Summer Box Office Review

With the first day of fall tomorrow, let’s officially wrap up the summer movie season by taking a look at the biggest winners and losers of the period. Please note, we’re dealing only with production budgets and domestic grosses, this list would look a lot different if we added marketing to the budget and international grosses to the grand total. Also, we’re counting the summer season as movies that opened between May 1 and August 31.

All told, summer 2007 was a monster year with 4 movies crossing the $300 million mark (Spidey 3, Shrek 3, Pirates 3 and Transformers) and a fifth (Harry Potter 5) missing the mark by $10 million. All in all, 17 movies crossed the coveted $100 million marker (although with inflation and other terms I don’t understand, we may have to raise the bar to $150).

Who made and lost money in the States this summer, let’s take a look:

8 Biggest Winners:

1.
Transformers
Gross: $312 million
Budget: $150 million
Net: $162 million

2.
Shrek 3
Gross: $321 million
Budget: $160 million
Net: $161 million

3.
Harry Potter 5
Gross: $290 million
Budget: $150 million
Net: $140 million

4.
Knocked Up
Gross: $150 million
Budget: $30 million
Net: $120 million

5.
Simpsons
Gross: $180 million
Budget: $75 million
Net: $105 million

6.
Bourne 3
Gross: $215 million
Budget: $110 million
Net: $105 million

7.
Superbad
Gross: $115 million
Budget: $20 million
Net: $95 million

8.
Spiderman 3
Gross: $336 million
Budget: $258 million
Net: $78 million

5 Biggest Losers:

1.
Evan Almighty
Gross: $100 million
Budget: $175 million
Net: -$75 million

2.
Stardust
Gross: $30 million
Budget: $70 million
Net: -$40 million

3.
Rush Hour 3
Gross: $135 million (as of time of print)
Budget: $140 million
Net: -$5 million

4.
Fantastic Four 2
Gross: $131 million
Budget: $130 million
Net: $1 million

5.
Pirates 3
Gross: $308 million
Budget: $300 million
Net: $8 million