Hollywood’s summer at the box office isn’t just missing nearly 20 percent of last summer’s revenue. It’s lacking swagger.
Summer is the season for mega-budget, chest-thumping, globe-trotting monstrosities — films so big they lure droves of Americans with heavily promoted promises of shock and awe. But this season’s blockbuster output has been low on summer’s stock in trade: bigness.
Two months into the summer, there haven’t been any $300 million grossers at the North American box office. The only movie to surpass $100 million in its weekend debut was “Transformers: Age of Extinction,” and it did so by such a small smidge that some box-office watchers claimed it was artificially inflated. The Fourth of July, the customary launching pad for some of Hollywood’s flashiest fireworks, was the worst July 4 weekend in a decade.
“The first half of the year was extremely strong, as was last year,” says Dan Fellman, domestic distribution head for Warner Bros. “Then all of a sudden, it turned the other way.”
Since kicking off in May, the summer box office has totaled $2.25 billion, a 19.3 percent downturn from last summer. Propelled by hit sequels such as “Iron Man 3” and “Despicable Me 2,” last year was a record summer, despite a series of high-profile bombs such as “The Lone Ranger” and “After Earth.”
But when you bet big, you can also win big. While Hollywood’s summer has featured no shortage of major blockbusters, it has in some ways been more content to hit a double than swing for the fences. This summer’s box office has been dragged down not so much by flops than by a slate of more modestly ambitious movies.
The only major new July 4 release was the Melissa McCarthy comedy “Tammy,” made for just $20 million. (It debuted with a lackluster $21.6 million.) One of the season’s biggest sensations, “The Fault in Our Stars,” was a niche-based hit that appealed to the ardent fans of John Green’s young-adult book. A whopping 82 percent of its $48 million opening weekend was female.
These movies will likely all be quite profitable for their studios due to their cost-conscious budgets.
Many of the blockbusters have seen revenue tumble after the first weekend. Paramount’s “Transformers” nosedived 63 percent in its second weekend. “X-Men: Days of Future Past” opened big with $90.8 million but slid 64 percent the following week. “Godzilla” bowed with $93.2 million only to drop 67 percent.
Large declines aren’t uncommon in the blockbuster business, where so much of the marketing push is for opening weekend. But such steep fall-offs contribute to anxiety over the ability of movies to capture and hold the attention of moviegoers.
DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon 2” was set up to be the big animated option of the summer following the popularity of the Oscar-nominated original. But it has seen an oddly muted reception, thus far totaling $141.7 million domestically, well below the $368 million domestic haul of “Despicable Me 2.”
Overseas, star power and spectacle often go further. Angelina Jolie and Disney’s “Maleficent” has brought in $416 million internationally, while Tom Cruise and “Edge of Tomorrow” has nearly tripled its domestic total ($91.4 million) abroad ($248.6 million).
“We’re in a global business today and if we lose a little ground in the domestic marketplace, we can pick it up internationally,” says Fellman.
