Summer Movie Rundown
Andrew Hui
Issue date: 10/15/01 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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Before the summer, who would have thought that a non-Disney animation film would be the top summer movie? And that two of the top three moneymakers were released even before the summer began?
Overall, the summer movie season was a success for Hollywood. Total box office tallied more than $3 billion – the highest amount ever. But from a creative standpoint, the summer was disappointing. Among the top three movies, Shrek was the only relatively innovative feature. Targeted to both young and adult audiences, the movie raked in about $265 million. As a “cartoon,” it did a lot better than Disney’s Atlantis (a mere $83 million) and the costly Final Fantasy ($32 million).
Most of the other top movies, however, were sequels that did not leave too much of an impression. Among them were Rush Hour 2, Jurassic Park 3, American Pie 2, and Doctor Dolittle 2.
None of the highly publicized non-sequel movies really excited the critics or the moviegoers (in other words, there are no Sixth Sense or Gladiator to talk about this summer). Pearl Harbor managed to pull in almost $200 million but that probably does not even cover its costs. Planet of the Apes was visually exciting but does not leave us much to talk about otherwise. And America’s Sweethearts illustrates that star powers do not guarantee ticket dollars (grossing only $93 million).
In fact, one could almost argue that the power of Reese Witherspoon is equal to Julia Roberts + Catherine Zeta Jones + Billy Crystal + John Cusack, because Legally Blonde grossed almost the same as America’s Sweethearts. Another two surprise hits for the summer were The Fast and the Furious and The Princess Diaries.
Future
Assessing the summer situation, Disney seems to be the one company that is most in most desperate need of a hit. Its Pearl Harbor and Atlantis do not help its profitability, at least not in the short term. And its television, theme park and retail divisions are all suffering because of the economy. If track record is a reliable predictor at all, Disney/Pixar’s Monster, Inc. may turn out to be the one that works magic. If nothing else, its merchandise has already started luring customers at the stores.
At a time like this, comedies and sci-fi flicks may be more successful because they help the audience detach themselves from reality. On the comedy front, Ben Stiller’s Zoolander has done pretty well. We are also waiting for Shallow Hal by the Farrelly brothers (There’s Something about Mary), featuring Gwyneth Paltrow. On the sci-fi front, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings will certainly attract people’s attention, especially since the marketing budgets for them will be pretty generous (according to Entertainment Weekly, the former cost $125 million and the latter trilogy cost $300 million just to produce).
Given the lack of imaginations or excitement in the summer movies, we are more and more looking to fall movies for possible Oscar nominations. Fortunately, contenders seem to be plenty: Gangsters of New York (Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCarpio, Cameron Diaz), Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz), A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard, Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly), Ali (Michael Mann, Will Smith), The Shipping News (Lasse Hallstrom, Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchdett), Ocean’s 11 (Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon) – the list includes almost all the active A-class directors and actors in recent years.
With all these movies lined up, the prospect of entertainment may not be as bad as we may have thought. Hopefully we can once again pay attention to what’s going on in the entertainment world.