Summer 2013 Domestic Box-Office

Here's a final look at the domestic box-office numbers from Summer 2013.

1. Iron Man 3 - $409.01 million
2. Despicable Me 2 - $364.78
3. Man of Steel - $291.05
4. Monsters University - $267.84
5. Fast & Furious 6 - $238.68
6. Star Trek into Darkness - $228.78
7. World War Z - $202.36
8. The Heat - $159.48
9. We're the Millers - $149.22
10. The Great Gatsby - $144.84
11. The Conjuring - $137.4
12. Grown Ups 2 - $133.32
13. The Wolverine - $132.28
14. Now You See Me - $117.72
15. Lee Daniels' The Butler - $115.07
16. The Hangover III - $112.2
17. Epic - $107.52
18. Pacific Rim - $101.8
19. This Is the End - $101.47
20. Elysium - $92.53

21. Planes - $89.33
22. The Lone Ranger - $89.3
23. Turbo - $82.75
24. 2 Guns - $75.61
25. White House Down - $73.1
26. The Smurfs 2 - $70.78
27. Percy Jackson : Sea of Monsters - $67.35
28. The Purge - $64.47
29. After Earth - $60.52
30. Red 2 - $53.26

31. The Internship - $44.67
32. Instructions Not Included - $44.14

Total Bombs:
RIPD - $33.62
The Mortal Instruments - $31.17
Kick-Ass 2 - $28.8
Jobs - $16.13
Getaway - $10.5
Peeples - $9.18
Paranoia - $7.39

Indie Success:
Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain - $32.24
Blue Jasmine - $32.21

Low-Budget, Didn't Break Out:
One D1rection: This Is Us - $28.87
The World's End - $25.96
The Way Way Back - $21.48
You're Next - $18.49
Fruitvale Station - $16.1
The Spectacular Now - $6.83
The Grandmaster - $6.59
The Bling Ring - $5.85

This is the first the 7th-highest grossing film of summer still crossed the $200 million mark, and the first time the 19th-highest grossing film crossed the $100 million mark.  Wealth was spread.

For my own guesses, I though Man of Steel would outdo Iron Man 3 (til I saw MoS's reviews), I overestimated Hangover III, Epic, Smurfs 2, and After Earth; I underestimated Despicable Me 2, The Wolverine, World War Z, Grown Ups 2, The Great Gatsby, Now You See Me, The Conjuring, Planes and This Is the End; I had Monsters U and Star Trek 2 switched; and I was about right on the rest.

I think World War Z and Pacific Rim showed that even if it costs a few million more, it's better to have Brad Pitt than Charlie Hunnam.

Per studio -

DISNEY - Iron Man 3, Monsters University, Planes, The Lone Ranger

The stand-out disappointment was The Lone Ranger, which is actually better than a couple of the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, but the marketing came into focus too late, and the movie couldn't recover from its central problem of acting embarrassed by the squareness of its lead character.  Disney's ended its deal with mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer this year, and this flopping did not make Disney regret their decision. Meanwhile they're going to make out like kings with their Marvel deal.

UNIVERSAL - Despicable Me 2, Fast & Furious 6, 2 Guns, The Purge, RIPD, Kick-Ass 2

DM2 and F&F6 saved their summer.  2 Guns wound up being a break-even project with Denzel and Mark. The Purge was a nice cheapie that made quick bucks.  RIPD was an expensive failure for them; they lost at least $150 million on it when all is said and done.  KA2 was its own failure, unaided by bad reviews and co-star Jim Carrey condemning it months before it opened.

WARNER BROS - Man of Steel, We're the Millers, The Great Gatsby, The Conjuring, The Hangover III, Pacific Rim, Getaway

They threw a lot of things at the wall this summer. The delay of Great Gatsby from December 2012 to summer wound up being a smart move.  Man of Steel made enough, and the semi-sequel Batman vs. Superman should make more, even if it's Ben Affleck taking over Dark Knight duties from Christian Bale. We're the Millers and The Conjuring were low-risk high-reward projects. Pacific Rim might break even someday thanks to its success overseas.  Hangover III made its money, and thank goodness not enough to get the band back together again. Getaway was a tax write-off.

