Summer Summation 2005

One of the biggest hits of the year, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

What does the first big hit of the 2005 summer movie season have in common with one of the last? The first big hit was Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and The 40 Year-Old Virgin, one of the last, describes some of Star Wars most die-hard fans. Of course, what they also have in common is that they both made a profit. And in this summer with the lowest movie attendance in 8 years, that’s truly saying something.

Despite the whimpers that came later, the summer did get off with a bang this year with the opening of Revenge of the Sith. It took in well over $100 million during its opening weekend (the best weekend for a movie of the summer), and another $55 million during its second (the fifth best weekend for a movie). Eventually it would go on to take in nearly $380 million and become the seventh highest grossing film of all time. Although, with its May 19th opening, summer did get off to a late start this year.

Although the overall box office never managed to consistently keep pace with years past, there were other substantial hits. Joining Sith on the All-Time top 100 List were War of the Worlds (44th with $244 million), Batman Begins (59th with $203 million), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (62nd with $199 million), Madagascar (67th with $190 million), Wedding Crashers (69th with $190 million) and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (75th with $183 million). In fact, despite making less money than last year, the seven movies added to the top 100 in summer 2005, beats the 5 movies that were added last summer (Shrek 2, Spider-man 2, Prisoner of Azkaban, Day after Tomorrow and The Bourne Supremacy).

It wasn’t all roses however, as a few big movies proved. Cinderella Man, a prestige picture that opened over the summer, only managed $61 million in total, with a budget of $88 million. Of course if it wins awards, the filmmakers might consider it still a winner. Bewitched failed to cast a spell when it opened. It took in $62 million in total, against a budget of $85 million. Stealth lived up to its name, passing in and out of theaters without anyone’s knowledge, making a weak $31 million. And the biggest (or at least the loudest) flop of the summer turned out to be Michael Bay’s The Island, which only took in $35 million domestically, but managed to more than recoup its losses overseas, where it did 3 times as much business.

And of course there were a few surprises this year. The year’s dark horse turned out to be March of the Penguins, a documentary that has grossed over $60 million to date and still climbing. Although it was technically released before the summer season started, Crash would linger through the humid months, keeping theater cash registers ringing to the tune of $53 million, making a hefty profit based on its $6 million budget, and proving to Cinderella Man that not all Oscar contenders fail at this time of year. Herbie: Fully Loaded also had legs, bucking the box office trend by starting slow and working its way to a profit based on surprisingly good reviews.

As a last irony, the box office for Labor Day weekend, summer's last official weekend, actually topped last year's take thanks to the strong opening of The Transporter 2. That helped the weekend to surpass last year by 16%, bucking the trend which left the summer overall, down 9% compared to 2004.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of looking back over the summer is discovering how many good movies there were. There has been a lot of finger pointing back and forth between movie theaters and the movie studios over why attendance and the box office was down this year. I don’t think it’s fair to blame the quality of the films. They might not have all been perfect, but there was a lot more treasure than there was trash to be found lying in this summer’s movie sun.