Back in May I predicted which summer flicks would reign supreme at the box office, and as usual, the box office proved to be unpredictable! That elusive #1 spot slipped by me again! Who knew it would be cartoon fish that would dethrone a superhero all-star bash? Here are some of my quick observations of this year's season, in convenient bullet-point form, followed by the results:
- (Slow clap for Finding Dory). Finding Dory was a smash success, becoming the single highest domestic opening weekend for an animated film ever, beating out other sequels like Toy Story 3 and Minions. While I enjoyed Dory, I really wish Pixar would focus more on original ideas though; unfortunately three of the four upcoming films from the studio will be sequels (Cars 3, Toy Story 4, and Incredibles 2).
- In not-so-great Disney news: considering the first Alice in Wonderland literally made a BILLION dollars for Disney (I can picture the CEO holding his pinky to his lip and laughing maniacally), it was a little surprising that the sequel was a flat out bomb. Working against it was X-Men: Apocalypse released on the same day, and also the first's "fad" success came in the wake of the post-Avatar 3D craze of 2010.
- The domestic box office numbers are mattering less and less. Warcraft could be considered a "bomb" if only considering its US intake, but it was a MASSIVE hit in China, which will inevitably lead to a sequel. The same thing happened with Pacific Rim a few years ago. Prepare yourself for lots more big budget movies pandering to Chinese audiences.
- While Ghostbusters didn't outright bomb, it remains a giant question mark whether or not its middling release will inspire the franchise to continue. I hope so!
- The only two other things that surprised me this year was the lack of momentum for Independence Day 2 (by the time fourth of July came around no one even cared anymore), and the surprising legs on Legend of Tarzan, which I thought would easily get lost in the shuffle and/or die from bad word-of-mouth, but managed to stay in the "top 5" for a while.
Points System:
- 13 points for getting 1 or 10 exactly correct
- 10 points for getting 2-9 exactly correct
- 7 points if movie was one spot away
- 5 points if movie was two spots away
- 3 points if movie was anywhere the top ten
- 1 point for each dark horse (pick three)
| Actual (Domestic): 1. Finding Dory - $479.7 million 2. Captain America: Civil War - $407.8 million 3. The Secret Life of Pets - $354.2 million 4. Suicide Squad - $285.4 million 5. X-Men: Apocalypse - $155.4 million 6. Star Trek Beyond - $151.3 million 7. Jason Bourne - $150.2 million 8. Central Intelligence - $127.4 million 9. The Legend of Tarzan - $125.9 million 10. Ghostbusters - $125 million | My Predictions: 1. Captain America: Civil War +7 2. Suicide Squad +5 3. Finding Dory +5 4. X-Men: Apocalypse +7 5. The Secret Life of Pets +5 6. Ghostbusters +3 7. Jason Bourne +10 8. Central Intelligence +10 9. Independence Day: Resurgence 10. Star Trek Beyond +3 |
Dark Horses:
Alice: Through the Looking Glass
TMNT: Out of the Shadows
Warcraft
TOTAL: 55
Overall, I think I made out all right with my predictions - I hope next summer the movies themselves are a bit better though... Maybe by then DC will have its act together!
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