IRON MAN is the box office's steely summer super-hit |
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We're barely one month into Calendar Summer, but we're in the final four-week stretch of Box Office Summer. For this columnist, it's a "time flies when you're busy" moment. It seems as though I was just writing about the upcoming early May launch of the Summer Box Office Season.
It's not news that summer is Hollywood's major money-making season. Nor should it surprise Match-Flickers that it's a time when movies almost always spotlight style over substance, or, as a friend of mine lputs it, "It's all sizzle, no steak."
So, how is the box office faring in its yearly effort to top itself? Let's take a look.
IRON MAN, INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, KUNG FU PANDA, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN, WALL-E and SEX AND THE CITY are among the most spectacular box office hits of the Summer of 2008. SPEED RACER, THE LOVE GURU, THE BANK JOB, SMART PEOPLE, MADE OF HONOR, and THE HAPPENING, are among its notable misses. The jury is still out on THE INCREDIBLE HULK. It may or may not equal 
On the Other Screen, THE LOVE GURU crashed and burned |
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the $134 million gross of Ang Lee's 2003 version. In any case, don't lose sleep awaiting word on THE INCREDIBLE HULK 2.
All in all, very few cinematic bombs have been detonated at the summer box office. Hollywood is happy, if not ecstatic.
After a slow start, the 2008 Summer Box Office is now tracking even with Summer of 2007. Overall, 2008 is still 1% off from last year at this time. There's almost no way that Summer of 2008 will significantly top last year, but it may yet make up that 1% deficit. Several major releases, among them, THE DARK KNIGHT, MAMA MIA, and THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR may be surprisingly strong late-summer entries.
Thus far, nine movies have joined the elite 2008 Domestic $100 Million Club, as opposed to the fourteen members that exclusive fraternity had inducted last year at the same time. We expect that most, possibly all, of the above-mentioned late-summer entries will gain entry into the exclusive $100 Million Club before summer fades into fall.
In addition to 
MAMA MIA! |
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being a successful season, it's been an interesting one. For one thing, originality has made a comeback. Last year, almost all of the top-grossing movies were sequel installments of tried and true motion picture franchises. This year, of summer's Top 5 Box Office Attractions, only INDIANA JONES falls into that well-established franchise category. This is a good thing. Seemingly endless episodes of a motion picture franchise, no matter how compelling the original, eventually end up smelling like fresh fish gone bad. Art is never about cloning; it's about pushing boundaries, crossing new lines. If the industry wants us to believe that flicks are an amalgam of arts and sciences, then it had better go lighter on the sciences, and way heavier on the arts.
Cynical voices claim that it's not "originality" that's fueling summer of 2008's healthy box office. They suggest that $4 plus gas prices are making it more attractive for American families to make the multiplex their weekend's final destination rather than driving 
Here Comes THE DARK KNIGHT! |
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to the country, or to the beach.
Whatever is fueling the Summer of 2008 Box Office, we say, "So far. So good."
SUMMER BOX OFFICE WATCH: With HANCOCK, Will Smith again proved why he and the Fourth of July Box Office go together like apple pie and ice cream. HANCOCK'S neurotic superhero antics pulled in $62.6, easily flying into the Number One spot for the holiday weekend. WALL-E minted a still impressive $32.5, to capture the second spot. But Angelina Jolie wasn't nearly as WANTED as she'd been in the pre-holiday frame. Her violent widescreen vehicle crashed 60% from the previous week to capture third with a less than compelling $20 million.
July's second weekend saw HANCOCK just losing ($33 million) his super-grip on the Number 1 Box Office position to HELLBOY 2: THE GOLDEN ARMY'S $35.8 million. Even with 3D, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH fared no better than a distant third $20.5 million. The potent combo openings of THE DARK KNIGHT and MAMA MIA! will make this weekend's box office, among summer's hottest.
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| The Business of Show |
Every other Friday
Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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If you have a comment, question, or suggestion, you can send a message to Christopher Stone by clicking here.
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