It’s almost September and that means that the big summer movie season of 2008 is finally over - but what a summer it’s been!
2008 delivered the kind of summer that superhero and action movie geeks dream of - this is the year that brought us three bonafide superhero movies: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and what was that third one… oh yeah: The Dark Knight.
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We also had the chance to see the long awaited Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the latest Pixar flick Wall-E, Will Smith as a superhero in Hancock, Angelina Jolie as an assassin in Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army. To keep us laughing we had Tropic Thunder, The Pineapple Express (which I haven’t seen) and Get Smart.
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight: Summer 2008 box office winner
The Dark Knight was this summer’s box office juggernaut, and no doubt will be the year’s biggest earner. The big surprise of the summer (and the film that kicked it all off) is Iron Man, which came in second and actually beat Indy 4 in the US! That speaks to both how great Iron Man was and how poor an addition the latest Indiana Jones movie was to the original trilogy.
Iron Man: Surprise hit of the 2008 Summer movie season
Here are the top ten movies this summer based on US box office:
- The Dark Knight - $493.7MM
- Iron Man - $317.6MM
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - $315.3MM
- Hancock - $226.5MM
- Wall-E - $216.8MM
- Kung Fu Panda - $213MM
- Sex and the City (yeah, I know) - $152.4MM
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - $141.6MM
- The Incredible Hulk - $134.4MM
- Wanted - $133.8MM
One big suprise in the above list is Pixar’s Wall-E: I’m really shocked that the R-rating-pushing, PG-13 and mediocre (according to most critics) Hancock actually beat the family friendly Pixar film. Also surprising is that Kung Fu Panda made almost as much as the Wall-E. It looks like despite the universally rave reviews for Wall-E, that the overly message-heavy plot of the movie wasn’t as much of a winner with families as other of their films like The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. Heck, even Cars (considered by many to be Pixar’s weakest film) made more money than Wall-E at the box office.
Wall-E: Below Summer box office expectations?
I’ll take a moment to toot my own horn and point out that I was one of the lone voices pointing out the fact that Wall-E was too heavy handed with its messages. 
Also, despite the “cool factor,” Wanted didn’t manage to beat underdog summer flick The Incredible Hulk. I guess more people thought it was ridiculous (as I did) than thought it was “awesome, dude!”. However superhero movie fans across the land can weep in unison at the fact that Hulk was not able to defeat three hip, New York City powershopping babes on the prowl for true love.
Summer 2008: The Incredible Hulk did not go down without a fight
How the heck Sex in the City made into that list is beyond me.
Movies worth noting that are missing from that top 10 list include The Happening (huge stinker for Shyamalan), The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (couldn’t bring myself to watch it), 10,000 B.C. (do I even need to comment on this one?), Speed Racer (LSD trip for kids), and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (too niche, I suppose).
In the “bombed at the box office” category I guess I’d add X-Files: I Want to Believe ($20.7MM) and at only $27MM since opening, for a Star Wars movie, I’d say The Clone Wars didn’t do too well.
All in all I’d say it’s been a pretty damned awesome summer for movie fans, and it’ll be a tough one to top in 2009.
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69 Comments
Hey Vic, nice article, just wanted to point out two little typos you had at the end.
” I’d say The Clone Wars didn’t too to well.”
And “and it’ll be a touch one to top in 2009.”
That’s all I noticed. Just figure I let you know. Article is a pretty good (and accurate) summary. I thought this summer was a great summer for movies as well.
Vic
Did you say that The Incredibles was Pixars last film? What about Cars and Ratatouille?
Its been a great year for films.
Here’s my top 10
1-Iron Man
2-Hulk
3-Speed Racer
4-Hell Boy 2
5-The Dark Knight
6-Cloverfield
7-X-Files
8-Rambo
9-Indy 4
10-Tropic Thunder
I hope I didn’t forget anything,,,
790
Yes, 790, you forgot something…
You forgot that THERE’S NO WAY IN HELL that Hulk and Speed Racer are better than The Dark Knight. lol
A real good realistic article.
Here is my top 10:
1. The Dark Knight (ofcourse what else!)
2. Wanted
3. Iron Man
4. Tropic Thunder
5. Wall E
6. Hancock
7. Get Smart
8. The Incredible Hulk
9. Kung Fu Panda
10. Speed Racer
Indy 4, Hellboy 2, The X files and The Mummy 3 aren`t worthy to be named in the top 10. I haven`t seen Star Wars Clone Wars yet, but it doesn`t look that good.
Yeah I expected a few remarks on that one ,,,
I had some problems with TDK,,,
I never saw Speed Racer, but heard it sucked, lol.
