PJsig08

It's pretty safe to say, with the recent releases of Marci X and My Boss's Daughter that the summer movie season is pretty much done for the year? Was it a success, a failure, or just a normal summer season?

While I believe it was a disaster for some movies, I'd only say it was a marginally good year for summer movies, from a financial point of view.

The Good: These movies performed well over their budgets, racking in huge bucks.

Finding Nemo
Pirates of the Caribbean
Seabiscuit
Bruce Almighty
Matrix: Reloaded
X2
Italian Job
Freddy vs. Jason
Spy Kids 3D
American Wedding
Freaky Friday
28 Days Later
2 Fast 2 Furious


The Bad: These movies either barely made back their budget or dissapointed many.

T3
The Hulk
Bad Boys II
Legally Blonde 2
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen


The Ugly: 'Nuff said

Grind
Gigli
Tomb Raider
Hollywood Homicide
Dumb and Dumberer
From Justin to Kelly
Alex and Emma
How to Deal
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas


Of course many of these flicks will make a killing on DVD, but just from the box office view, it was a pretty lousy year for many movies, and franchises.

audrey

Since I'm not in the business, I tend not to care much about box office $. I do find it curious though that you list the Italian Job (1.6x return) in the good category and LB2 (1.9x return) under the Bad.

Goat3001

Money wise I guess it was a failure in general. But I don't care about that, its the movies I care about and IMO it wasn't as good as past summers.

I enjoyed 2 movie this summer and that was Freddy vs. Jason which was exactly what I was hoping for from this movie. T3 is the other one and I found that to just be pure entertainment which is exactly what I look for in a summer movie.

I was disappointed by The Hulk which was enjoyable but was much worse than the hype.

I had low expectations for SWAT, 2 Fast 2 Furious and Bad Boys 2. And all 3 were boring and didn't have any of that summer entertainment.

Then there were 3 movies that I absolutly LOVED this summer. The first being American Wedding which was just flat out the funniest movie I've seen all summer. I really like the American Pie series and thought this was a wonderful ending to that. Matrix: Reloaded. I realize many were disappointed but I thought it was a great setup to Revolutions. And Lastly, X2 was quite possibly the best movie I saw all summer.

PJsig08

Yeah I compiled the list rather quickly, so I'm sure there are some minor "mistakes" I made. Either way, I think its safe to say The Italian Job had some strong legs and great word of mouth, while Legally Blonde 2 did well its first week, and then dropped almost as fast as The Hulk with some pretty bad word of mouth.

Jepthah

Well, neither, actually (re: the thread topic).

Relatively speaking though it did seem like people finally started getting genuinely tired of nothing but sequels (some of which were actually pretty good) and big, dumb, loud event films. A lot of movies underperformed and the market was stretched too thin.

Movie and marketing budgets can't continue to rise this way without better returns, even though the DVD market is a huge revenue source for the studios now.

atari2600

didnt see any of the 'ugly' movies but i liked alot of the 'bad' ones...there are a few 'good' ones that look like crap to me so i never saw them.

chanster

T3 did great overseas, it has made plenty of money. I am not sure how Hulk did overseas.

Deftones

of course you aren't counting overseas box office. T3 has made a killing.

PJsig08

Really? Is there a source for this?

clemente

I consider it a below average summer, but not based on any imperical data, I just didn't enjoy the lot of summer movies as much as I had in previous years. I didn't even feel the need to go back to see any movie twice (excepty MR) and they're were major blockbuster that I missed and really don't care if I ever see.

Here's hoping the month of September can bring some luster to the year 2003.

Hokeyboy

Box Office Mojo: Last weekend report

T3 has raked in $219.2 Internationally, $370 million Worldwide, and counting.

DRG

I just don't see many of the movies released this summer being memorable five years from now. X2 is the only one I've bothered to see a second time, and only because I got into the second showing for free. Nemo is great, as is Pirates. There's good stuff out there, but nothing that completely blew me away.

lesterlong

Movie quality wise it sucked.

KillaBeez

T3 was my favorite movie this summer. Bad Boys 2 and Freddy vs Jason are tied for second. Even tho T3 was my fav this summer and probley tied for 1st with Tears of The Sun for this year for fav movies this year, we didn't need a T3 and T3 coulda used more improvement in some areas.

Overall, it was okay for summer movies.

Jericho

Yeah, I'd also take issue with Seabiscuit being on the Good list. Doesn't mean it's a bad movie, but it just cleared it's budget of $87 million, and likely won't be making much more than $10-$20 million.

As for Summer as a whole, it seemed decent. Last year was pretty successful with Spiderman and Star Wars, so comparing it to last year is difficult. Obviously there are some disappointments, but it's just more of a law of numbers. It seems every week there's some big blockbuster/sequel that at least some people thought was supposed to be big. But obviously not every movie will be blockbuster. Even though there's not a finite amount of money to be spent on movies, the same general amount is spent every year, and given the sheer number of big releases, not everyone will be a "success".

Deftones

I concur 100%. There wasn't anything this summer that was even worthy. X2 was the only flick I thoroughly enjoyed. I saw most of the other blockbuster flicks and wasn't impressed. I did not see Pirates of the Carribean, so I can't comment on that, as I hear it's good.

Kumar J

T3 has a huge following in Japan, Hulk is doing not so good in Japan.But Pirates is still holding on.

