Tom Bagley
Looking back at the method and the madness of 2007’s record-breaking summer box office
Summer is almost over and it’s not just the frosty chill in the air that gives it away. It’s also the marquee at the multiplex.
Late August has become the dumping ground for all the lost causes and also-rans from the summer movie season. Take a look at the Nicole Kidman thriller The Invasion . If studios had any faith in the film it would have been released months ago in the late-May early-June pole position. Instead despite a big budget and big cast it’s been relegated to a miserable pre-awards season death.
While that is typical of the summer movie season the past few months at the box office have been anything but typical. This year continued the trend of pushing the limits of what can be called “summer” with release dates creeping ever earlier from the U.S. Memorial Day long weekend to the first weekend of May. Of course 2007 will be known as the summer of the three-quel with many franchises offering up third instalments. Whether they were good ( Ocean’s Thirteen ) or abysmal ( Spider-Man 3 ) they all made a crap-load of money. In fact with grosses of over $4 billion 2007 is going down as the most profitable summer on record beating out the previous high set in 2004.
Still box office totals rarely correlate with box office quality and that has been ably corroborated by moviegoers this year. The trend started back in February when the abominable comic book adaptation Ghost Rider opened with a $45-million weekend. Mid-life crisis comedy Wild Hogs made similar waves with a $40-million opening and despite horrific reviews both films went on to crack the $100-million mark. With that track record established it’s no wonder so many wildly average films made so much money. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Transformers and Spider-Man 3 all cracked $300 million. Hell even the new Fantastic Four flick and Evan Almighty are hovering around the $100-million mark.
These box office totals beg the question why? How is an industry that is supposedly terrified of losing revenue to piracy setting financial records with product that is so average? It boils down to familiarity. Hollywood is playing it safe with the projects it green-lights. Of the year’s top 25 movies so far 19 are sequels adaptations or remakes. While a few of these films such as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix The Simpsons Movie and The Bourne Ultimatum managed to breathe new life into aging franchises the rest are nothing more than time-killers.
The other factor contributing to this box office bonanza is the state of the small screen. Reality TV of all varieties dominates the ratings which means that even with a proliferation of cable stations long-form dramas and comedies are less common. Quite simply this crop of summer movies as average as they are offer audiences something they can’t find elsewhere.
With the record-breaking summer of 2007 behind us we can look forward to more sequels and remakes. More importantly for the cinephiles out there festival and award season is upon us. If you can wade through Rush Hour 3 Balls of Fury and Mr. Bean’s Holiday there’s bound to be something interesting just around the corner.