I don’t know if I can get up to ten with relevant order, but I will say my top 3 was:
1. Iron Man
2. The Dark Knight
3. The Incredible Hulk
Tropic Thunder and Hellboy 2 is somewhere up there in the top movies, but not sure what order I would put them. Indy 4 would be among the bottom of my list, of course not worst than the obvious stupid movies out this year, but bottom out of the top movies. I enjoyed it, but it was pretty cheesy and doesn’t have the magic of the original trilogy…
Chronicles of Narnia was pretty darn good too. Did Spiderwick Chronicles also come out this year? That was surprisingly good for what I thought was going to be yet another wannabe fantasy movie following the footsteps of LOTR and Narnia (*cough*Golden Compass*cough*), but it turned out to be very entertaining.
I keep forgetting that Cloverfield was this year
Yeah I’m pretty much the only one that appreciated Speed Racer for its greatness.
Oscar,,, Cloverfield is alot better on dvd ,,,!!
1. Iron Man
2. The Dark Knight
3. Kung Fu Panda
4. Tropic Thunder
5. The Incredible Hulk
6. Get Smart
7. Wall-E
8. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
9. Hancock
10. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Vic
Hm, was Get Smart actually any good? For some reason I had the impression that it wasn’t a good movie and never bothered to watch it. I used to watch the reruns of the old show on Nick & Nite and thought it was hilarious. Maybe I should rent it one day…
Good article to summarize the summer season,
I think next year will be strong as well…
Watchmen
Wolverine (boooo Fox)
Star Trek (yeaa!!!!)
Transformers 2
Harry Potter 6
James Cameron’s Avatar
Prince of Persia
Terminator: Salvation
Game
GI Joe!!!
The Brazillian Job?
Inglorious Bastards
Angels and Demons (I hated Da Vinci Code)
Ice Age 3
A-Team
Fast and the Furious 4
Public Enemies (Look at the cast: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Channing Tatum, Billy Crudup, Marion Cotillard, Emilie de Ravin, Giovanni Ribisi)
so ya, for me, I think 2009 will be even better (possible MUCH better) than this summer! It’s gonna be a good time for all of us
Rob, the only films on your list that interest me for next year are,,,,
Watchmen
Star Trek 11
Terminator 4
Wolverine (subject to boycott)
Prince of Persia has been pushed to Summmer 2010.
Well, *I* liked Get Smart, doesn’t mean you will. Opinions were pretty split on it.
@Rob
Yeah, good point, but not all of those fall under Summer ‘09.
Vic
Vic
My top 10 for summer 2008 (only since 5/02, which leaves Forgetting Sarah Marshall out which may have been my #3 at worst, great movie. Rambo would also be on my best of 2008 list)…
1) The Dark Knight…far and away the best film not only of the summer but of year so far.
2) Iron Man…a large gap between TDK and IM, but also a large gap between IM and the rest of the top 10.
3) The Incredible Hulk…was shocked how much I liked this movie, a great re-boot and hope it did well enough to see at least one more in the series.
4) Pineapple Express
Tropic Thunder
5) Hellboy II
6) Mongol
7) Get Smart
9) Wanted
10)X-Files: I want to Believe
I do have to say I haven’t seen Wall-E or Kung-Fu Panda yet, so I’ll hold off on my opinion on those two for now of course.
Movies I enjoyed that didn’t make my list Step Brothers, The Wackness and Traitor wasn’t to bad either but to compare it any of the Bourne movies like some critics have is just plain stupid, not near as good as any of the three. Hope I didn’t forget any summer movies I actually liked.
Films for next year I’m looking forward to so far are Watchmen, Wolverine, Terminator: Salvation and my most anticipated movie for next year right now is Public Enemies.
Ken J, I enjoyed Get Smart. I was a huge fan of the old TV show, it’s right up there with Soap, Taxi and a few other shows as my ATF live action comedy shows but if you go in expecting it be just like the TV you’ll be pretty ticked but I heard it wasn’t much like the show so I went in with an open mind and actually enjoyed it.
Thanks for the info on Get Smart. I’ll probably end up renting it.
About next year, I would have to say that my most anticipated movie would have to be Avatar. Even though I have not seen a single shot from the film, the fact that James Cameron is making it and have spent quite some time on the film tells me that it’s going to be phenomenal.
I didn’t see too many films this summer, but here in the UK the film “Mamma Mia!” beat TDK, the film is still going strong ot packed audiences well over a month after it was released…I was disappointed by “The X-Files:IWTB” bombing as I am a fan and liked the film on the whole, probably the wrong time to release it, with all those giants at the box office.
“Iron Man” I enjoyed so much! RDJ was amazing!
TDK of course needs no say other than I went to see it twice in one week =)
Hey Vic,
when making that list, I looked for ones that fell only between May and August, or atleast planned releases during that time. Which ones are not scheduled for the summer?
