Summer 2013 Movie Wrap-Up

Another year, another summer full of hits, misses, and head scratchers at the cinema.  With Labor Day Weekend looming, and only the One Direction concert film, and a terrible Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez film in our way, I think it's safe to say that the summer movie season has ended.  There is one lesson that can be learned, studio executives do not think before they green light, and under estimate audiences time and time again, with banal choices that seem like failure while in pre-production.  There are a few things I observed, everyone loves Robert Downey Jr., women rule, and never under estimate the niche audience market.

May 

There is power in a successful brand, and a star.  Iron Man 3, did better than the second film, and was actually better than the film too (minus the whole Mandarin debacle).  At the moment the film is the highest grossing for the year, with 408 million domestic, and 804 in the foreign markets, that's great and proof that there is a new "man of steel" dominating the box office.

DiCaprio is also bank!  Beyond his "Oscar" films like Revolutionary Road and J. Edgar, his last 5 films have all made over 100 million dollars (domestically).  The Great Gatsby was touch and go before its release, but with smart marketing, a great soundtrack, and iconic literature as its source the film drew in people of all ages taking in 144 domestically, and 188 in foreign markets, not too shabby.

Star Trek: Into Darkness proved to not do as well as the original, but still made decent money, it could potentially be one of the more pirated movies of the year.  I think the problem with this franchise is that it's still viewed as "too geeky" and not as cool.  This theory goes with the branding concept.

The Fast and Furious brand has now seen its sixth film, and been just as successful, but I agree with American Dad, the whole series is a bit homoerotic, I am actually shocked I only watched the first one.  Look for a seventh because this franchise is unstoppable.

The surprise hit of the month, was Now You See Me, which like that engine kept chugging along week after week to make 116 million domestic and 176 in the foreign markets.  The power of word of mouth, helped this film a lot.

On to the big bombs, The Hangover III, and After Earth.  There is no rule that your film has to have a sequel if its succeeds, or that it needs to even be a trilogy.  I get the first and second Hangover films made good money, but people hated the sequel, which proved a third should not be made, listen to audiences!  Todd Phillps should take a page from Edgar Wright, and Simon Pegg.  After Earth was the first box office bomb from Will Smith since Wild Wild West, the film had poor marketing, and was just plain bad.  Sorry M. Night Shyamalan you are a one hit wonder in film. 

Of the smaller films Frances Ha (4 million), and Before Midnight (8 million) did not really catch on, but both were great films, and well reviewed.  In fact Midnight is my best reviewed film of the year, so far.

June 

The big winners for June were Man of Steel, Monsters University, World War Z, The Heat, This is the End (because of the budget), and The Purge(because of the budget).

Superman tried to return 7 years ago, and while critics gave the film a solid pass, the action packed Man of Steel did a little bit better, so it gets a sequel.  If you look at inflation the two films basically made the same domestically, but the foreign market has saved this film to live on for another day.

Pixar did it again, but they are not the best in the animated realm this year.  Monster University scored big after the 3-D re-release of the original flopped.  Was there any doubt this would do well?

World War Z was another slow and steady film, which did a lot better than expected, the book is one of the most popular within the last many years, but the film took a different approach which concerned many.  These concerns did not stop people from attending the film proving that adults still go to films, although yes it was about zombies once again.

The Heat proves the power of both women and Melissa McCarthy at the box office.  McCarthy had two films make over a hundred million in a year, this is rare in recent years, except for maybe someone like Jennifer Lawrence.  The female buddy cop was a sure fire hit with lead Bullock and McCarthy, but people keep under estimating the power of women at the box office, and they should not, in fact keep the strong female lead films coming.

While This is the End and The Purge did not crack 100 million domestically they were made on such small budgets that they were both seen as a huge success.  Props to both films succeeding.  

There were obviously a lot of films, which made money in June, but there were two films, which landed poorly, White House Down and The Internship.

Were people tired of seeing the White House attacked this year?  Olympus has Fallen did better with 98 million, while White House Down made 72 million (both domestic), maybe people picked one movie about attacking the White House this year, and went, "Eh one's enough."  Combined the two films did well, but this is not fourth grade math.

Sometimes getting the old gang back together just does not work, that's mainly when the film looks bad. That was the fate The Internship suffered.  Owen Wilson, and Vince Vaughn have made a good film in many years, and audiences were smart to avoid this clunker.

Once again smaller dramatic films tended to be here and gone quickly, like Much Ado About Nothing (4 million domestic) and The Bling Ring (5 million domestic).  

