Summer movie revenue is down, but bright spots abound Box office bummer

By Jake Coyle

AP Film Writer

NEW YORK

On their face, the numbers are grim. Movie ticket sales in North America are running roughly half a billion dollars behind last summer’s box office, making this one of lowest-grossing summers in years.

The 12.4 percent downturn comes at a critical juncture for Hollywood, with constantly swirling fears about the impact of streaming, television and the bazillion other entertainment options out there. AMC, the largest theater chain in the United States, saw its stock price tank recently partly because of slow sales and its forecast for “a very challenging” third quarter.

And yet much of the story at the multiplex this summer has been very positive. Few of the movies that won strong reviews and a warm reception from moviegoers didn’t also perform well at the box office. With few exceptions, when the studios supplied the goods, audiences came in droves.

The biggest smashes of the summer – “Wonder Woman,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” – all earned both praise and major business. Two of those films also righted the ship for studios struggling to match Disney’s franchise power.

“Spider-Man: Homecoming” was a much-needed shot in the arm for the retooled Sony Pictures, which followed that up with Edgar Wright’s music-mad original hit “Baby Driver.”

Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” set things right, finally, in Warner Bros.’ DC Comics series. The film, which recently surpassed $400 million domestically, also set a record for highest grossing film directed by a woman. Warner Bros. later gave the summer an honest-to-goodness Oscar contender in July: Christopher Nolan’s World War II epic “Dunkirk.”

“What we all saw this summer is audiences were fickle. The stuff they liked, they really liked,” said Jeffrey Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros. “The movies that were well received were rewarded with good holds.”

All but three of the No.1 films this summer were certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, including this past weekend’s top film, the horror sequel “Annabelle: Creation.”

“The irony is, it was one of the best summers to be a moviegoer, if not a theater operator,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. “When I look at movies like ‘Guardians 2,’ ‘Wonder Woman,’ ‘War for the Planet of the Apes,’ ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming,’ ‘The Big Sick,’ ‘Detroit,’ ‘Baby Driver,’ ‘Dunkirk,’ ‘Wind River,’ I have to say it’s been a great time as a moviegoer.

“This is sort of: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” said Dergarabedian.

You could easily add to that list, too. Though many comedies struggled, the summer produced one breakout comedy: “Girls Trip,” soon to surpass $100 million domestically. Two of the year’s most audaciously original and buzzy titles electrified art-house audiences: “Good Time,” with Robert Pattinson, and “A Ghost Story,” with a sheeted Casey Affleck. On Friday, Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh will trot out his return to movie directing, the heist film “Logan Lucky,” with Channing Tatum.

Though they haven’t always helped the bottom line, an unusual number of filmmakers and upstart distributors have tried to shake up the summer. Even the season’s most spectacular bomb – Luc Besson’s $180-million sci-fi extravaganza “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” – was a charming one. The film, made and financed outside the Hollywood system, was the kind of pricey auteur-driven overreach that today’s corporate-driven studios have largely snuffed out.

So what’s the problem? Where’s the missing $500 million? (That’s about the gap left by this summer’s overall gross of $3.4 billion.)

There are two significant drains on this summer’s totals. One is the lack of any late-summer blockbuster on the schedule. Before Hollywood’s summer runs out on Labor Day weekend, there will be no “Suicide Squad,” “Straight Outta Compton” or “Guardians of the Galaxy” (all recent August releases) to mount a comeback.

More significant are a trio of underperforming franchise entries. Paramount’s fifth “Transformers” film, Disney’s fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” and Universal’s latest try at “The Mummy,” all underperformed. All, not coincidentally, were slammed by critics as either franchises running on fumes or, in the case of “The Mummy,” a desperate attempt to create one.

Each of these titles, to varying degrees, mitigated their losses with better performances overseas. Each made about 80 percent of its worldwide grosses abroad. The “Pirates” installment, “Dead Men Tell No Tales,” debuted in China and pulled in $614 million internationally. “Transformers: The Last Knight,” grossed $228.8 million in China, the most of any American movie this summer.

International box office altogether is up 3.8 percent this year, according to comScore, an increase of about $600 million.