Sorry!
Vic
I like your informal list of favorite movies, Vic… - mine is pretty much the same, though I didn’t bother to see Indy 4 after my friend said he didn’t like it (and I was shocked at that.)
Btw, “ftouinally?”
Yikes! Thanks for seeing that. One of the things I hate about laptops: jumping mouse cursor.
Vic
Vic, Indiana Jones 4 was a poor addition to the franchise Because Iron Man beat it by just 2 million dollars?
isnt that a bit harsh ?
Thanks for the mini watchmen update ,
Will we be getting a more detailed report on that?
Do you think it might be premature to boycott Fox?
No, it’s not harsh. Indiana Jones is a franchise with HUGE name recognition that had massive anticipation PLUS Lucas and Spielberg attached to it.
Iron Man was a Marvel superhero that a year ago was not very well known to the average person, directed by Favreau - not exactly a powerhouse draw.
Having only $2MM between the two of those speaks highly of Iron Man and poorly of Indy 4.
Vic
Hey Gary,
people spoke of boycotting Fox 7 years ago simply for what they did with Firefly.
Since then, its only gotten exponentially worse.
Do you think it’s a long shot for another hulk, even if the dvd sells really well and do you really think the A-team will make it to theaters next year?
I think Indy 4 is a poor addition to the franchise not because of how much it made, but simply because of how bad the movie was compared to the original trilogy. I found Indy 4 slightly amusing. Which is a long shot from the classic mega-hits of the original trilogy which I think were pure genius.
The movie made so little despite the huge name recognition because word of mouth spread that it wasn’t that great. That’s how a relatively unknown crew with a relatively unknown superhero can beat out Lucas, Spielberg, and Indiana Jones. So the numbers say more than just money, they speak of the quality as well.
“The movie made so little despite the huge name recognition”
^
Indy 4,has made over 780.000.000mil. worldwide,,,
The dvd hasn’t even come out yet. That will add another 20mil…
It’s INDIANA JONES, it should have been the top grossing film of the year and should have gotten there in record time. But it didn’t.
Any other movie making that much money is amazing, Indiana Jones making that much is coming up short.
790,I tried unsuccessfully to post this earlier (It may show up later)
But to me a movie with high expectations that performed truly terribly at the box office was Speed Racer .
It was from the creators of the Matrix,
so, the high expectations are there and it was the biggest bomb of the year .
Wes,
it might take some time but I fully expect another Hulk film.
Biggest bomb of the year? Naw don’t think so. I loved Speed Racer didn’t have any problems with it. ??
790 i am speking financially , in relations to its budget.
it opened with 20 million and faded fast
That’s true Gary, I think it made overall somewhere around 50 mil domestic.
But ya know at the end of the day, who cares, all I want was a good ride, and I got one with Speed Racer.
I don’t usually base my love of a film on its domestic take.
Ken J, your logic gets weirder by the day,,,
My favorite summer movies: top 5 1: Hulk 2 2: Spidey 3 3: Iron Man 4: The Dark Knight 5: X-Men 3
I think the next time we see the Hulk (if we see him at all) will be in the Avengers movie.
Vic
I haven’t seen Indy 4, The Incredible Hulk or Tropic Thunder so I’m not sure if it could get a spot on my list. But here’s my my top 5:
1. The Dark Knight
2. Iron Man
3. Kung Fu Panda
4. Wall-E
5. Wanted
Hellboy 2 would have been my fifth but I really like Wanted more than it. I personally didn’t like Hancock and Speed Racer that much.
I also think next years movies will be good too, maybe better.
Louis Leterrier, the director of Hulk 2 had let it slip that Ed Norton had been signed along with Sam L and Robert Downey for the Avengers film…I forget where that happened.
I would love to see Universal give us another hulk film though, I don’t think it would be able to come out before Avengers though, but who knows.
790, in tonights CinemaBlend Podcast
They mentioned Eddie Murphys Meet Dave,
And I remembered it made 1.8 million when it debuted.
So, I was wrong about SR being the biggest bomb of the summer.
Sorry about that.
This is the first summer in a long time where i was satisified with most of the films I saw.
I second that, this summer is really amazing for movies. And this year there are still great movies coming out in the following months.
No prob Gary,,,
Don’t sweat the small stuff.
I was thinking about, “Swing Vote” that one really bombed too, I think it made like 5 mil opening weekend.
Keven Costner has just lost his mojo.
Lol,,,
Jenson, you gotta see Hulk when it comes out on dvd !!!
Great film, and I’m not even a real hard core Hulk fan.
Vfx are real good !!!
