Summer Number Ones - 2006

Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest was the biggest hit of the summer.

While in the fall a movie can fail to make money so long as it wins awards and still be considered a success, the success or failure of a summer movie is all about the box office and its opening weekend numbers. And to truly count itself a summer blockbuster, it has to not only earn its money back, but it also has to open at number one. Not that every movie that opens at number one goes on to be a blockbuster (The Hulk is a good example), but no blockbuster worth its salt fails to open there or to at least put in appearance at the top spot during its initial theatrical run.

Beyond who was number one this summer, perhaps the biggest news out of Hollywood this year is that, after a dismal summer last year, the box office returns are up. Despite so many reasons given last year as to why there was a box office downturn (noisy theaters, poor quality of movies, rising ticket prices, the ascension of new media on the Internet and television), this year managed to show an increase without changing any of those things. Prices are higher than ever, people haven't shut up in theaters, and this years movies were no better, and perhaps a bit worse, than last year's crop. This means that, unfortunately, the question remains open as to whether or not the downturn is over or if it will creep up again next year.

As usual the summer movie season began in May this year. First out of the gate was Mission Impossible III which opened at number one with $47 million, proving that Tom Cruise, despite some truly bad publicity all last year, could still open a movie. Unfortunately, despite remaining at the number one spot for a second weekend and mostly positive reviews, the movie never managed to recoup its production cost of $150 million domestically. If you include worldwide box office receipts, it more than recouped its cost though, taking in a total of almost $400 million worldwide.

The widely anticipated adaptation of Dan Browns bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, was the summers next number one movie, opening with $77 million. Savaged by critics and purist fans of the novel, it still proved quite successful at the box office. Its domestic box office was $217 million, far ahead of its $125 million budget, and when added to its foreign number of $535 million, proved to be phenomenal.

Next up was the X-men: The Last Stand, which took the number one spot with $102 million, which turned out to be almost half of what it would take in domestically all together. The movie received lukewarm reviews from critics and fans alike. And thanks to its inexplicably high budget of $210 million, barely recouped its cost here in the USA, but bolstered by its overseas release, would eventually take in $441 million. And it remained popular enough to remain at the number two spot for a second weekend.

Knocking the mutants off of the top spot is the summer's anomaly among the number one movies; The Break-Up, which opened with $39 million. What makes this movie standout is the fact that it's a romantic comedy that doesn't feature explosions, super-heroes or talking cars. Of course, what it did have was its two stars, Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn who had both been receiving a lot of press over the rumored romance. The one thing it didn't have was good reviews, but this didn't stop if from going on to take in almost $200 million worldwide, which isn't bad considering that it cost (again inexplicably) $52 million to make.

Roaring into number one on June 9th and chasing Jen and Vaughn out after just one week at the top spot, was Pixar Animation's latest, Cars. As we've come to expect from Pixar, Cars earned general praise from one and all, with only a few rumblings that this was perhaps their weakest film so far. Either way, it still took in an impressive domestic $242 million coupled with another $172 million overseas. It was also the third movie of the summer to keep the top spot for two weeks.

Squeaking in between the blockbusters came Adam Sandler's Click, which opened at number one with $40 million. Proving that Sandler is more of a homegrown taste, the movie took in a worldwide total of $172 million, but only $35 million came from overseas.

Thanks to yet another ridiculously high budget, Superman Returns, which cost a reported $270 million to make, opened big, but never had a chance in the world of recouping its cost domestically. It wound up making only $196 million here in the US. Although it was not as well received critically as it makers had hoped, even if it had been hailed as the greatest movie of all time, it would have been very lucky to have remade that cost. Only 30 movies in history have ever earned more than this movie cost to make. Fortunately for the studio though, it did manage to bring in an additional $181 million overseas and so was able to earn an eventual profit.

July 7th saw the release of the summer's biggest hit; Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It opened with $135 million and would go on to take in a whopping $416 million domestically (putting it at number six on the all time list already) and also bring in $587 million overseas, bringing its box office total to over $1 billion. It went on to hold the top spot for three straight weeks, the only movie of the summer to hang on that long as number one.

Miami Vice, which followed Pirates as the number one movie, has the distinction of being the only movie of the summer to open at number one and then fail to recoup its losses even when taking into account its overseas box office. Costing $135 million to make and market, it only took in $62 million here and $63 million from the rest of the world. Fittingly, it only held the top spot for one week.

The much hyped Snakes on a Plane slithered into first place during its opening weekend.

Yet another comedy owned the top spot for a couple of weeks, when Will Ferrell's Talladega Nights opened at number one with $47 million. It would go on to become Ferrell's second biggest hit, behind only Elf, with a total of $142 million. Its overseas box office would only be a paltry $642 thousand at the time of this writing.

The much hyped Snakes on Plane slithered into the number one spot for one week with the smallest opening of the summer, taking in a mere $13 million during its opening weekend. Despite its disappointing numbers, it has already earned its money back, thanks to its low budget of $33 million. So far its worldwide total stands at $46 million.

And rounding out the summer and acting as a nice lead-in to fall, is the football themed Invincible. With a $17 million opening weekend it won't likely have blockbuster status, but it did manage to hold on to the top spot for two straight weeks and has taken in $45 million so far.

With that, another summer at the movies has come and gone. As usual there were winners and losers, failures and successes. And as usual, I look forward to next summer and its crop of summer blockbusters. For now we can all settle back and start thinking about the Oscars as the first wave of contenders begins creeping into theaters.