Summer hits smash box office

By Mandy Bee.
Collegian Editor
August 28, 2008

In these days of rising gas prices and economic crumble, the nation is generally a bit more strapped for cash. Because of this, many do not have the funds for frivolous extras: eating out, shopping and certainly not a night out at the movies. At an average $9 a ticket, and a ridiculous price hike for concessions, movie night is more than a little pricey.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the summer of 2008 gave the general American public even more reasons to return to the movies.

As the summer movie season comes to a close, figures from Movies by Numbers, a box office tracking agent, reveal that the hot 2008 months have produced almost a 4 percent increase in movie attendance in comparison to last summer. Similarly, recent reports have estimated that the film industry made over $4 billion this summer. This flutter in activity comes as a great relief to an industry that has struggled for revenue. Hollywood seems to be temporarily out of the doldrums. But why?

Certainly, much credit must be given the summer’s box office monster: The Dark Knight. Opening on July 18, it smashed the first day record in an instant, earning $18.5 million during its nation-wide midnight debut, and $158.4 million in its opening weekend. This shattered the previous release record held by Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The Dark Knight quickly captured America’s attention, and common folk went out of their way to attend the ground-breaking film. Currently, the film, which enjoyed a stint as number one on imdb.com’s list of greatest movies of all time, has grossed over $489 million. With this staggering figure, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knighthas become the highest earning film of all time. It stands as the crown jewel in summer 2008’s movie arsenal, and also an instant classic, inducing a mass fervor in movie-goers that seems somewhat unprecedented.

The Caped Crusader was not the only hero making his mark on the movie scene this summer. Swinging into theaters was the most anticipated Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, grossing $215 million. Will Smith’s anti-hero Hancock also piqued movie-goers’ interest, and enjoyed total earnings over $200 million. The screen version of comic book classic Iron Man grossed $106 million in its opening weekend. Comic book fans received the movie with mass approval. Movie attendance during the weekend of May 2 sky-rocketed as a result of its release. Along with Iron Man’s success came the resurgence of Robert Downey, Jr.’s career after being marred by personal issues in the passed few years.

Downey Jr. also played an essential role in another aspect of summer 2008’s success: comedies. He, along with Jack Black and Ben Stiller, starred in war-time comedy Tropic Thunder. The film has currently grossed $65.7 million, and became the first movie to relieve The Dark Knight from its duties as number one at the box office for four consecutive weeks. The Seth Rogen buddy-comedy The Pineapple Express evoked the typical sentiment of a Judd Apatow comedy, and brought in the stoner comedy crowd to a gross of over $80 million.

Both of these films also sparked up their fair amount of controversy, which perhaps added to their hype. This came for Tropic Thunder when people protested the movie for what they deemed to be bigotry, as well as an insensitive shot at the Vietnam War. Pineapple Express’ drug content was more intensely scrutinized after lead actors Seth Rogen and James Franco openly endorsed marijuana in very unorthodox ways. Most notable was the “real or not real?” debate that occurred after they seemed to smoke a joint during the MTV Video Music awards while promoting the film.

These respective controversies only seemed to fuel people’s desire to see these films.

Not much controversy seemed to shroud summer 2008’s sleeper hit, WALL-E. The adorable Disney-Pixar project not only brought in the young and old alike, but also banked over $175 million. Along with the Dark Knight, WALL-E’s success came as a result of its ability to bring in an audience of various age groups. The same could be said for the musical Mama Mia!, which did well in the box office despite opening alongside the Dark Knight juggernaut.

Summer 2008 can be called a lot of things: The Summer of the Superhero, Sleeper-hit Summer, The Summer of Variety. What it will be remembered as, though, is a summer that brought back the dying art of the blockbuster. It also rekindled America’s love affair with the movies, and raked in over $4 billion for the film industry. With money like that, it seems like there really is no business like show business.

beea1@lasalle.edu