Most underrated Superhero film of the year. The Hancock crowd dosnt know what they missed !!!! Dorks!
Biggest flop of the summer has to be Speed Racer, made like $40 million and cost at least $150 million to make and another $50 million to market…just plain nasty. Plus I saw the movie and while I know some people enjoyed I thought it was awful, just a plain terrible film IMO.
What was Speed Racers international box office like? Would have to make something like at least $300-350 million total box office to even come close to breaking even and I know it’s $40 million in the us had to make it kind of hard to make a profit
Meet Dave money wise might be the biggest flop, but with what was expected of Speed Racer it has to be the biggest flop. A lot of people were saying it would make at least $150-200 million in norht america alone…and not even close
Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Crystal Skull was a discrace to the Franchise. Stunningly bad!
entertainmenttodayandbeyond, you just listen to me! Indy 4 does not sucks. and u dont understand a darn thing about it! this is the reason why
Speed Racer only made $89MM worldwide.
Vic
LOL, ok 790, if you say so. Frankly I don’t particularly place much credibility in your observations of other peoples’ logic…
@entertainmenttoday, I didn’t much like Indy 4 either, but I don’t think it was “stunningly bad.” It was OK up until the end… But for an Indiana Jones movie it was definitely a huge let down.
I definitely think this was one of the best summers movies I’ve ever seen. Almost all of them had quality Anyways, here’s my top 5:
1. The Dark Knight (YEAH!!! INVINCIBLE)
2. Iron Man (WOW!! What a surprise it was!)
3. The Incredible Hulk (A big improvement over Ang Lee’s)
4. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (love Prince Nuada)
5. WALL-E (best Pixar film ever)
Iron Knight, (love the name, mix of the two best movies this summer I assume?)
Did you find Wall-E too preachy? I didn’t want to give it any business at the theater because I heard it had some preachy message in it like Happy Feet did (OMG was that stupid…). What is your opinion? I’ve heard both.
@Vic
If you can give your opinion on this matter, I would appreciate your opinion too.
790, I definitely buy a copy of those movies I missed when it comes out in DVD.
@Ken J, IMO Wall-E is not that too preachy and its message has got more impact than Happy Feet(which is really kinda stupid). I only like the humors in that movie.
Find my review of Wall-E here on the site.
Vic
Wall-E was a big disappoint for me and I was thoroughly bored once the humans came into it.
Indiana Jones was also disappointing because to me, it was simply not good…and a film called Indiana Jones shouldn’t be that, so although it fooled the world by making absurd amounts of money based on title and the people involved, it certainly did not deserve it and I’m not going to the next one whenever that comes out.
Satish Naidu, you’re right buddy, I just re-checked and I think the prince of persia is 2010, that’s too bad, I thought it would be easily ready for next summer but I guess they don’t want to go in the weeks between other huge blockbusters.
Ken J, thanks (Ihad that name long before both movies were released this summer).
I didnt find WALL-E really preachy at all (for me), I mean, it has its own ideas deep inside, so it makes you think in some way if you want to fully understand it and catch them. But that’s exactly why I liked it.
The preachy aspects of Wall-E didn’t really phase me, I just didn’t find it entertaining less than half way though.
It felt incomplete and kinda going through the motions, so to speak as a big name CGI flick.
MAY BE IRON MAN IS GOOD BUT I THINK THAT A MOVIE LIKE THE DARK KNIGHT WHICH WAS Capable TO MAKE Vents WITH TITANIC TO MAKE IT NO 2 AND MAKE THE CRITICS SAY IT IS THE GODFATHER OF THE NOW DAYS I THINK THIS IS A masterpiece OF OUR TIME
Next Year I hear there coming out with Dragon ball the movie(fox)I love all the Marvel Movies. The was iron man went then the hulk and then there coming out with thor and more.. I think there about to make like marvel Movie with them all in it, If they do it will rock!
I’m always kind of late with this stuff :$
But here’s my Top 5 Best 2008 movie’s
1. Iron man
2. The Dark Night
3. Wanted
4. Jumper (Didn’t saw this one anywhere, but it was a pretty wicked movie)
5. Hellboy 2
The Dark Knight all the way. Every critic has given it 4/4 or 5/5 stars and might be nominated for best picture.
Yah, fortunately for me other peoples’ opinions rarely affect mine. Hey, hip hop is like the most popular music now, but I still think it sucks…
I think for me, my top movies this year would be:
1. Iron Man
2. The Dark Knight
3. The Incredible Hulk
4. Quantum of Solace
5. Tropic Thunder
6. Hellboy 2
Indiana Jones 4 is somewhere in the rest of the top 10, not sure how I would order the other films I saw this year.
There’s a difference between opinion and fact, no matter the opinion, fact is still fact.
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