Predictions for Summer Movie Season
[Posted by Bobby Tulsiani]
Well you wouldn't know it from the weather in New York today, but Summer movie season officially starts today. Fittingly, a superhero movie, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", kicks off the season and has already felt the effects of technology and piracy.
I don't think the piracy effect will impact the box office too much, but Fox studios may want to about the 37% rating on rotten tomatoes. With that, here are my official top 5 for summer 2009 (with thanks to some friends who helped debate the list last week):
- Transformers: Michael Bay knows summer movies
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: With a late start date, it will own July and August
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Will Smith is taking July 4th off this year, and Ice Age grabbed the weekend
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine: A superhero movie has to make it in to the top 5..
- Up: Pixar and Disney haven't missed yet, and this year should be no different
Other favorites I'm looking forward to for the summer Star Trek (JJ Abrams style) and the Bruno movie (Sacha Baron's Cohen's follow up to Borat). Overall, I think even though Hollywood has had held up nicely these first 5 months of 2009, I think it will be hard pressed to beat 2008 when you had Batman breaking all kinds of records. It should be interesting...let me know what you think in the comments!
If you want anyone to blame for the lack of security on the Wolverine leak, look no further than Fox. The movie is worse than X3, a mess, a sad parody of itself with multiple cliches. The only high points are Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber and Ryan Reynolds. The dialogue was corny, the plot devices cliched, and the effects half-baked, at best.
The real story is who at Fox greenlit the leak to mitigate the loss at the box office when everyone realizes what a stinker it is. The benefit is two fold. 1.) Fox can write this off with the insurance company for the loss in revenue due to the leak. 2.) Fox can claim foul with the online community for downloading the movie and enlist the aid of world governments to restrict more fair use rights in the long run without looking like the bad guy.
Sure, I might seem jaded. I should be for spending 9 dollars on the piece of tripe they call a movie. So when anyone asks you why Wolverine didn't break the box office records, it wasn't due to the flu outbreak, or the leak/piracy. It failed because it stunk to high heaven.
Posted by: Mark Dianda | May 02, 2009 at 11:54 PM
Hey Mark - I saw many similar reviews trashing the latest X-Men: Origins this weekend as well. But despite that the film still did $87 million!
It makes me wonder, do reviews matter? I'd love to see a regression on Rotten Tomatoes against opening weekend box office.
I think either way you are right... eventually bad news travels, so this film won't get the buzz and enjoy second and third weekends. Let's hope Star Trek is better!
Posted by: Bobby Tulsiani | May 04, 2009 at 10:02 AM