Steve’s Box Office Report: July 2012
Top 10 Films for the Month of July:
1. The Dark Knight Rises – $448,139,099
2. The Amazing Spider-Man – $262,030,663
3. Ice Age: Continental Drift – $161,321,843
4. Savages – $47,382,068
5. The Watch – $35,353,000
6. Step Up Revolution – $35,074,677
7. Part of Me – $25,326,071
8. Searching for Sugar Man – $3,696,196
9. Ruby Sparks – $2,540,106
10. The Queen of Versailles – $2,401,999
Honorable Mentions:
None
July Winners: The Dark Knight Rises, the Amazing Spider-Man, and Ice Age: Continental Drift
We are now halfway through the year of 2012 and we continue on through the summer with the month of July, and the last two months have been really great with some big films and we have some more coming out this month. Given how much money people have spent in just the last two months alone on movies, there was still plenty to go around as a few of the films released this month made a tremendous amount of money. The first film from this month that makes it into this category is the third and final film in Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy with the Dark Knight Rises, which sees Batman try to protect Gotham from the villain Bane while dealing with his own personal demons. The film would receive positive reviews from critics who considered it a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, and it would finish with over $448 million which I will get into later in the recap. The next film from this month that makes it into this category is the first reboot of Spider-Man with the Amazing Spider-Man, a film which sees Peter Parker become the webslinger and try to protect New York from the Lizard. The film would receive positive reviews from critics who considered it a fine reboot despite feeling a bit familiar to the 2002 Spider-Man film, and it would finish with over $262 million which was a major win and ensured the franchise would continue. The third and final film that makes it into this category is the fourth film in the Ice Age franchise with Continental Drift, which sees Manny and his friends being set adrift on an iceberg and trying to fight off a band of pirates. The film would receive mixed reviews from critics with some thinking the franchise was running out of steam, but it did finish with over $161 million despite coming out close to Brave and ensured that perhaps the franchise wasn’t finished yet. While there were only three winners from this month, these three were the biggest releases this month and easily carried the month up on their backs.
July Losers: The Watch
While the three films in the previous category dominated the month, the rest of the films that came out this month were pretty much left to pick up the scraps as they also had to deal with the holdovers from June that were still doing well. Most of them ended up doing fairly well and there were a few that didn’t do too well though they were also released in not as many theaters, and fortunately even the ones that didn’t do too well weren’t bad enough to make it into this category. Having said that, there was one film that makes it into this category and that is the Watch, a film about a group of neighbors who come together and form a neighborhood watch to combat aliens. The film would receive negative reviews from critics who felt the film wasted its cast with a poor script, and the film would end up finishing with just over $35 million which was not a good showing for the film. Fortunately, the three winners alone were enough to keep the month up and end it on a positive note which is good because the prospects for August were not as high as the previous three months.
The Surprise/Story of July 2012: Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy concludes on high as “Dark Knight Rises” easily takes top spot of July 2012
In 2005, Christopher Nolan brought us “Batman Begins” and revitalized the Batman franchise which had been considered dead after the bomb that was “Batman and Robin”, and then in 2008 “The Dark Knight” came out and is still widely considered by many to be one of, if not the best superhero movies in history. Now here in 2012, this trilogy comes to an end with the Dark Knight Rises and given the hype and pressure surrounding it, there was no question that the film had to deliver in a big way and end the trilogy on a high note. Sure enough, the film did just that and it also had a slight advantage as the Avengers was at the end of its run and it didn’t suffer from the Amazing Spider-Man coming out a few weeks before. As mentioned, the film received positive reviews from critics who had considered it a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, and the film finished extremely strong and helped carry the month along with strong showings by Spider-Man and Ice Age. What this film, and trilogy showed was that Batman was still a viable commodity and it will be interesting to see how the momentum continues when Batman makes his return to the big screen in a few years.
Overachiever of July 2012: The Amazing Spider-Man
During the 2000s, the Spider-Man trilogy released by Sam Raimi was arguably one of the biggest trilogies to hit the big screen, but then as he was about to make a fourth film he pulled out and everything fell apart. As a result, the decision was made to reboot the franchise which included bringing in Andrew Garfield to take over the mantle of Spider-Man from Tobey Maguire, and the decision was also made to start from the beginning and make this film an origin film while including a lesser known villain in the Lizard. Coming out on the Fourth of July weekend, the film was in a unique spot as the Avengers was nearing the end of its run, but it had to contend with the Dark Knight Rises which came out two weeks later. The film did receive positive reviews from critics who felt it was a solid film though a bit too similar to the original Spider-Man from 2002, and as mentioned the film did finish with $262 million which while a bit lower than the original trilogy, it was still a great showing and it seemed like Spider-Man still had plenty of legs to begin a potential new trilogy. We will see how that ends up turning out, but as for this film it is deserving of being the overachiever of the month.
Underachiever of July 2012: Savages
Looking at this month, there was nothing that really jumped out at me that could be the underachiever of the month because the three big films of the month did extremely well and the rest of the films that came out had low to no expectations and did about in line with what was expected from them. There was one film that did have some intrigue going into the month and that was the action film Savages, a film about a pair of marijuana growers and their mutual lover become entangled with a Mexican cartel. The film received mixed reviews from critics who felt it was a fine outing for legendary director Oliver Stone, and it would end up finishing with over $47 million which made it the best of the rest that were released this month. I do feel like there was a feeling of disappointment because with a name like Oliver Stone at the helm, you expect something great and this film ended up being average even with its dark tones and solid casting. As a result, this film ends up being the underachiever of the month though it might be the best one of the year which we will see as we hit the back half of the year.
July 2012 Awards Watch: Searching for Sugar Man
Typically, the month of July doesn’t see a lot of award contenders come out as the big blockbusters are usually excluded from the Academy and Golden Globes though sometimes may land in the Golden Raspberries if they are really bad. However, this month ends up being an extremely light month with only one film making it into this category and that is the documentary film Searching for Sugar Man, a film about two fans who search for a musician named Sixto Rodriguez who was believed to be dead only to be found alive in South Africa. The film would receive critical acclaim from critics and also brought some attention to Rodriguez, and the film would win one Academy Award (Best Documentary – Feature) while finishing with just over $3 million which was a good showing for a documentary. It will be interesting to see how the month of August does in terms of award contenders though I believe most of the big guns will be coming out in the fall and winter.
Overall Thoughts of July 2012:
Overall, the month of July 2012 was a really good month that was dominated by three films which carried the month pretty well. While it was not as strong as the previous month which had over half of the films in the top 10 making over $100 million and more, this film was pretty much controlled by the top 3 as they were the only ones that made over $100 million and more. The rest of the films that came out this month were fairly average with nothing breaking away from the pack, but there were no real bombs that came out this month unlike the last two months which had a few bombs. 2012 has been a big year thus far as the year started slow, picked up in March and has exploded over these last few months, and as we head into August we will see if the summer can end on a strong note. As for the month of July 2012, it is a great month though it is not quite up to the same standard as the previous month.
Final Grade: B+