Superboy

I've come to enjoy summer movies less and less. Growing up, i enjoyed a lot of movies that i would probably trash now. Now that my tastes are more refined and mature or whatever i don't enjoy a lot of the movies i see. I would say it was better than the last 2 summers.

Ginwen

I have no idea money-wise, but I thought it was ok quality-wise. Not that most of the movies were really good (during summer, though, I hardly expect good movies) but almost every week, there was something new I could stand to go see.

PalmerJoss

The only movies I actually enjoyed this summer were The Hulk, Spy Kids 3D, and Pirates. I hated everything else I saw(although I've yet to see Nemo and X2). Very disappointing summer overall, but I find myself saying the same thing after every summer movie season. So compared to summers past, I'd say that it was a pretty decent one.

lisadoris

The summer was basically ok. There were a couple movies I really enjoyed (X2, Pirates, Nemo, Italian Job) and some I thought were OK (T3, Bad Boys 2, Matrix). The rest I stayed away from like a plague. I think as more summers past and everything gets so repeatative I am getting more selective about the movies I go see so it's just a wash.

Der Krieger1979

I'd say it was an ok summer for movies. I loved Matrix Reloaded, Pirates of the Carribean, American Wedding, and 28 Days Later. The Italian Job and T3 were decent. I thought (I think I'm the only one on here too) X2 sucked hard. I was bored out of my mind for the most part. If it wasn't for Wolverine, I would've walked out of it. I just kept rolling my eyes the entire time. The Hulk was pretty bad too. 2 Fast 2 Furious was a joke and the only reason I saw it was because it was part of a double header (2F2F/Matrix Reloaded) at a nearby drive-in (my first experience at one) and I wanted to see the Matrix again (saw it 6 times).

Spooky

Just a tad off-topic, but did anyone see Bill Maher's rant about the movies on Friday's HBO show? That sums up my feeling of this year's crop of movies perfectly. Here's what he had to say:

And finally New Rule, somebody make a movie I want to go out and see! Ay-yi-yi... Have you looked in the paper lately? "Tomb Raider," "Terminator," "Freddie and Jason," "Swat," it's making me sicker than the urine-colored goo you self pump up in the popcorn. I know it's the summer, but still...

I went to see "Bad Boys II," and the THX "quiet the audience is listening" trailer had a more believable plot.

Now if you're asking how movies could have gotten even worse than they've been lately, I'll tell you how. It's because Hollywood studios now get 60% of their money from DVDs, all of which are bought by the young, dumb, male demographic. The same one that's given us Maxim Magazine, attention deficit disorder, and George Bush.

You know, when I was a teenager, Hollywood didn't give a damn about me, and that was good. Good for the movies and good for me, because I was challenged to smarten up, instead of dumb down. Besides ruining movies, we've ruined our kids by making everything about them. And now if I want to see a movie, I had better enjoy loud noises, things blowing up, and Colin Farrell.

Movies suck because Hollywood figured out that mom and dad don't spend their money on movies anymore. They give their money to their kids, and they spend it on movies... to break up their shopping spree at the mall. It's like American parents are on one long date with their kids. No, it's even worse. It's like they're Robert deNiro in "Casino," helplessly trying to buy the love of a shopaholic hooker with no heart. Played, of course, by Sharon Stone.

Now, before I die, could someone please make one more movie I want to go out and see? I'm not asking for the moon here, and I'm not some film snob with a ponytail, who only likes subtitled Albanian documentaries. But for middle aged people like myself... a good movie is like good sex. You don't have to put one out every day... but when whole seasons go by, you do get a little horny for entertainment.

Panda Phil

Testify!

Hokeyboy

This summer was OK. It compares pretty well with last summer (2002)

Both summers had:

1. A Well-Received Marvel Superhero Box-Office Smash: 2002-Spider-Man, 2003-X2

2. A Highly Anticipated Sci-Fi Sequel Which Made Serious Bucks But Divided Audiences: 2002-Star Wars Ep. II: AOTC, 2003-Matrix Reloaded

3. A $200 million+ Blockbuster Comedy From A Well-Known Funnyman: 2002-Austin Powers in Goldmember, 2003-Bruce Almighty

4. A Disappointing Dreamworks Animated Film: 2002-Spirit: Stallion of the Cinnabuns, 2003-Sinbad

5. A Triumphant Disney(related) Animated Film: 2002-Lilo & Stitch, 2003-Finding Nemo

6. A Serious, Look-At-Me I'm An Oscar-Caliber Drama Which Will Be Forgotten Come Next February: 2002-Road to Perdition, 2003-Seabiscuit

7. A Slightly Disappointing B.O. Considering the Talent, But Still a Damn Good Sci-Fi Movie: 2002-Minority Report, 2003: Terminator 3

8. A Will Smith Sequel That Sucks: 2002-MIIB, 2003-BBII

9. A Big, Stoopid, Slobbering Dumbass Movie That Still Recouped: 2002-XXX, 2003-2 Fast 2 Furious

10. A Spy Kids Movie: 2002-SK2, 2003-SK3-D

11. A Suprisingly Out of Nowhere $100-Mill. Hit: 2002-The Bourne Identity, 2003-The Italian Job

There's more but suddenly I am run over by a truck.