PARAMOUNT - Star Trek into Darkness, World War Z

They've been putting out fewer films per year, and it seems to be a sound plan. They've also found success in the spring (Hansel & Gretel, GI Joe 2, Pain & Gain) and fall (Jackass Presents Bad Grandpa).

FOX - The Heat, The Wolverine, Epic, Turbo, Percy Jackson 2, The Internship

The Heat was big, The Wolverine was big.  Two animated films, neither of which took the world by storm, but Epic's already experienced a lot of success in PPV/DVD sales. Percy Jackson 2 was a risk to try to rejuvenate a potential franchise but it just doesn't look like it's going to happen.

SONY - Grown Ups 2, This Is the End, The Smurfs 2, After Earth

Hard to make a Will Smith movie bomb, but if you pair him with M. Night Shyamalan and give his kid the larger role, well, that's how you do it.  Sony found more success with the Sandler formula and the Rogen formula, not to mention Smurfs 2 made enough overseas to justify Smurfs 3.  in fact, Smurfs is one of those franchises made with overseas in mind over domestic.

LIONSGATE - Now You See Me, Red 2, Instructions Not Included, Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, You're Next, Peeples

Lionsgate's working its way up.  Red 2 may have disappointed, but when you look at budgets, NYSM, INI and KH:LME were all successful. You're Next didn't make its budget back, but I predict cult status on DVD for it.

The rest:
WEINSTEIN - The Butler, Fruitvale Station, The Grandmaster
TRISTAR - Elysium, One D1rection: This Is Us
SONY PICTURES CLASSIC - Blue Jasmine, Before Midnight
SCREEN GEMS - The Mortal Instruments,
FOCUS - The World's End, Closed Circuit
FOX SEARCHLIGHT - The Way Way Back
OPEN ROAD - Jobs
RELATIVITY - Paranoia
A24 - The Spectacular Now, The Bling Ring

Worldwide Box Office Grosses for 2013

So far...

1. Iron Man 3 - $1.215 billion
2. Despicable Me 2 - $911.8 million
3. Fast & Furious 6 - $788.7 million
4. Monsters University - $742.9 million
5. Man of Steel - $662.8 million
6. The Croods - $587.2 million
7. World War Z - $540 million
8. Oz the Great and Powerful - $493.3 million
9. Star Trek Into Darkness - $467.4 million
10. Gravity - $426.4 million
11. The Wolverine - $413.5 million
12. Pacific Rim - $407.6 million
13. GI Joe: Retaliation - $375.7 million
14. Now You See Me - $351.7 million
15. The Hangover III - $351 million
16. The Great Gatsby - $348.8 million
17. The Smurfs 2 - $344.2 million
18. The Conjuring - $313.6 million
19. A Good Day to Die Hard - $304.7 million
20. Oblivion - $286.2 million

Sequel, sequel, sequel, sequel, franchise, animation, original, franchise, sequel, original.

Sequel, original, sequel, original, sequel, original, sequel, original, sequel, original.

Those are the movies that fund the rest of the film industry.  

