Worldwide, ANGELS & DEMONS is Summer's Biggest B.O. Champ. |
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As this column enters cyber-space, we're starting the sixth weekend of Box-Office Summer. Industry analysts are watching carefully to see exactly how recession-resistant the box-office is in this year of worldwide financial woes.
Making Box-Office Summer so vitally important is the fact that 40% of the movie industry's yearly business is done between May and August. That's a lot of ticket sales. This time, we're looking at how well, or how poorly, the Box-office Summer of 2009 has done up until now.
Almost everything's coming up roses at that theater or multiplex near you. Overall, the 2009 Box-Office is 16 percent ahead of last year – despite the global recession.
Clearly, Box-Office Summer of 2009 already has a trilogy of champs: With $356 million gross, worldwide, ANGELS & DEMONS, is clearly summer's global box-office leader. Domestically, it's a different story. STAR TREK leads the domestic pack with $210 million in the coffers, as opposed to WOLVERINE'S $170 million, and ANGEL's third-place $105. All three flicks are making their creators and 
Domestically, STAR TREK is Summer's Number 1 Attraction. |
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investors very, very happy, and almost everyone in Hollywood wants to be in the X-MEN, STAR TREK, and Ron Howard businesses.
Summer's opening salvo was all familiar franchise fare: X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, STAR TREK, ANGELS & DEMONS, and NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN.
It must be duly, and joyously, noted that none of the summer's opening cards was the unmitigated disaster that was last summer's SPEED RACER. Budgeted in excess of $120 million, the worldwide gross was a paltry $93 million. Even if ANGELS & DEMONS has under-performed domestically, given the industry's high expectations for Ron Howard's second Dan Brown-Robert Langdon opus, the flick has already grossed in excess of $356 million worldwide, not exactly a box-office catastrophe. All of the summertime biggies have reflected much more of the motion pictures sciences than its arts. That's nothing new for summer movies. Match-Flickers long ago learned that summertime is all about fireworks. The award-caliber flicks hide from the summer sun, appearing only after Labor Day, and the 
WOLVERINE has clawed his way to Summer B.O. stardom. |
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need for sunscreen, has come and gone.
Memorial Day Weekend launched summer's second assault. This sophomore salvo added comedy into the summer mix, and it scored big-time.
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN triumphed over TERMINATOR in becoming America's Number One Box-Office Attraction.
It was hardly a surprise that MUSEUM easily annihilated TERMINATOR, a tired franchise whose time has come and gone. The last TERMINATOR feature, 2003's Arnold fueled TERMINATOR: RISE OF THE MACHINES, didn't exactly set the box-office ablaze, and, last month, the Fox Network canceled its TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES after one low-rated season.
As for last weekend, was anyone surprised that Disney Pixar's UP ascended to the Number One Box-office position with more than $62.2 million in receipts? Pixar is ten for ten, with each of their ten animated feature releases hitting box-office heights. Last weekend's other new contender, DRAG ME TO HELL, scared up a respectable $16.6 million and some excellent reviews for director Sam Ramey's return to horror. 
Can HARRY POTTER conjur $300mil or better, domestically? |
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Domestically, STAR TREK has now out grossed MONSTERS VS. ALIENS to become 2009's Number One Box-Office Attraction.
It would appear that the answer to how is box-office summer 2009 doing so far, is, "So far, so good."
On the other hand, some analysts are saying, "Not so fast." At this point last summer, Hollywood had already delivered two monster hits, IRON MAN and INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, each of them went on to gross more than $300 million domestically. Although this summer's most eagerly-awaited offerings have done well, where is the box-office monster that opens in the $90-100 million range and goes on to amass $300 or more, domestically. It may not happen this year, and it may reflect the reality of a recession-year. As we've said before, the box-office is definitely recession-resistant; it's not recession-proof.
Unless either TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN or HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE go through the box-office roof, then the Summer of 2009 may come and go without a single motion picture joining the $300 Million Club.
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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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