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
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
@Ronnie
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.
@Ken J
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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