Summer of 2010: A Whimper, not a Bang

The summer began in May with the release of Iron Man 2.

Sure the calendar says that summer has a month to go and it’s not even Labor Day yet, but if you look at the movies coming out in the next few weeks you can tell that as far as Hollywood is concerned, the summer is as good as gone. The remaining few weeks of the season seem to be devoid of your typical summer blockbusters, which is perhaps fitting, as this summer has felt rather low key compared to previous years. Whereas in years past there has been a different number one movie each week, this summer has seen several movies repeat as number one, supporting the idea that there just weren’t as many blockbusters in 2010.

As always, the summer movie season started in May this year with the release of Iron Man 2. Although not quite the critical or financial success of the original, it still got summer off on the right foot, opening with a very respectable $128 million and scoring 74% on Rotten Tomatoes and an average of 3.25 stars here at threemoviebuffs.com. It would go on to earn over $300 million domestically and manage to hold on to the number one spot for two weeks.

It would take a big green ogre to knock Iron Man off his perch at the top of the charts. Shrek For Ever After, the fourth installment opened with $70 million and some lukewarm reviews that tended to agree that while it was an improvement over Shrek the Third, it was probably past time that this bedtime story went to sleep. We gave it 2 stars, while at Rotten Tomatoes it ended up with 58%. Despite the tepid response, it held on to the top spot for three straight weekends and went on to earn $237 million.

Prince of Persia, Sex and the City 2 and The A-Team would all try to dethrone Shrek, but it would take a remake of the 1980s classic, The Karate Kid to chop the ogre down to size. The Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan movie opened June 11th with $55 million and solid if not enthusiastic reviews, landing at 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, but not exciting any of the buffs here enough for us to actually go and see it, and so it remains at the time of this writing, as the only number one movie of the summer not to be reviewed by us.

June 18th saw the biggest critical and financial hit of the summer with the release of Toy Story 3. The Pixar steamroller flattened all competition with a $110 million opening weekend and a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. We gave it 3.75 stars out of 4. It would hold on to the top spot for 2 straight weeks and has earned over $400 million so far.

A couple of notable flops would appear before another third installment would take over at the top when the Tom Cruise starring Knight & Day landed with a thud, only to be out done by one of the worst rated movies of the year, The Last Airbender. Knight & Day would earn just $75 million domestically, well below its production budget of $120 million, although it would recoup its losses overseas. Airbender opened with a strong $40 million, and would end up with $130 million domestically, but this too was below its production budget. It also holds the notable distinction of earning just 7% on Rotten Tomatoes and 1.5 stars here.

Earning slightly better reviews than the previous installments, Twilight: Eclipse opened in number one on the 4th of July weekend, with $64 million. It gained a 57% share on Rotten Tomatoes, and 2.25 stars from us. It would go on to earn nearly $300 million in the US.

The following week saw another animated movie top the charts with the release of Despicable Me. The Steve Carell led cartoon opened with $56 million and 79% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but just 2.25 stars from us. It would go on to earn over $200 million.

The rest of July would be dominated by Inception. The Christopher Nolan directed sci-fi thriller opened with $62 million and held on to the top spot for 3 straight weeks. It has earned nearly $250 million so far and stands at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes and 3 out 4 stars from we three movie buffs.

The first full weekend in August saw the only number one live action comedy of the summer as the Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg pairing of The Other Guys swept to the top with $35 million. Despite positive reviews (76% from Rotten Tomatoes and 3 stars from us), it would only remain at number one for a week.

The biggest hit of the summer was Pixar's Toy Story 3.

Mid-August brought The Expendables and possibly the last big summer blockbuster of the year. The Stallone led ensemble film opened with $34 million, but just so-so reviews. It currently stands at just 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, but earned 3 stars here.

While there are still a couple of weeks left in the summer, it seems strangely devoid of summer movie type movies. This coming weekend sees the opening of the low brow (but possibly fun) Piranha 3-D and the children’s film, Nanny McPhee Returns. In fact, the movie coming out in the near future that most looks like a summer movie is actually the rerelease of Avatar. Everything else looks a bit like the dreck that traditionally comes out between the end of the summer movies and the start of the fall prestige pictures.

Despite the release of a few really good movies this summer, it still feels like a fairly quiet one. Surprisingly though, so far 2010 is 4.1% ahead of 2009 in a year-to-date comparison, although that could partially be explained by the increase in ticket prices. It just doesn’t feel like there was that one or more really super huge epic summer movies that will start a slew of sequels and be marked as a generational movie that will inspire and cause nostalgia in the grown-ups of the future. But hey, like baseball, there’s always next year.