Ahna O'Reilly (seated at left), Viola Davis (standing), Bryce Dallas Howard (seated at center) and Emma Stone appear in The Help
(2 of 3)
The Sums of Summer
May-August revenue for North American theaters was at an all-time high: $4.38 billion, according to Hollywood.com's Paul Dergarabedian, or 1% above last summer. The increase in ticket prices and the surcharge for 3-D movies overcame another dip in attendance; the 543 million tickets sold were the fewest since summer 1997. Still, the take for the past four months was a bonanza compared with early 2011, when business toppled 20% from the same period the year before. No film released in the first 16 weeks of the year earned as much as $40 million its opening weekend. The biggest grossers of that dour season, Rio at $143.6 million and Rango at $123.3 million, did not make as much money as any of the summer's 10 highest grossers — the first time since 1998 that no picture from the first four months of the year could have cracked the top tier of summer hits.
Then, on April 29, the carmageddon trash classic Fast Five picked up $86.2 million in its first three days, and "summer," as Hollywood defines the peak season of moviegoing, was off to the races. Marvel continued its near endless prequel runoff to next summer's The Avengers with the medium-high hits Thor and Captain America and got reasonable returns from X-Men: First Class — about $25 million below X-Men Origins: Wolverine but also with art-house dishes Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy instead of gilt-edged movie star Hugh Jackman. R-rated comedies abounded: The Hangover Part II beat the original by $23 million, and the out-of-nowhere Bridesmaids proved that girls can both gross out and, in revenue, outgross most of the guys. And they cost less too: Bridesmaids' budget was just $32.5 million, meaning everyone connected with the film got to party hardy. Hollywood could celebrate as well — though with Champale, not champagne. The movies' mini-recession is easing: domestic revenue for 2011 is now just 4% below last year's at the same time.
The not-so-secret message to the studios is: hitch your wagon to an action or comedy franchise, not to a star. The star-driven vehicle, which sustained the movie business for a century, is deader than Newt Gingrich's presidential prospects. Jim Carrey (Mr. Popper's Penguins, $67.5 million) was a star but no longer is. The combined firepower of Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford got patrons to cough up less than $100 million domestic for Cowboys & Aliens, which flopped overseas — bad news for a movie that cost $163 million to produce. No, it's sequels and prequels that earn the big coin: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, one of only two smashes released in August, will overtake Kung Fu Panda 2 for 10th place on the summer top 10 before next weekend.
And you can bet that by year's end, The Help (the other August hit) will have earned at least $160 million. It's one of those rare "little" films, like My Big Fat Greek Wedding or The Blind Side, whose viral word of mouth creates a blockbuster. In that same category, if on a smaller scale, is Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen's biggest hit ever in inflated dollars, with $52.7 million so far (but, in real dollars, still far below his '70s films Annie Hall and Manhattan). Here's an oddity, considering that Midnight in Paris is the director's love letter to French and European culture: it's his first film since Small Time Crooks 11 years ago to earn less money abroad than in the domestic market. It was also the only so-called indie picture released since May to make inroads with mainstream audiences. Far behind Midnight was Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, with about $13 million. The Debt earned more than that in its first six days.
Here are the big 10 of summer in North American theaters, as of last weekend, as reported by Box Office Mojo:
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, $374.6 million
2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon, $350.3 million
3. The Hangover Part II, $254.3 million
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, $240.5 million
5. Fast Five, $209.8 million
6. Cars 2, $189.1 million
7. Thor, $181 million
8. Captain America: The First Avenger, $171.5 million
9. Bridesmaids, $168.5 million
10. Kung Fu Panda 2, $164.7 million