The summer started with X2 and Lizzie McGuire. In a very good weekend and overall great haul. It didn’t go Spiderman, but out grossed its predecessor. Lizzie McGuire made enough a sequel is wanted, but Lizzie doesn’t want to and Disney does. We’ll see..
Daddy Day Care came the next week to great hype from the hilarious trailer, but reviews and opinion came calling it a horrible movie. X2 still remained #1 was the only movie to hold its #1 until Freddy vs Jason. Still, it made lots of money and Daddy Day Camp is in the script stage.
The Matrix Reloaded opened with a blitz as it achieved the best R rated opening ever and went on to be the highest grossing R rated movie and of the year until it got surpassed. Mixed reviews and disappointment. It featured long fight and car scenes of amazing scale. They are now awaiting Revolutions in November! Also, Down With Love came out and did poorly and got bad reviews.
Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey as God opened the next week knocking the Matrix from #1. The other movie, The In-Laws, a remake, isn’t so lucky coming in 5th with $9 million.
The last weekend of May brought us three movies including Finding Nemo, which went on to become the highest grossing animated movie ever and recently passed The Matrix Reloaded for the record of the year as it stayed strong all summer. The Italian Job opens but not to the extent that Paramount hoped. They later blamed the crowded weekend and re-released it this Labor Day weekend to bring it up to $100 million. The third movie is Wrong Turn. A slasher movie which did alright with its small budget.
As June began, the summer really heats up with 2 Fast 2 Furious. It opened surpassing the originals opening, but won’t surpass the first one’s takings.
Then came the anticipated prequel to Dumb and Dumberer it didn’t reach the audience as it opened at 8th. Thou being hilarious it didn’t work as just made its budget.. Not even close to the final takings of Dumb and Dumber which was $127 million. Hollywood Homicide was a crime comedy, expected to do well, but didn’t quite make it. Harrison Ford will try his big comeback with the next Indiana Jones. The Rugrats Go Wild then does worse than The Wild Thornberry’s Movie.
The American Idol movie, From Justin To Kelly still made more than Glitter, but not much. Alex and Emma another romantic movie does poorly too. Then the second comic book movie, The Hulk. It opened not as good as X2, but still did well making its budget even with bad feedback as Ang Lee turned an action movie into an artsy, psychological drama with an action ending.
At the end of June, 28 Days Later a British horror, went on to scare audiences. The low budget movie successful British movie went on to make about $30 million on a $10 million budget. 28 Days After the release the original ending at the end of the movie. Charlie’s Angels 2 failed to meet the opening of the first and struggled to make $100 million. If you look at the budget of the first and the takings then cross them with the budget and takings of the second, you pretty much come even. An unrated DVD is coming in October.
The 4th of July weekend came with major budgeted Terminator 3. It didn’t make the opening the Matrix 2 did, but went better than T2. As it rolled down, it didn’t make as much as Terminator 2. It stopped at about $150 million (I saw it 3 times). As for the international takings, it has made lots of money and they are definitely going ahead for Terminator 4 with or without Arnold, but why? Sinbad the Sailor flopped majorly going Treasure Planet at the box office. Legally Blonde 2 also opened, not meeting the expectations Freddy vs Jason beat it. No one saw that coming.
Pirates of the Caribbean then came. Could a movie based on a Disneyland ride be any good? Well they later proved yes. Not only increasing Johnny Depp charisma, but may pass The Matrix Reloaded at the box office. The special effects were top rate here. It still remains high on the box office and could take the highest grosses of the year away from the other Disney movie, Finding Nemo.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen came next. A horrible history lesson, but an ok movie. Don’t expect a sequel from here, it didn’t make the $90 million budget.
After that, Bad Boys 2 came out with even more explosive action than Jerry Bruckheimers other, Pirates of the Caribbean. This movie has been criticized for its very strong violence and other things that make this a very hard R. I liked it. Johnny English, Europe’s top grossing self-produced movie this year filled with humor and completely unsensical plot. How to Deal, Mandy Moore’s new movie, about a movie people can relate with, didn’t relate to many people as few people went to watch.
Tomb Raider 2 was expected to be a big hit and take #1 this weekend, but didn’t. Grossing to date only $65 million. About half what the first made and no where near its budget. This could have been a really well made movie, but lacked suspense or a sense of danger. You could see what they wanted to do but they didn’t make it. Sea biscuit exceeded expectations just making $100 million today. Still there is Oscar buzz, but will it actually happen? Not sure. Spy Kids 3D made it to $100 million but Sea biscuit is likely to make more.
As August started, the last month of the summer season, Gigli opens terribly, worse than From Justin to Kelly. A movie that looked like potential, but turns out to have none. American Wedding, many laughs, some heart, but not the kind same as Porky’s. I hadn’t seen the previous 2 except for the first on TV.
Opening on a Wednesday, Freaky Friday was a really good one. Pretty much nothing I disliked about this movie. It is still making a presence at the box office taking the #1 spot on Labor Day and #2 for the weekend.
SWAT opened the next Friday. Some call it realistic others unrealistic. From the producers of XXX, wait! Samuel L. Jackson again? Just noticed that.
In a crowded weekend, Freddy vs Jason surpassed all expectations taking in $36 million. Almost 3x as much as either of the last movies in the series. Most people didn’t expect the entire run to make what it did opening weekend. After 4 years of waiting for this, I was satisfied. Open Range supposedly redeemed Kevin Costner from Water World, The Postman, and Tin Cup. Robert Duvall is supposed to be great. Grind, the movie I thought looked to be one of the stupidest ever showed me that others thought that too as it did as bad as Gigli.
This weekend, the studios just threw what they had left in. The worst of the worst weekend. 3 movies none make it past the 5th spot. The Medallion makes The Tuxedo look good, My Boss’ Daughter was just bad and had little to do with that, and Marci X did Swept Away bad with less than $900,000. All the movies have been on the shelf for a year. Freddy vs Jason remains at the top of the box office for the second week. The first movie to do that since it all started with X2.
In the final weekend of summer, the horror fans leave Freddy vs Jason to Jeepers Creepers 2. Freddy vs Jason drops way down to #7. So it must be the same audience. It sounds more people dislike Jeepers Creepers 2 than Freddy vs Jason so, Freddy vs Jason may come out on top of this. They’ll be happy with the amount of horror in September.
I enjoyed this summer. The sequels were very enjoyable. My favorites of the summer this year were Terminator 3, Bad Boys 2, Freaky Friday, Freddy vs Jason, and Charlie’s Angels 2.
The one’s I didn’t enjoy as much were The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Tomb Raider 2, and the Hulk. The rest of the movies were just fine.
Here are the movies I did see this summer.
X2
The Matrix Reloaded
Dumb and Dumberer
The Hulk
28 Days Later
Charlie’s Angels 2
Terminator 3
Pirates of the Caribbean
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Bad Boys 2
Johnny English
Tomb Raider 2
American Wedding
Freaky Friday
Freddy vs Jason
So that’s 15/42 movies released So I saw 35% of the movies this summer. Next year I’ll try and beat that.
The box office held up well. Some disappointments and a lot of surprises. Quite a few records broken. You may have heard how this years numbers are down from last year, well it’s not true. The summer take is higher. The spring takings are just slightly lower than last year and not taking into account the whole summer. Add them up now and you’ll see.
This summer was better than last year. Will next year be better than this year? We’ll we have Troy, Van Helsing, The Bourne Supremacy, Spiderman 2, and more.
The fall season has now started and will continue until November 31st. After that, you can expect my Fall movies summary.