Well, the summer box office season has almost come to a close, with Labor Day weekend just around the corner. So naturally it is time to look back at the season that was. 2010 was a summer of highs and lows, from a depressing May to a record-breaking July, and like any summer had its share of hits, flops, surprises and disappointments. We saw franchise highs and lows, but like always a yearn for originality prevailed amongst the proven properties. So sit back, relax, and read up. And feel free to respond or make your own recaps.

MAY
May started off with the highly anticipated superhero sequel Iron Man 2, and in both the industry and here on WOKJ expectations were astronomical. IM1 acted like a Transformers, overperforming as it was loved by its audience. Tracking pointed to the film approaching or beating The Dark Knight's 158.4 million opening weekend, and predictions followed suit. However, the film performed below those expectations, scoring a 128.1m OW, about 30% higher than IM1's opening.. While the fifth highest grossing weekend of all time is nothing to be ashamed of- as is its 312m currest domestic total and 627m WW total- it was puzzling to BO followers, as Batman and Transformers set the bar for hugely-expanding sequels following well-loved first installments. Was it the marketing, which placed it as just another romp with Iron Man? Was it like Spider-Man, that the first one overperformed so much that a sequel just couldn't top it? Or in the case of legs, was it due to the quality of the film itself? IM should still place as one of the biggest movies of the year, but the potential was there for it to go higher.

Following the man in the iron mask, Ridley Scott's Robin Hood managed to steal 36.1 million on its opening weekend, and finished with 105.3m domestic and 310.6m worldwide. While far from the box office take of the last Scott/Crowe epic, RH still performed respectfully as it met most expectations, though its 200m budget doesn't give Universal a break from an already lousy year.

Shrek Forever After, in the heels of the last ogre pic's poor reception, opened to only 70.8m despite the inflated prices of 3D and IMAX 3D tickets. That's far from the 121.6m Shrek the Third opened to. Franchise fatigue had settled in for the animated film, as marleting was unfavorable and it wasn't even the most anticipated CGI franchise finale of the summer. Moderate legs and nice overseas returns pushed it to 237m domestically and nearly 700m WW, so not all is lost for the ogre tale.

The month of disappointments continued over the Memorial Day holiday with two desert-set duds. Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer released their SFX actioner Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, in the hopes that the video game adaptation would see some of the success their Pirates franchise has had over the past decade. But that was not to be, as a 90m domestic run and 328m WW showed audiences didn't care much for the expensive tentpole. And despite a rabid fanbase, New Line's Sex and the City 2 fizzled to 95m domestically and 290m WW, more than a third off of the last flick continuing the hit TV show. For the first time in 15 years, no Memorial Day release could manage to join the century club. Message to Hollywood- remember to always make your tentpoles films that people will want to see.

JUNE

The first weekend of June didn't do much to upstart a summer that, so far, was rather depressing. Four releases were dumped between tentpole weekends, including the Russell Brand/Jonah Hill FSM spinoff Get Him to the Greek. The positively reviewed film positioned itself as the sole R rated comedy of the summer, and took in a respectable 17.6m on opening weekend, in route to a 61m domestic total and 83.3m worldwide, ranking on the low side of mid-tier Aptow films (Role Models, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I Love You Man, etc).

The critically panned Katherine Heigl/Ashton Kutcher action rom-com Killers opened to 15.8m, mediocre compared to the slates of both stars, though it could have to do with the fact that it looked so unbearable. It finished with 47.1m here and 83.9m WW, not too hot considering its 75m budget.

Fox released their talking animal pic Marmaduke, based on the comic strip of the same name, which turned out to be a dog (no pun intended)- the 50m flick took in 33.4m DOM and 69.4m WW, far from the Garfield or Beverly Hills Chihuahua returns it hoped to see. Meanwhile, the Sundance sci-fi/horror pic Splice flopped with mainstream audiences, taking in 23.6m worldwide off of a 30m budget.

