Final Summer Movie Box Office

[Olympic Fan]

The Labor Day weekend is generally considered the end of the summer movie season. I heard a news report that claimed that this was the most profitable summer season in history.

I find that depressing. Why? Check out this list of the 15 summer movies that cracked $100 million:

1. Spiderman 3 $336 million
2. Shrek 3 $320 million
3. Transformers $310.6 million (still has legs ... did $2 million last weekend)
4. Pirates 3 $309 million
5. Harry Potter 5 $287 million (still has legs ... did almost $3 million last weekend)
--big drop--
6. Bourne 3 $203 million (BIG legs ... did almost $15 million last weekend)
7. Ratatouille $201 million
8. Simpsons $178 million (did almost $5 million last week ... may get to 200M)
9. Knocked Up $148 million
10. Die Hard 4 $133 million
11. Fantastic Four 2 $131 million
12. Rush Hour 3 $122 million (still strong legs ... did $10 million last weekend)
13. Oceans 13 (3) $117 million
14. Chuck and Larry $116
15. Hair Spray $112.4 million

(BTW, Evan Almighty is at $99.5 million and did $0.3 million last week ... so it may creep over $100)

Depending on whether or not you count post-Labor Day revenues as "summer movie money", Harry Potter may make $300 million; Rush Hour will crack the top 10 and Bourne 3 could get very close to $300 million.

But the reason I'm depressed is that when I look at the list of the top 15, I see nine sequals, one straight out remake and two remakes of old TV cartoon shows. That leaves:

Ratatouille
Knocked Up
Chuck and Larry

as the sum total of "original" summer movies (even Evan Almighty is to some extent a sequel).

That makes me very sad.

[hc5duke]

Superbad isn't too far behind, 90-something million right now IIRC.

[DevilAlumna]

Superbad isn't too far behind, 90-something million right now IIRC.

Wow, combined with the surprise success of Knocked Up, this has been a good summer for Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow and family, eh?

[Clipsfan]

I don't know that this past summer was the most "profitable" summer ever, but it was definitely the highest grossing, breaking $4 billion for the first time ever. I think that the previous high was in the $3.8 billion range while this one was around $4.1. I may be off slightly, but not by much. However, these movies were for the most part made for vast sums of money and had significant amounts of marketing spend behind them. Movies like Knocked Up (I think around a $30MM budget) are more profitable at this point than ones like Superman 3, which brought in much more money at the worldwide box office. However, it is likely that Spiderman 3's ultimate profitability might be higher, although talent participations for a movie like that will seriously hurt studio profitability.

[Bluedawg]

has anybody seen 3:10 to Yuma?

[Indoor66]

has anybody seen 3:10 to Yuma?

Saw the Glenn Ford verion on TeeVee the other night. The new one opens in a theater near you today (Friday, 9/7)

[Clipsfan]

I should be seeing 3:10 to Yuma tomorrow, I'll let people know on Monday whether I liked it (and if no one else says anything). I'm actually interested in seeing Shoot Em Up as well, but don't have the time for it.