Box office heading in the right direction
NEW YORK - In the end, Hollywood made it through a precarious minefield of summer box-office bombs with a heftier wallet. The summer concluded with a record $4.7 billion in box-office revenue despite much maligned flops like "The Lone Ranger," "After Earth" and "White House Down."
The summer movie season closed out on Labor Day weekend as the boy band concert film "One Direction: This Is Us" took in an estimated $18 million from Friday to Monday for Sony Pictures, according to studio estimates Monday. That wasn't enough to unseat the Weinstein Co. historical drama "Lee Daniels' The Butler," which stayed on top for the third week with $20 million.
It was a positive note on which to end a tumultuous but profitable summer for Hollywood. More than ever before, the industry packed the summer months with big-budget blockbusters that ranged from the hugely successful "Iron Man 3" to the disastrous "The Lone Ranger." Though the movie business has always been one of hits and misses, this summer brought particular attention to some big whiffs.
Yet the box office saw a 10.2 percent increase in revenue over last summer (not accounting for inflation), with attendance rising 6.6 percent. A portion of the revenue bump could be attributed to rising ticket prices which, on average, went up 27 cents from last year.
But the plethora of major releases - a more than 50 percent increase from last year in films costing $75 million or more to make - meant moviegoers had a parade of highly-marketed, big-budget options through the early, most sought-after weeks of the summer. That meant faster blockbuster turnover that may have been better for the industry as a whole, but often came at the expense of individual films.
"It was one of the most interesting summers I've ever seen," said Paul Dergarabedian, analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "It was this mix of great news and bad news at the same time."
So what to make of a summer (which is considered to run from the first weekend in May to Labor Day) that often seemed like a weekly punch line but ended up doing robust business overall? The lessons were hard to deduce.
The biggest hit of the summer was Disney's "Iron Man 3," which made $408.6 million domestically and $1.2 billion worldwide. Disney gave some of that back, though, with Gore Verbinski's "The Lone Ranger," which took in just $88.4 million in North America despite costing more than $215 million to make. (Studios split box-office revenue in half with theater owners.)
Despite successes like Warner Bros.' "Man of Steel," Universal's "Despicable Me 2" and Paramount's "World War Z," "The Lone Ranger" became the masked face of Hollywood's summer. It was the most spectacular flop among many others, including "Turbo," "After Earth," "White House Down," "The Wolverine" and "The Hangover Part III."
John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, applauded the record summer revenue as a sign of industry strength but suggested studios are jamming too many blockbuster releases into too narrow of a summertime window.
Top 10 movies
n Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Monday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com:
1. "Lee Daniels' The Butler," $20 million.
2. "One Direction: This Is Us," $18 million.
3. "We're the Millers," $15.9 million.
4. "Planes," $10.7 million.
5. "Instructions Not Included," $10 million.
6. "Elysium," $8.3 million.
7. "Mortal Instruments," $6.8 million.
8. "The World's End," $6.1 million.
9. "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters," $6.1 million.
10. "Getaway," $5.5 million.