Top Grossing Movies Summer 2008

[Udaman]

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[pfrduke]

The nice thing about voting first is seeing that I'm in 100% agreement with the total voting populace.

[snowdenscold]

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The first Ironman trailer I saw had me fascinated up until the point I realized it was a comic book movie and that we was going to have special abilities. A fast-talking arms dealer captured in the desert by terrorists intrigued me - then it just looked stupid after that.

I'm also highly worried about IJ4. I absolutely love and grew up on the first three - and Raiders and Last Crusade are both in my top 10 favorite movies. I wasn't that impressed by the trailer. Part of it looked too digital/fake and the other part just seemed to be making cheesy references to the fact that Harrison Ford is a lot older now. I know they can't ignore it, but still...

[YmoBeThere]

I went with Narnia, figure the fundamentalist will be out in force trying to decide who to vote for in the election. Haha, have I sent us to the PPB with that line?

[DevilAlumna]

I saw a preview for Hancock last night, and although I love Will Smith, the trailer showed one of the worst special effects stunts since Indiana Jones III. I hope they redo that segment before June...

[Lord Ash]

Uhhhh... do you guys not know what Hancock is?

Will Smith. Superhero movie.

It will be HUGE.

[hc5duke]

Uhhhh... do you guys not know what Hancock is?

Will Smith. Superhero movie.

It will be HUGE.

Looks like I'm the only other person who picked it. That's my dark horse pick. Trailers looked pretty good. I can't see any of the other movies (of the ones I didn't pick) doing that well.

[DevilAlumna]

Uhhhh... do you guys not know what Hancock is?

Will Smith. Superhero movie.

It will be HUGE.

Yeah, so the longer trailer looks better than the 30-sec commercial, but it still shows some lousy special effects.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0448157/t...r-vi2041708825

The whale-throwing is just lame. lame.

But yeah, (lack of) quality won't stop a lot of people from seeing it. Will Smith. Superhero. HUGE.

[bluebutton]

Totally unexcited about all the movies. Guess I'll save my money and buy video games?

Wouldn't mind if one of them surprised me, but I'll let the rest of the board go watch and report back.

Last summer I was excited about--
Die Hard
Bourne Ultimatum
Transformers (only because I had old connections with it)
Ratatouille

This summer--
The Dark Knight: motorcycle looks interesting, but that's it
Ironman: Husband might go with work, but I'm not interested
Speedracer: Didn't watch the anime, not interested unless it gets rave reviews
Indiana Jones: Didn't watch the 1st 3 --too many spider webs
Chronicles of Narnia: Really liked the books as a kid, didn't think the first movie adaptation was all that hot
Wall-E: I like Pixar, but Cars and Ratatouille disappointed

Haven't heard of the rest

[snowdenscold]

... worst special effects stunts since Indiana Jones III.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Take it back.

[hc5duke]

Wall-E: I like Pixar, but Cars and Ratatouille disappointed

Blasphemy!

[JasonEvans]

Uhhhh... do you guys not know what Hancock is?

Will Smith. Superhero movie.

It will be HUGE.

Agree. I put it in my top 5 with:

• Iron Man - First big movie of summer = long legs and intial buzz of being first. First big movie of summer is always among the biggest of the summer, look it up.
• Narnia - church folks plus kids plus early release plus sequel to big hit = huge hit.
• Indiana Jones - no brainer. Remember that Spielberg is doing this so it will be high quality even if Ford looks ancient and the trailers look weak so far.
• and Wall.E - I loved what I have seen from the trailer and the 5 minutes sneak peak I saw recently. Looks strong and not much animated competition.

-Jason

[ArkieDukie]

I saw top grossing and immediately started thinking about what movie had the most potty humor. Or maybe there's a slasher movie coming out this summer?

[Lord Ash]

Totally unexcited about all the movies. Guess I'll save my money and buy video games?

Last summer I was excited about--
Die Hard
Bourne Ultimatum
Transformers (only because I had old connections with it)
Ratatouille

You were excited over TRANSFORMERS, from the WORST director of ALL TIME, and Die Hard, but you aren't excited over INDY?! Bizarre. Straight. Up. Bizarre.

Wall.E I think is a little too off-kilter to do well. It may well be brilliant, but I don't think it will be a top five grosser.

I went with the Kung Fu Panda film, as it is very family friendly...

