THE INCREDIBLE HULK wasn't Box-Office buff. |
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Has time been flying, or what? Kiss summer goodbye. At home, it's back to school time. The mall is decorated for Halloween. The first Christmas catalogues have already been delivered to my mailbox.
This time around, we're looking back at the Golden Summer Box-Office just ended. In truth, Match-Flickers' biggest summer "monsters" were not monsters at all; they were heroes, superheroes, and even wannabe heroes (Maxwell Smart). There were some surprises, but, perhaps the season's's biggest surprise was that so few hoped-for blockbusters bombed.
Here are my reflections on the Golden Box Office Summer of 2008:
In early May, the Summer Season came in like a lion with the release of IRON MAN. Before the rave reviews started piling up, few, if any, predicted that Marvel Comics' second-string superhero would be the summer's first worldwide blockbuster. Yet, fueled by critical praise and wonderful word-of-mouth from preview audiences, Marvel Comics' not-quite-Superman went on to gross $320 million domestically, with a worldwide total of $575 million. Even more surprising, the title star was not a Cruise, Pitt, Will 
IRON MAN was on his mettle - and then some. |
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Smith, or any current A-lister, but Robert Downey, Jr., a long-ago Oscar nominee, for years plagued by life and career-threatening personal challenges. The week after IRON MAN took the box-office by steely storm, SPEED RACER ran out of gas before his 500 began.
Certainly THE DARK KNIGHT was among summertime's most highly anticipated movies. Still and all, industry insiders did not foresee this Batman noir as being responsible for the most successful opening weekend ($158 million) in the history of the motion picture box office. In retrospect, Hollywood partially credits the untimely death of Heath Ledger, THE DARK KNIGHT'S brilliant Joker, for the flick's record-shattering performance. Most of the industry, however, claims that THE DARK KNIGHT phenomenon reflects a film that lived up to its hype – and then some. Worldwide, THE DARK KNIGHT's cumulative total is at $800 million, and counting.
Few would disagree that IRON MAN and THE DARK NIGHT were superheroes with all of the right moves. They executed their heroics with class and style – in some cases, even with grace. And then there was....
HANCOCK had all of 
SPEED RACER was running on empty even before he premiered. |
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the wrong moves. He probably couldn't even spell class and style – and, whether landing on a suburban street, or tossing a beached whale back into the ocean, Will Smith's well-intentioned, but misguided, superhero was the antipode of grace. But HANCOCK didn't lack heart and soul, and, worldwide, Match-Flickers rewarded the ne'er-do-well Uncaped Crusader with a whopping $560 million worldwide box office haul.
INDIANA JONES doesn't have super powers, but he has a reputation for generating super spills and thrills – and he has Spielberg and Lucas on his team. To no one's surprise, his KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL kicked box-office butt here ($320 million) and abroad ($470 million) to the tune of $790 million, worldwide.
As a hero, GET SMART's Maxwell Smart may have "missed it by that much," but, as a box-office archer, he scored a bulls-eye. The Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway comedy, based on a 1960s' NBC sitcom of the same name, garnered more than $200 million, worldwide. The same weekend that GET SMART's B.O. IQ soared, a rival comedy, Mike Myers THE LOVE GURU, tanked, despite an outrageous amount of publicity, 
MAMMA MIA! needed neither the U.S., or Pierce in perfect pitch, to profit. |
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including unprecedented, shameless promotion on the season finale of AMERICAN IDOL.
The just-ended summer also witnessed a former James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) singing, or at least, trying to, in MAMMA MIA! Thanks to early foreign release dates, MAMMA MIA!, produced for a relatively modest $52 million, was already in Universal's Profit Column by the time it opened in the U.S., on July 18, the same weekend THE DARK KNIGHT avalanche buried all competitors, shattering every domestic box office record. Now showing on hundreds of screens in a Sing-Along version, the Abba musical is headed toward a Super Trooper $350 million gross, worldwide.
Even though PRINCE CASPIAN, the sequel to 2005's THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, pulled in $370 million at the worldwide box-office, that figure was only a disappointing half of the $745 million haul of the original.
The season's only true movie monster, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, wasn't all that big with Match-Flickers. The $238 million it earned worldwide was slightly less than Ang Lee's 2003 THE HULK mustered up with Eric Bana as the title star.
As for Golden Box-Office Summer 2008: That a wrap!
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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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