Captain America
Thor
Green Lantern
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
Scream 4
Cars 2
The Hangover 2
Pirates of the Caribbean 4
Fast and Furious 5
Super 8
Conan the Barbarian
Now, not all of them are super hyped (Conan, FF 5,) but certainly all the comic book ones are, Harry Potter sure as fuck is, and Transformers will bring in a shit-ton even though we all know the second one sucked ass.
So, two fold question:
Will this summer break the previous record (I think it’s currently the 2009 summer?)
and
Assuming 1 is yes (which I certainly think it is,) will there be any real hope for it to be broken? I mean…what are the odds we’ll get three super-hero movies, the final movie of a major book and movie series, and multiple sequels of pretty successful (if not always good,) franchises?
Are you talking raw numbers or adjusted? With ticket prices continuing to rise, the record for biggest box office will continue to get broken.
But I think in adjusted terms, the peak has passed. In fact, in terms of the number of tickets being sold, the peak was probably at least fifty years ago.
They’re almost all sequels. I don’t see anything there that really has any anticipation or buzz to it. I think this summer has the potential to be a summer of bombs.
Looks more or less like the last few summers. A lot of superhero movies and third or forth iterations of successful franchises. I’m kinda hoping this is the summer the public gets sick of these, as we’re kinda scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as semi-well known comic book heroes, and I don’t think people are really clamoring for a forth Pirates movie or another Scream movie.
Not that I have anything against superheroes or franchises, but I think the last few years have sucked those particular well dry.
Spielberg producing, JJ Abrams (Lost, Cloverfield, Star Trek) directing. Trailer. Definitely a Close Encounters/ET/Iron Giant vibe, but also probably the only one of the films listed with any sense of mystery to it right now.
I dunno, according to the “Letters to the Editor” page of my local paper, NO ONE has ANY MONEY, AT ALL, not $150/year to spend on a school levy and certainly not enough to spend on going to all of these movies. They are barely scraping by, by jove!
Or, yeah, it could be a big summer for movies. sigh
Believe it or not, the top summer revenue year is 2010, though total number of tickets is down yet again. cite
Also, as noted above, inflation adjusted figures will paint a different story.
Are you kidding? Summer revenue almost always increases. The few exceptions seem correlated with recessions (2008, 1991, etc).
Absent a massive recession, I expect this year’s summer record breaking season to be broken in 2012 only to be broken again in 2013. Look up the summer of 1989 for a TON of fantastic summer movies. That summer’s record was broken the next year in 1990 (only to have the recession and probably the Gulf War reduce revenues in 1991).
Most years see an increase in revenue. Up until this last decade, it was driven by ever increasing attendance. But now that more people are watching movies at home (apparently), increased revenue comes from increasing ticket prices and somewhat gimmicky things like Imax or 3D (or 3D Imax).
Also, even if you expect a movie to do well, the viewing public tends to have the final say. If a movie isn’t all its hyped to be, people won’t go. Theaters already have a problem selling tickets. The movie going “experience” is not so great anymore, compared to the very comfortable home theaters people have.
I’m interested in Harry Potter and maybe Super 8. There is no way in HELL I would consider paying to see any of the others. Maybe, maybe someday I’d pay a buck at the Redbox.
Harry Potter 8 and Cars 2* are on my must-see list. Some of the others will probably be part of group outings with the Charlotte Geeks.
If I see Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon, The Hangover 2, or Fast and Furious 5, it will be because that’s where the kidnappers chose to take me while waiting to hear back about the ransom demand.
Purely because Toy Story 2 proved they could do sequels.
I think if I had to invest, I would put money in Harry Potter and Hangover 2 as pretty sure bets.
One or two of the others might be surprise blockbusters, but I think there are a few films on that list that might be joining Mars Needs Moms in the cheap DVD bins soon.
Scream 4 is out this weekend and at the local drive-in too. With a predicted high of 46 degrees and it being mid-April, I wouldn’t consider that a summer movie.
The best thing about Pirates 4 is that they dumped the Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly characters and are just making it about Jack Sparrow, which is what they should have done a long time ago.