Box Office: Summer Movies Heating Up

The official summer season is still one week away, but summer movie season is already well underway. I've seen five films this summer and all of them made the top ten this past weekend, including the #1 movie Super 8 which opened to a solid, but not-too-exciting $35.4 million. With a film largely consisting of an unknown cast of kids, the big draw was director J.J. Abrams and the secretive monster alluded to in most of its marketing.

The critically loved X-Men: First Class, which I saw last weekend, took the #2 spot dipping 56.2% in its second weekend for a $98 million tally. Box-office-wise it hasn't been impressive relative to past films in its series, but it hasn't been an utter failure either. Similarly, the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean flick has been under-performing relative to its earlier films, but with over $650 million outside of North America, it's still a damn huge blockbuster. It just passed $200 million domestic joining Fast Five and The Hangover Part II as the only films to have done so this year. The latter especially has been literally banking on the success and popularity of its breakout first film en route for an impressive final gross.

Speaking of breakout films, if there's a summer film so far that fits that bill, it's Bridesmaid, which I have also seen. It's been the leggiest film so far this summer, declining the least or very little the past few weeks. It has amassed over $120 million in only five weeks.

My favorite film of the summer, Midnight in Paris, successfully expanded wide this past weekend earning $5.8 million, giving director-writer Woody Allen his highest-grossing weekend ever. Terence Malick's Cannes-winning Tree of Life has also done well garnering around $2.4 million for its first 3 weeks of limited release.

Finally, the fifth film I've seen, Thor, has made $173 million which is nothing to write home about. Good reviews and solid results worldwide, however, bode well for future films in the Avengers series.