The following weekend brought some life back into the market, as Sony unleashed The Karate Kid, which exploded with a sensational 55.7m opening weekend. The Jackie Chan/Jaden Smith remake struck a chord with all four demographics, and marketing was fresh compared to the rehash fare the summer had mostly consisted of thus far. Though it wasn't the Blind Side run some expected it to have (though that was expecting too much, in my opinion), legs were still solid, and it kicked in 175m domestically and nearly 300m worldwide off of a mere 40m budget. Expect this one to see plenty of sequels, just like the original had.

Another 80s remake didn't fare as well this weekend, as Fox's The A-Team made 25.7m this weekend, after it was expected by many to take the weekend. The action flick had a solid cast with marketing equally as strong, but a 166.9m worldwide take won't put the 110m budgeted picture into the green until DVD sales kick in.

June 18th brought the most generally anticipated movie of the summer with Toy Story 3, Pixar's return to the toy box after 11 years. With glowing reviews (as always for the studio), a great marketing campaign and over a decade of anticipation, the CGI feature debuted to a very solid 110.3m opening weekend. Despite being a sequel, the standard excellent Pixar legs kicked in, pushing TS3 over the quad-century mark to a current total of 403.8m (the biggest of the year thus far), and there's still about 5-7m left in the tank. Even with inflated IMAX 3D and 3D prices, the film sold over 47m tickets domestically (source = Box Office Guru), which admissions-wise would put it 10% above TS1 and squarely in TS2 territory. Though it didn't reach the gargantuan expectations some had for its domestic total, TS3 indisputably had a very successful run.

The same weekend saw a film on the polar opposite of the success spectrum- Jonah Hex, release by WB and starring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox, utterly failed in its theatrical run, opening to 5.4m and finishing its 8-week run with 10.5m (with an overseas gross of 312k). Budgeted for 47m, the film is a strong contender for the biggest bomb of the summer.

June 23rd brought the Tom Cruise / Cameron Diaz action vehicle Knight & Day stumbled a bit, as it opened to 27.4m over its first five days, and is currently standing at a 75.7m domestic total and 222m WW. Early marketing that included at trailer attached to Avatar showed a promising future, but the ad campaign seemed to slow down for some reason right before its release. One couldn't help but wonder how much better the film could have performed 15 years ago, when both of these actors were in their BO prime.

After underperforming with Zohan and bombing with Apatow's Funny People, Adam Sandler returned to big success with Grown-Ups, an ensemble comedy additionally starring Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider. The 80m film took in 40.5m over its opening weekend, but later it capitalized on the lack of comedy opening over the next month and legs took it to a smashing 159m total (218m WW), ranking with Sandler's highest grossing films, with likely a couple million more left to go.

The month closed out with The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, expectedly raking in it big on its opening, like the last Twilight did. The 68m romance, adapted from the insanely popular novels, saw an opening day of 68.5m- lower than New Moon's, and featuring nearly an even split between midnight and actual day showings, but impressive nonetheless. Legs were a tad kinder to it than they were for New Moon, and the movie (benefiting from summer weekdays) has grossed 297.1m domestically and 654m WW. Expect Summit to find some Puerto Rico money and push this baby over the triple century mark.

The first day of the month brought us M. Night Shyamalamadingdong's cinematic treasure The Last Airbender, based on the popular Nickelodeon anime. Despite being critically slaughtered- and that's an understatement- the 150m 3D-converted SFX actioner opened to a very solid 69.3 million over the 5-day Independence Day holiday weekend. Expectedly, the movie faded fast from the market and has limped to the 130m mark, with maybe a couple million left in its run. As a 280m overall investment grossing 222m worldwide, coupled with the toxic word of mouth, don't expect Paramount to be franchising this one.