July 

While May and June saw fireworks, July was only saw one film do incredible, and that was Despicable Me 2.    Despicable made 100 million dollars more than the original, and is the second highest grossing film of the year so far, the strong word of mouth from children and adults made this one a hit.

The next film, which I would deem as a huge success was another scary movie, but a good one at that, was The Conjuring.  With another small budget The Conjuring made 131 million dollars domestic, which is pretty impressive.

The Conjuring beat the X-Men franchise, The Wolverine, but that film suffered from a terrible first film, so my assumption is that middling reviews made non fans weary to waste money, although the film made 125 million domestic.

Pacific Rim is the perfect example of flop in the States, good foreign box office.  Studios are making more and more films like this with more action and little dialogue so they can do great business all over the world. While I loved Pacific Rim, this strategy has taken away one of the strongest elements of a film, the script.  Rim also had the most talk after Comic Con last year, but that excitement faded quickly.  I am intrigued to see how this trend plays out over the next few years.

The rest of the big budget films in July were mostly let downs, Red 2, Turbo, R.I.P.D., and of course The Lone Ranger.  Ranger's story is the most interesting because it made many headlines, namely from Johnny Depp and Jerry Bruckheimer blaming the critics for the film's failure, but also getting served by journalists and bloggers for not having a clue what they were talking about.  Sorry your film just sucked, and no one wanted to you in red face Johnny Depp.

On the smaller films side, The Way Way Back (18 million), and Fruitvale Station (15 million) have done the best, and both will most likely pass 20 million.  Fruitvale is a surefire Oscar contender, and could make even more money once this happens.

August

I am honestly not going to waste much breadth on the failures of August, but rather list them: Elysium, The Smurfs 2, Percy Jackson 2, Kick-Ass 2, Mortal Instruments, You're Next, and the biggest flop of the month Paranoia.  I will add that We're the Millers is going to be a mild success, but the real success story of August is Lee Daniel's The Butler.

While listening to the Oscar Podcast from Sasha Stone at awardsdaily.com, she pointed out that The Butler may be the first non Tyler Perry film to be number one at the box office for two weeks in a row, and directed by a black director, who also identities as gay, Lee Daniels. The Butler is only in its second weekend, but has made 51 million dollars, with no significant film being released over Labor Day I have a feeling this could repeat for a third week in a row, which would be amazing.  The film is a sure fire Oscar contender, and while it's not the best movie, it is a great story, and incredibly emotional.  The Butler is the only film released this month which is having an impact at the box office, and it a well made film, kudos to the Weinstein Company and Lee Daniels for ending August well.

Despicable Me 2 is Just Plain Cute

Despicable Me 2 (3 out of 5 Stars)

Directed by Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud (Despicable Me)

Written by: Ken Daurio, and Cinco Paul (Despicable Me, Hop)

Voiced by: Steve Carell, Kristin Wiig, and Benjamin Bratt

The first film took everyone by surprise as a solid hit, with great of word of mouth from audiences.  Put three cute orphans, some odd yellow creatures called minions, and a character voiced by Steve Carell, and you get one great film.  I was not surprised there was a sequel to this, and there will most likely be a third, the second is raking in money.  I just hope this does not follow in vein of Shrek.

The sequel follows Gru (Carell) in domestic bliss with his three young girls Lucy, Margo, and Agnes.  Gru puts on a birthday party, is cooking chicken, and even throws on a fairy princess outfit to please the young children, it appears his villain days are numbered.  At the end of the party Gru is approached by Lucy (Wiig), captured and brought to the headquarters of the Anti-Villain League (AVL).  Gru is asked to join and help them capture someone who is plot turning people or animals purple and even more evil.

The first film took me by surprise, like many others, I remember the trailer and thinking this looks pretty lame. There was something about the first film, a charm, which held me, this villain being changed and his heart warmed, much like the Grinch by these three young girls, which made the first film truly unique.  The sequel keeps up the funny/cute/charming aspects, but the novelty was missing.  I loved the first film, and I liked this one.  There were of course some great jokes for adults, but without Gru balancing the villain and father role the film was not as much fun as the first.  There were of course some moments where Gru showed his more fun darker side, but they were not as many. 

One of the other elements I like about the series is that Gru is a single dad raising three young girls, and he does a great job, but this film implies he needs a woman or mother to complete the picture.  I wish the film would have avoided the "family" agenda.  With that said the fun chemistry between Gru and Lucy was great, Wiig was the perfect voice actor for this role.  Wiig does just as much voice work as she does acting on screen, and I think this film succeeds because the voice actors add so much to the characters. 