Conjuring wins weekend

1. The Conjuring - $41.53 million - 1 wk (WB)
 . . . 2903 screens / $14,306 per screen
2. Despicable Me 2 - $25.06 ($276.16) - 3 wks (U) -42.9%
 . . . 3820 / $6560
3. Turbo - $21.5 ($31.2) - 1 wk (Fox)
 . . . 3806 / $5649
4. Grown Ups 2 - $20 ($79.5) - 2 wks (Sony) -51.8%
 . . . 3491 / $5729
5. Red 2 - $18.5 - 1 wk (LG)
 . . . 3016 / $6134
6. Pacific Rim - $15.96 ($68.24) - 2 wks (WB) -57.2%
 . . . 3285 / $4857
7. RIPD - $12.76 - 1 wk (U)
 . . . 2852 / $4475
8. The Heat - $9.33 ($129.29) - 4 wks (Fox) -33.4%
 . . . 2689 / $3468
9. World War Z - $5.2 ($186.94) - 5 wks (Par) -44.2%
 . . . 2066 / $2517
10. Monsters University - $5 ($249) - 5 wks (BV) -52.9%
 . . . 2186 / $2290
11. The Lone Ranger - $4.26 ($81.17) - 3 wks (BV) -63%
 . . . 2273 / $1874
12. White House Down - $2.4 ($68.45) - 4 wks (Sony) -61.1%
 . . . 1454 / $1651
13. The Way Way Back - $2.24 ($4.63) - 3 wks (FS) +99.7%
 . . . 304 / $7368
14. Kevin Hart Let Me Explain - $2.1 ($30.01) - 3 wks (LG) -55.8%
 . . . 748 / $2807
15. Man of Steel - $1.84 ($285.02) - 6 wks (WB) -61%
 . . . 1050 / $1752
16. This Is the End - $1.23 ($94.48) - 6 wks (Sony) -57%
 . . . 622 / $1969
17. Fruitvale Station - $.74 ($1.33) - 2 wks (Wein) +92.1%
 . . . 34 / $21,824

The Conjuring had one of the highest debuts ever for an R-rated original horror flick.  It also had the smallest production budget ($20 million) of any of the new releases.  Turbo is a big disappointment for DreamWorks Animation, so between that and Blue Sky's Epic, Fox had two underperforming animated releases. (Epic, at least, managed to cross the $100 million mark and will be ultimately be profitable once it hits DVD.)

Red 2 opened a little lower than the original. Maybe it should have picked a less crowded weekend.  R.I.P.D. is D.O.A. (har-har!).  It looked like a Men in Black ripoff at first glance, and it's had terrible reviews.

Despicable Me 2 will be the second-highest grossing film of the summer.  Thanksgiving 2014 is when we'll get the Minions movie, and I'm sure DM3 will hit Summer 2016.  Grown Ups 2 justifies Adam Sandler's lack of effort in his last few movies.  Pacific Rim had a worrisome dropoff for its second week.

Despicable Me 2 - Movie Review

Starring the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Miranda Cosgrove, Russell Brand, Steve Coogan, Ken Jeung and Nasim Pedrad.
Directed by Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud.

★★★

Maybe it's because summer is perfectly programmed to the largest common denominators, focussed-grouped and refined to such a point that we're getting what we're getting.  Maybe it's because studios have faith in what they're putting in the summer to be somewhat good, so they're not jettisoning them to January.  Maybe I appreciate the air conditioning and comfy seats.  I find myself "kinda liking" everything I see in theaters lately.

I liked the first one. It was a pleasant surprise. It was the Dr. Evil movie, but if Dr. Evil suddenly had three cute orphans dropped on his doorstep.  Gru grew in the first movie, so where does he go from here?

Part 2 is about Dr. Evil becoming Austin Powers. Now that Gru has retired from his evil ways, the Anti-Villain League wants to recruit him to work for them.  The cranky Gru thinks about it, looks at his girls, and decides this would be a good thing.

The visual work here is impressive.  The opening sequence is like any great Bond movie, with the camera swooping and racing after the action (in fact I noticed more than one nod to The Incredibles). The Minions get more screen time for the childish jokes, i.e. giggling at the name of the AVL head Silas Ramsbottom.  (They also have a drinking song, which is a highlight.) There's a lot of physical humor here worthy of Chuck Jones, and I can't help but think he was part of the inspiration in the design of a few of these characters.  El Macho has a giant upper body but short and skinny legs reminiscent of Yosemite Sam or Witch Hazel, for instance.

So yes, it's worthy family fare.

Weekend Box Office - 7/14/13

For the weekend of July 12-14.

