Summer in Review: May

By BOP Staff

October 28, 2008

When John Henry was a little baby...

New at BOP:
Share & Save
Digg Button  
Print this column
Jim Van Nest: For me, the month of May had two major stories and a couple of interesting subplots. Ironman's dominance at the box office is easily #1. Sure, super hero flicks are the "it" thing in movies now, but seriously... For the non-comic lover, this movie was like, "Okay, we're taking a lesser-known character that looks like an in-color version of the Iron Giant and making a movie of him. And oh, by the way...we're gonna throw Robert Downey Jr in it. Are you kidding me?" And then it turns out to be one of the best films of the summer. I mean for real...who'd a-thunk?

The second major story for me was the Chick Event film of all time, Sex and the City. Sure, the show had its following and I figured it would do well, but the insanity of the Sex and the City parties leading up to the opening and huge groups of women getting together to see this was amazing. It truly was the female Episode I.




Advertisement



The interesting subplots were the tanking of Speed Racer and the domestic take for Narnia. The Wachowski brothers are on their way to Shaymalan territory with Speed and you have to wonder if the Narnia series wouldn't be dead without the worldwide gross.

The return of Indiana Jones was an interesting story for a minute. I mean, we knew it would be huge. What we didn't know was that it would be sub-par and still be huge. With $750 billion worldwide, I can't help but think we'll be seeing Harrison don the fedora one more time in the near future.

Brandon Scott: Iron Man kicked it all off and was a great success, spawning a franchise in the process, while the Indy franchise put out some apparent tripe and still almost matched it in earnings. The "Vegas" numbers are disturbing because what happened there should have stayed in the script scrap heap. "Racer" seemed stuck in neutral from the start. It was always a bad idea in my eyes. The Strangers was a pleasant surprise but they would be unwelcome guests at my home. SATC did great business, women showed up in droves, but the sequel idea, I have been told, is a doubly bad idea from a story standpoint. There was no honor in making "Made" for Dempsey. Not sure what should happen to Narnia at this point, I will only chronicle that I am not looking forward to the continuation of the franchise.

Jason Lee: The real standouts in May, for me, were Iron Man and Sex and the City. Both were able to zero in on their respective fanbases and turn them out in droves. As in politics, you win when you can get your people to come out. I think Indy did much better business than I expected, considering its lackluster film quality, and was surprised to see Ashton and Cameron kick the Wachowski brother's butts.


Continued:       1       2       3       4       5

     


 
 

Need to contact us? E-mail a Box Office Prophet.
Friday, April 26, 2024
© 2024 Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc.