. It will be interesting to see if Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine becomes the first indie hit of the summer.

Not everything has come up smelling like roses this summer. The summer has belong to the superheroes and the kids, a lot of summer blockbusters have been left to the wolves. One of the biggest misfires this summer was the Will Smith vehicle After Earth. The film crashed and burnt at the box office, collecting an underwhelming $60 million. I don't think this film's performance has anything to do with a dimming star power of Will Smith. I am positive with the right material people will pay big bucks to see him on the big screen. This summer has also seen Johnny Depp have a box office disappointment with the big budgeted The Lone Ranger. Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx struck out with White House Down and much to my despair Pacific Rim did not draw the big bucks(don't know why, it was amazing).Then there was the final installment of Hangover that grossed a disappointing $111 million. I wished that they had never made Hangover into a series. They should have left it as a comedic classic. Another misfire this summer was Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn vehicle The Internship.


Disclaimer: All of my figures come from Box Office Mojo. These figures only take into consideration how much the films grossed as of this past weekend. 

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