Box Office Winners and Losers Summer 2013

***WARNING-NONE OF WHAT I SAY IN THIS ARTICLE IS A COMMENT ON THE QUALITY OF THE MOVIES.  IN FACT, I HAVE YET TO SEE MOST OF THESE SO I’M CURRENTLY NOT IN A POSITION TO OFFER MY OPINIONS ON THEM ANYWAY.  ALSO, ANY BOX NUMBERS I USE ARE EFFECTIVE AS OF AUGUST 23, 2013.  THANK YOU AND ENJOY THE ARTICLE. ***

Winners

Iron Man 3- Iron Man 3 didn’t match up to the figures of last year’s Marvel’s The Avengers; the numbers however, are still nothing to scoff at.  Iron Man 3 still managed to make $408 million domestically and over $1.2 billion worldwide which are figures that no other movie has been able to touch this year.     

Despicable Me 2- I have to admit that I underestimated Despicable Me 2.  I had it pegged to do just well enough to validate another sequel but they proved me wrong in a pretty big way.  With a worldwide gross of over $800 million it managed to out-earn all of their competition with the exception of Iron Man 3 (see above).  

Horror movies- So far it looks like a good year for horror movies (at least financially) and the summer was no exception.  The Purge ($84 million worldwide/$3 million budget) and The Conjuring ($220 million worldwide/$20 million budget) not only made back their budgets many times over, but managed to put some of their bigger budgeted counterparts to shame in the process (see Losers).    

Fast and Furious 6- Two years ago Fast Five surprisingly proved to be a massive hit, and from a box-office standpoint Fast and Furious 6 actually managed to top its predecessor.  Finishing at about $786 million worldwide it’s safe to say that we’ll be seeing more of these movies for better or worse. 

World War Z- Admittedly I’m probably being a little generous with this one.  While a worldwide gross of $526 million isn’t overly impressive for a summer blockbuster, the fact that World War Z managed to avoid a Lone Ranger level disaster was a pretty major victory for the film. 

Losers

The Internship- Vince Vaughn hasn’t had a hit movie in almost four years and The Internship did absolutely nothing to change that.  The Internship did so badly on opening weekend they made only half as much as their far smaller budgeted competition The Purge.  In retrospect, Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s follow-up to The Wedding Crashers was probably about a few years too late to leave any impact.   

Ryan Reynolds- Poor Ryan Reynolds just can’t seem to catch a break.  He went 0 for 2 in the summer of 2011 with Green Lantern and The Change-Up.  Two years later things might have actually gotten worse for him.  After headlining the “disappointing” Turbo ($142 million worldwide /$135 million budget) and the just plain embarrassing R.I.P.D. ($59 million worldwide/$130 million budget), I don’t think movie producers will be in any hurry to make him the lead in their next summer blockbuster.    

After Earth- Not even the star power of Will Smith could save After Earth from the stigma of being an M. Night Shyamalan movie.  While the studio might’ve made their money back overseas, After Earth only made a paltry $61 million domestically which looks to be lowest for a Will Smith movie since Ali back in 2001. 

White House Down- A movie directed by Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, 2012) and starring Channing Tatum should’ve been a no-brainer.  So what went wrong?  The popular theories are bad scheduling, unenthusiastic reviews, and that the audience basically seeing the same movie three months before with Olympus Has Fallen.  Whatever the reason, it appears to be highly unlikely that White House Down will make back its production budget ($150 million budget/ $134 million gross worldwide) before the DVD release. 

The Lone Ranger- There are so many reasons this movie shouldn’t have been made I don’t even know where to start.  Television show adaptations rarely translate into box office gold much less TV shows that are over fifty years old.  Also, westerns are typically modest hits at best so making one with a price tag of $215 million (not including several years of pre-production and expensive marketing) is not only ill-advised but just plain stupid.  Here I thought Disney had learned their lesson after the similarly disastrous John Carter.  Just in case you’re curious, the worldwide gross is around $230 million.