Studios won, lost with summer films
Talking pictures
by
Jeff Vice
Most of that was due to "The Dark Knight," which has grossed $526 million in ticket sales in the United States so far, making it the obvious hit of the year.
Warners also scored hits with both "Sex and the City" (currently this year's No. 8, with $152 million) and "Get Smart" (No. 13, $130 million).
Of course, the studio also had what may have been the two most disappointing films of the summer: the costly busts "Speed Racer" (No. 43, $43 million) and "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (No. 55, $34 million).
So it could be argued that the studio didn't have the best summer of the bunch. Especially since Paramount had a pair of $300 million-plus hits: "Iron Man" (No. 2, with $318 million) and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (No. 3, with $316 million).
And because of its partnership with DreamWorks Pictures, the studio also can lay claim to the $215 million animated hit "Kung Fu Panda" (No. 6) and "Tropic Thunder" (No. 14, $109 million).
So let's just forget about its highly touted bust, "The Love Guru" (No. 59, $32 million), shall we?
Winners
• UNIVERSAL: "Mamma Mia! The Movie" (No. 9) sang its way to $142 million, while both "The Incredible Hulk" (No. 11) and "Wanted" (No. 12) made $134 million.
And the modestly budgeted comedies "Baby Mama" (No. 33, $60 million) and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (No. 32, $62 million) were modest hits as well.
Losers
• FOX: Eddie Murphy's latest, "Meet Dave" (No. 95, $11 million) was the first of severely outright flops — with "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," "Babylon A.D.," "Shutter," "Mirrors" and "Space Chimps" all earning $30 million or less apiece.
Only "The Happening" (No. 31, $64 million) and "What Happens in Vegas" (No. 22, $80 million) prevented the studio's summer from turning into a record-breaking disaster.
• OVERTURE FILMS: The so-called "boutique" studio tried to "go big" with the Al Pacino-Robert De Niro team-up "Righteous Kill" (No. 51). That film only made ($38 million), and the Don Cheadle spy thriller "Traitor" (No. 76, $23 million) quickly faded from sight.
In-betweens
• DISNEY: "WALL*E" (No. 5, $221 million) was more gold from Pixar. But the second "Chronicles of Narnia" movie, "Prince Caspian" (No. 10) actually underperformed with $141 million.
And "Swing Vote" (No. 86, $16 million) got no vote of confidence from audiences.
• SONY: The awful "Hancock" (No. 4) inexplicably made $227 million. But outside of "Step Brothers" (No. 16, $100 million), the rest of the studio's slate was pretty soft.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com
Recent comments
Goes to show what happens when you take the material seriously and…
The Authority | Oct. 13, 2008 at 7:28 p.m.