The next weekend saw the opening of Despicable Me, Universal's first go at a CGI feature. Featuring the voice of Steve Carell as the lead, the distributor had been marketing the film since last summer, with the most recent ads featuring little yellow minions wreaking havoc. DM exploded on the scene with an outstanding 56.4m opening, with only 45% of its ticket sales coming from 3D presentations. The film has gone on to have sensational staypower, with 231.1m domestically so far, and it should finish in the 245m range. In my opinion, Despicable Me has had the most impressive performance of the summer. There were plenty of people expecting 9 digit figures, but to not come from an established animation studio like Pixar, Blue Sky or Dreamworks, and to open just three weeks after one of the biggest animated movies of the decade, the fact that it will beat Shrek 4 is astounding. Produced for 69m, the current worldwide cume is just below 300m, as it continues to open in foreign markets.

Produced by Robert Rodriguez, yet another Predator reboot opened this weekend, and as expected the franchise's fanbase showed up opening weekend, to the tune of a 24.8m opening. Unfortunately, meh-ish word of mouth and Inception cut it to pieces, and it barely doubled its opening weekend in its domestic run. Though a small 40m budget and a 115m worldwide total should make this effort successful... and it should lead to a billion more reboots/sequels.

Also opening this weekend in 7 theaters was the indie comedy The Kids Are All Right, and its opening was more than all right- a $70,000 PTA showed promise to successful expansions ahead. Currently sitting at about 18.3m, Kids expanded weaker than other Fox Searchlight summer comedies like (500) Days of Summer or Little Miss Sunshine, but to be fair, TKAA was less universal than those two. Still, it was the only indie to make a real splash this summer (sorry Cyrus).

The following weekend, Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated Inception arrived following fantastic reviews, a mysterious marketing campaign, and a ton of hype. His follow-up to the record-breaking Dark Knight, the 160m Inception's box office potential was questioned, as the director's non-Batman films had yet to be commercially successful, and this one sounded more like those than the Bat. But it broke the suspicion with a very nice 62.8m opening, and the mere 11% Sunday drop proved that this would break the traditional sci-fi or action trend and not be frontloaded. And that turned out to be true- the film is looking at a 280m+ finish domestically, and 700m+ WW. As a completely original, two and a half hour, complex, deeply layered film with not much 4-quad appeal, this is an excellent result. Warner Brothers is likely treating Chris like a god, particularly with Batman 3 on the way.

Two days earlier, Disney and Bruckheimer tried their luck again with the 150m budgeted The Sorcerer's Apprentice, based on the old Fantasia short. Unfortunately, it barely made its entire budget in its worldwide total. Doesn't look like Disney will be giving Bruckheimer any more blank checks.

A week later, Sony's Angelina Jolie action pic Salt opened, and proved that the actress is still a draw when she does what the people want- the 110m budget thriller has followed a 36m opening to a total currently standing at 110m both domestically and overseas. The 15m kids adaptation Ramona and Beezus, starring Selma Gomez, opened to 7.8 million and its total is just under 25m at the moment. No blockbuster, but it gave its audience what it wanted, no?

Paramount unleashed its comedy Dinner for Schmucks the following frame. Directed by Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents) and starring Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, the mediocre-reviewed remake of the French comedy Le Diner de Cons opened to a solid 23.5m, but later got rolled over by The Other Guys and will probably end its run around 75m (right now, it's 10m short). In hindsight, it may have been a better idea to move the 69m release out of the summer (as it was trapped between Inception and TOG), as films like these tend to do well any time of the year.

Universal's drama/romance Charlie Saint Cloud, starring Zac Efron of High School Musical fame, sits at about 30m after a 12.8m opening, since its holds took a turn for the horrendous thanks to weak WOM and an onslaught of titles going after similar demos.

For some reason, Warner Bros waited 9 years to release a sequel to their modestly successful Cats & Dogs, this one taking the subtitle The Revenge of Kitty Galore. Unfortunately for them, it looked terrible and hardly anyone saw it. The 3D release is looking at about a 45m finish (and maybe 100m worldwide), simply awful given the rumored 150 million budget.

Part 4 is coming soon.