‘09 Blockbuster Comparison: Part Three

It’s that time again!  Let’s break down the box office numbers for the summer and see who the winners are, so far.  With the summer rapidly coming to a close with the release of G.I. Joe this weekend, most of Hollywood execs are  either licking their wounds or counting their crazy stacks of money.  The clear winners are Transformers, Harry Potter, The Hangover, Star Trek, and Up all of which have surpassed the 250M mark.  But as you can see, I’ve included the budgets of the films this time.  This adds a new layer to the analysis.

While it looks like 150M is the standard budget for a summer blockbuster, some movies found trouble reaching that goal.  Of course this is not taking into account global markets or inevitable DVD sales, but the budget can give us a good measurement on what movies lined the most people’s pockets.  Movies like Angels and Demons and Terminator Salvation didn’t return their investment dollars initially, but like 90% percent of movies will easily recoup their losses in the long run.

The Hangover is the most overwhelmingly successful movie on the list making over 700% its budget back theatrically and with it still charting in the top ten every week, that total looks to be rising more and more by the week.  I am willing to put money on The Hangover’s three stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis becoming the new Seth Rogen, Johan Hill and Michael Cera, in that they are going to have dozens of movies to choose from when picking jobs next year.

Speaking of Rogen, his Sandler co-starred Apatow helmed Pineapple Express follow up Funny People, doesn’t look to be catching the footing of its previous Rogen starred summer hits and with the Hangover still stealing its audience, may fade into box office obscurity soon.  In other comedy news the The Proposal’s combo of Bullock and Reynolds looks to be gold, pulling in 350% of its budget in theaters.

Now on to the heavy hitters.  Nothing is going to top Transformers, which could very well be the highest grossing, lowest rated film in history, pulling a rancid 20% Rotten Tomatoes rating.  The film with the highest budget, also the film most likely to do well in all global markets, Harry Potter, is about on par with its predecessors.  The highest grossing Potter movie to date is  the first one (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) and it conjured up 317M.  To topple it, the Half Blood Prince have to pull something huge in the coming weeks.

A couple films with surprisingly low numbers are Terminator Salvation, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  I never would have beilieved you two years ago if you told me that Wolverine wouldn’t break the 200M mark and  Terminator’s 33% T-Meter rating is not only surprising but apparently indicative of the public’s opinion of the film.  Both of these films have two sequels rumored to be in development.  The wolverine ones will probably happen, but the future is not looking bright for John Conner…like usual.

Family favs, UP, Night at the Museum, and Ice Age prove that families are still taking their kids to the theaters, even during a recession.  UP, however seems to be the prefect storm of critical acclaim and financial success, but what else would you expect out of CGI pioneers Pixar.

Below are the numbers so far.  I’ll probably do a wrap up once G.I. Joe’s numbers are in and we get some more weeks out of Funny People and Harry Potter, but believe me when I say the summer’s best is probably behind us.