Dreamworks is a machine with there films, and see dollar signs more doing more creative projects the way Pixar has done (although Pixar has gotten worse with this lately).  I do not want this film series to lose the mojo it has going, so with a third one pretty much guaranteed, please do not let go of the themes, or try too hard the way Shrek 3 did. With any of my minor complaints this film has terrific animation, and just plain cute.

July Movies to See and Skip!

June was an interesting month.  Man of Steel did better than Superman Returns, which will help launch  DC comic series, but the film was more Michael Bay than quality series reboot.

The most successful films of June have been This is the End, Monster's University, and I predict The Heat will fall into this group.  End is a success because of its cost and percentage drop off each week.  Monster's is outdoing other Pixar films.  Heat is an R rated film which out did a major Rolan Emmerich film (White House Down).

How does July look, pretty boring, beyond a few films that could be plain fun!

July 4th

The Long Ranger (July 2nd) which cost a lot of money, and is from the brain of Verbinski and Bay looks like it could top White House Down as a massive flop.  I have not heard anyone clamoring to see this film, and it just looks plain awful.

Despicable Me (July 2nd) is not going to re-invent the wheel, the story is going to be cute and hilarious I expect nothing less, and the minions are just great.

The Way Way Back (Limited) is a film I have already seen (Review here: http://eternalthoughtsofkevinsmind.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-way-way-back-is-heartfelt-coming-of.html).  Jim Rash and Nat Faxon have constructed something beautiful, funny, and entertaining, go see it!

July 12th 

Pacific Rim comes from the brilliant mind of Guillermo Del Torro, and looks like it's massive visual effects could make other films look like child's play.  I am excited, but cautiously, as to to not build up the high too much.

Grown Ups 2 is missing Rob Schneider, which my friend John and I noticed while at the movies last evening.  This will not drastically alter the quality of the movie, but this movie could be in a lot of trouble these stars are losing steam, and I am shocked this got a sequel.

Fruitvale Station was a smash at Sundance, look out for writer/director Coogler to make a big splash, and Michael B. Jordan to impress many.  This could be a major competitor for the Oscars.

July 19th 

Red 2, was a surprising sequel, the first was well like by critics, but did not make a lot of money.  I thought the first was a bit boring, and did not laugh as much as I should have, Mirren was the star, not surprising.

R.I.P.D. looks like it could be fun, but is Ryan Reynolds a jinx for films like this?  This film looks like it could be a lot of fun, the premise is kind of cool.  Reynolds and Bridges look to be a great team, and this graphic novel turned film could be a success.

Turbo also stars Ryan Reynolds as the voice of a snail turned motor racer?  I am not going to waste time on this cheap premise.  Animated films have been lazy this year, and this film is proof.

The Conjuring is another attempt at horror films trying to be a landmark, or the next Exorcist, or Amityville Horror.  This has a great cast, and comes from director James Wan (Saw), it could be good, but I am holding out that this is going to be too novelty.

Girl Most Likely stars Kristin Wiig, and looks like it could be fun, but the Icona Pop song over the trailer is just lame.  I think this is going to be a big miss, it looks too quirky for its own good.  I love Wiig, the cast, and the directors Sherri Springer Berman and Robert Pulcinni directed American Splendor, but they also did The Nanny Diaries, conundrum.

Only God Forgives bring Nicolas Winding Refn back together with Ryan Gosling for another go around, their first being Drive.  This was shown at Cannes and the film received a lot less love than Drive, in fact it got pretty awful reviews.  Refn style as a director is interesting, this could be one the critics are too harsh on, or they could be giving a "danger Will Robinson."

July 26th 

The Wolverine has the worst marketing, and a lot to live up to, in a bad way.  Origins was seen as a one of the worst Marvel films, even worse than Last Stand, this could smell trouble for Old Man Logan.  Back to the marketing, people are not even aware the film is being released, this is one of those films that just may be a failure without even getting a fighting chance.

The To Do List is this year's Easy A/Pitch Perfect.  This film looks hilarious, and stars the indie star on the rise, Aubrey Plaza.  Plaza is great on Parks and Recreation, and i have no doubt after Safety not Guaranteed she can carry this film.

Blue Jasmine, is Woody Allen's latest flick, and after his disastrous adventure in Rome Jasmine shows the darker humor, and could hearken back to more old school Woody.  Blanchett, and Hawkins are two great actresses, and I am excited to see what they can do within this film.