Hancock, because Will Smith and superhero is big, regardless of it being any good...

Ironman, because I think people are actually excited for it, altho GTA will hurt it and I didn't take that into consideration when I voted...

Batman, because it is Batman and the morbid appeal will generate a lot of interest...

and of course Indy. Because, duh, it is INDY.

[ArkieDukie]

You were excited over TRANSFORMERS, from the WORST director of ALL TIME, and Die Hard, but you aren't excited over INDY?! Bizarre. Straight. Up. Bizarre.

Wall.E I think is a little too off-kilter to do well. It may well be brilliant, but I don't think it will be a top five grosser.

I went with the Kung Fu Panda film, as it is very family friendly...

Hancock, because Will Smith and superhero is big, regardless of it being any good...

Ironman, because I think people are actually excited for it, altho GTA will hurt it and I didn't take that into consideration when I voted...

Batman, because it is Batman and the morbid appeal will generate a lot of interest...

and of course Indy. Because, duh, it is INDY.

Sadly, I think you're right about Batman. That's why I voted for it as well. I'm in the minority on one of my choices: Get Smart. I thought the previews looked funny.

[JasonEvans]

Sadly, I think you're right about Batman. That's why I voted for it as well. I'm in the minority on one of my choices: Get Smart. I thought the previews looked funny.

The previews do look funny and I think Steve Carrell is great casting here... but comedies rarely crack $200 million (except animated films, which this is not). It is tough to get the repeat business neccessary for huge box office when you are a comedy, at least that is how Hollywood has worked for a while.

I think Get Smart will be the top grossing live-action comedy of the summer, but I will be quite surprised if it cracks the top 5.

--Jason

[Bluedawg]

I have not seen any of them, and most likely won't due to time and $$. However, Iron Man has some really cool trailers, if this Batman was as good as the first it gets my vote, Indiana Jones is always a hit, Get Smart looks like a lame copy which means it will sell, and my last two are pure guesses.

[JasonEvans]

So far, 46 people voted in this poll and only 29 of them picked Iron Man. Well, the reviews are very good and I'll be stunned if it does not do $100 million this weekend.

In other words, I think 17 people are about to feel very foolish.

--Jason "$200 million is the magic number, in my mind, to be top 5 this summer... and Iron Man will get there easy" Evans

[BCGroup]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Take it back.

I rewatched that the other day and it reminded me how much I enjoyed it. I think Indiana Jones will do well this summer, at least partly for the nostalgia. And I'm banking on the fact that Spielberg knows how to pull of a great movie.

[bjornolf]

Interesting question. What do we think will do well, NOT what movies do we like.

I'm not sure I agree about Iron Man being such a smash. I am a comic book/video game/cartoon geek, and proud of it, so I'm excited for it. However, I'm not sure a lot of people will be. He's a more obscure hero, and with so many big ones recently like spiderman, superman, batman, and hulk (x2) coming out recently and in the near future (heck, there are what, FOUR of them on this list alone?), I feel like the market's getting saturated, especially when you throw in things like daredevil and elektra etc. (My wife is a perfect example of this. She has been watching the superhero movies over the years, but has slowly cooled on them as they continued to pile up. She only watched the third Spiderman because she'd invested so much time watching the first two.) Oh, and then there are the ridiculous superhero movies like "My Super Ex-Girlfriend". I'm juiced for Iron Man, but I'm not sure if it will be top 5 this summer. Besides, Robert Downey Jr. is not the draw he used to be. Of course, it IS the first big action flick of the summer, so that will help it a bit. Also, with ticket prices what they are, I'm not sure $200M will get you top 5 this year. I hope it does well, but I'm just not convinced.

I went with Hancock for the Will Smith/superhero factor (there's another superhero movie for you!). I think Indy and Mummy (I think the two Mummy movies did over $200M) will do well for somewhat similar reasons (to each other, not to Hancock). I went with Batman (another comic book hero! I think batman begins did over $200M too) for the Heath Ledger death thing. I went with Narnia for the family thing, though I wasn't sure whether to go with that or Wall-E, but hit Narnia at the last second (it's predecessor hit almost $300M I think). Anyway, I know little about this stuff, but a LOT of people I've talked to have lost some interest in the superhero movies thanks to all the recent ones.

Just my $0.01.