Box office: Hollywood's summer report card
The summer session at the cineplex is over and it’s time to hand out grades.
As usual, superheroes, blockbusters and familiarity did well at the box office — with Disney leading the way, courtesy of its dynamic duo of Dory the forgetful fish and Captain America — but there were unexpected hits and misses as well.
A report card for Hollywood’s last four months:
TALKING ANIMALS: A
Everybody knew Pixar was going to come strong with a sequel to the beloved Finding Nemo, and Finding Dory ($482.5 million total) was the biggest fish in an ocean of underperforming franchises and critically maligned fare. Yet chatty critters played well across the board, with the dogs and cats of The Secret Life of Pets ($359.6 million) coming in an unforeseen third for the summer and the fine feathered friends of The Angry Birds Movie ($107.5 million) flying high.
SCARE FESTS: B
The warmer months aren’t always kind to horror movies, but it was like Halloween with crowds coming in from the heat for these chillers, paced by the well-reviewed haunted-house sequel The Conjuring 2 ($102.5 million). Lights Out ($65.7 million) — made for around $5 million — is undoubtedly a hit, as is the thriller Don’t Breathe ($55 million), which has more than quintupled its $10 million budget in a mere two weeks.
COMIC-BOOK MOVIES: B-
While it lost the top spot at the summer box office to a bunch of sea creatures, Captain America: Civil War ($408 million) still proved to be another boffo hit for the Marvel brand. Suicide Squad ($300.2 million) was largely reviled by critics, but the supervillains had the last laugh by placing in summer’s top five. Also combining middling reviews and a sizable bottom line: X-Men: Apocalypse ($155.4 million).
TENTPOLE FRANCHISES: C
Some of the usual blockbuster suspects did well; others, not so much. Jason Bourne ($156.2 million) and Star Trek Beyond ($155 million) were financially viable though not memorable, while Independence Day: Resurgence ($103.1 million) was a major disappointment for fans of the 1996 original.
REBOOTED CLASSICS: D+
Despite pre-release hype, the women of Ghostbusters ($126.6 million) couldn't live up to the legacy of the 1984 original for many, and the movie failed to make much of a dent in the box office. The $180 million redo The Legend of Tarzan ($126 million), with Alexander Skarsgård as the king of the jungle, also didn’t impress crowds.
KIDS' STUFF: D-
Live-action family films were huge casualties. While Pete’s Dragon ($66.3 million) played well for critics, it never found its audience. The BFG ($54.8 million) was a passion project for Steven Spielberg, but the Roald Dahl adaptation was DOA with moviegoers. And the less said about Nine Lives ($18.4 million) — with Kevin Spacey as a cat — the better.