1. Despicable Me 2 - $44.75 million ($229.24) - 2 wks (U) -46.4%
 . . . 4003 screens / $11,180 per screen
2. Grown Ups 2 - $42.5 - 1 wk (Sony)
 . . . 3491 / $12,174
3. Pacific Rim - $38.3 - 1 wk (WB)
 . . . 3275 / $11,695
4. The Heat - $14 ($112.36) - 3 wks (Fox) -43.5%
 . . . 3128 / $4476
5. The Lone Ranger - $11.14 ($71.1) - 2 wks (BV) -61.9%
 . . . 3904 / $2853
6. Monsters University - $10.62 ($237.76) - 4 wks (BV) -46.1%
 . . . 3142 / $3380
7. World War Z - $9.43 ($177.09) - 4 wks (Par) -48.8%
 . . . 3003 / $3140
8. White House Down - $6.15 ($62.96) - 3 wks (Sony) -54.4%
 . . . 2566 / $2397
9. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain - $5 ($26.38) - 2 wks (LG) -50.2%
 . . . 892 / $5605
10. Man of Steel - $4.83 ($281) - 5 wks (WB) -57.7%
 . . . 2150 / $2244
11. This is the End - $2.95 ($91.7) - 5 wks (Sony) -49.7%
 . . . 1394 / $2116
12. Now You See Me - $1.31 ($113.29) - 7 wks (LG) -54.1%
 . . . 850 / $1541

Illumination made Despicable Me 2 for half of what Pixar spent on Monsters University, and it's going to be a larger success.  I expect DM2 to wind up being the second-highest grossing movie of the summer, behind Iron Man 3.  Gru is now for Steve Carell what Shrek was for Mike Myers.

Grown Ups 2 is going to be profitable, and it just justifies Adam Sandler continuing his lazy ways that have made his movies worse and worse.

Pacific Rim had a $190 million production budget, but this is also a movie made with international sensibilities in mind first.

The Heat's continuing at a steady pace, should be able to get to the $150 million mark.

The Lone Ranger is a flop. It looks doubtful to hit $100 million domestic at this point.

Despicable Me 2 wins weekend

For the weekend of July 5-7.

1. Despicable Me 2 - $82.52 million ($142.07) - 1 wk (U)
 . . . 3997 screens / $20,645 per screen
2. The Lone Ranger - $29.43 ($48.94) - 1 wk (BV)
 . . . 3904 / $7539
3. The Heat - $25 ($86.4) - 2 wks (Fox) -36.1%
 . . . 3184 / $7852
4. Monsters University - $19.59 ($216.13) - 3 wks (BV) -57%
 . . . 3739 / $5239
5. World War Z - $18.2 ($158.76) - 3 wks (Par) -38.9%
 . . . 3316 / $5489
6. White House Down - $13.5 ($50.48) - 2 wks (Sony) -45.7%
 . . . 3222 / $4190
7. Man of Steel - $11.42 ($271.21) - 4 wks (WB) -45%
 . . . 2905 / $3929
8. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain - $10.1 - 1 wk (LG)
 . . . 876 / $11,530
9. This Is the End - $5.8 ($85.55) - 4 wks (Sony) -33.3%
 . . . 2104 / $2757
10. Now You See Me - $2.77 ($110.42) - 6 wks (LG) -50.6%
 . . . 1606 / $1725
11. Star Trek Into Darkness - $1.31 ($223.07) - 8 wks (Par) -38.5%
 . . . 565 / $2319
12. Fast & Furious 6 - $1.02 ($235.44) - 7 wks (U) -58.2%
 . . . 617 / $1660
13. The Way Way Back - $.58 - 1 wk (FS)
 . . . 19 / $30,263

Despicable Me 2 looks to easily outdo its surprise-hit predecessor and be the highest-grossing animated film of the summer.  Monsters U is doing well, but DM2 should pass it.

The Lone Ranger, meanwhile, had a $215 million production budget and looks like it will fall short of getting that domestically.  Johnny Depp has a track record of doing well overseas, so this will need a lot of help in that department if it wants to break even.