6 Films that Surprised us This Summer
This summer has been looked upon as a large disappointment. From poor critical reviews for highly anticipated film like X-Men: Apocalypse, Warcraft, Free State of Jones, Independence Day: Resurgence, Jason Bourne, and Suicide Squad, to the mixed reception to films like The Angry Birds Movie, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Me Before You, Now You See Me 2, Ghostbusters, and Star Trek: Beyond, it almost feels like the whole summer was a bust, both at the box office and with the quality of films. However, this summer actually has several hits, some of them unexpected, and I also have to say there is a share of big disappointments as well. So here are six that surprised me this summer, both positively and negatively.
The Nice Guys
The pairing of Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling was one of, if not the best, of the summer when it came to unlikely duos. Shane Black’s direction and script were excellent, and it made for a very funny time at the movies, albeit it was pure adult entertainment. However, it just couldn’t catch the flame it deserved at the box office. While the critics were on-board, it only made $36 million domestically and $57 worldwide. At a cost of $50 million, it lost the studio close to $30 million with the marketing and back-end deals. While I wasn’t expecting gangbusters business at the box office, it should have done better. Much better.
Finding Dory
The big breadwinner this summer was the box office performance of Finding Dory. Not only did the film have a bigger opening than expected, most had it at $110 million but it reached $135 million, but it also had tremendous word-of-mouth and became the biggest animated hit of the year so far domestically and the largest grosser of the whole domestic summer, $478.5 million and counting. It stands as the fourth-highest grossing film worldwide this year and will come close to the next film, The Jungle Book. Critics were also a fan of this one, but I was saying $400 million domestically would be an excellent finish, but the film has done well above that. While I wasn’t so hot on the film as others were, it was clear that I was in the minority and kids and families were eager to go back and find the film again and again.
The Legend of Tarzan
I was ready to call this film the biggest bomb of the summer. I didn’t feel any of the buzz around the film, the trailers looked unimpressive, and it felt like its opening weekend competition (it competed against The BFG, The Purge: Election Year, and the repeats of Finding Dory and others) would be too much for it. Well, color me surprised. Not only did it earn $38 million opening weekend, over $20 million more than I was expecting, it held on and became a $125 million hit domestically. It also did well internationally, totaling $347.5 million. Well done, Tarzan. While critics weren’t impressed, it clearly had its fans.
The Secret Life of Pets
Illumination Entertainment has a great track record of great animated performers domestically with their Despicable Me series (2010-ongoing) and the spin-off Minions (2015), but most people said The Secret Life of Pets would enjoy around $280 million domestically and still bring in a lot of money. Well, we weren’t prepared for the performance it is continuing to give. As it turns out, once the kids were sick of seeing Dory, Pets was just opening and took up the money families were willing to pay to entertain this summer. The film went over $100 million opening weekend and it didn’t stop there. It has a total of $346.7 million and counting domestically and has topped $675 million worldwide. Not only is this another bulls-eye for the studio, but the start of another big franchise for Illumination. Critics were, for the most part, in favor of the film, too, but the kids everywhere will be enjoying the toys from the film for the upcoming Holidays.
Lights Out
The Conjuring 2 and The Darkness opened up the summer box office horror films, and while Darkness was quickly forgotten, Conjuring 2 was a mildly successful second entry in the series. It wasn’t until Lights Out came on the scene that the horror fans came out in droves for a film. Not only did the film have a good critical reception, but the word-of-mouth really opened many eyes to the film. The film was looking at $15 tops opening weekend but got up to $21 million and is about to pass $65 million domestically. For the $4.9 million budget, this is easily the most successful film of the summer when it comes to gross over budget gross, and that’s not counting the $110 million worldwide total, and it will only go up from there.
Bad Moms
Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, and the other bad moms in the movie really went above and beyond the box office expectations. While the critics were fairly mixed, the word-of-mouth, especially with the target audience of women 30+ who are moms themselves, was unlike anything I’ve seen since The Hangover (2009). And what do you know, it’s from the same writers as that film. The film opened well at $25 million, beating expectations by close to $10 million, but the drop-off weekend to weekend has been spectacular so far. While it isn’t doing as well internationally, domestically it is well on its way to a $100 million finish. Plus it has yet to open in a few international markets, so it can only go up from its current worldwide total of $106 million.
While the summer box office season isn’t over yet, we do have a couple of films that are hitting well. Suicide Squad just hit $260+ domestically, and Sausage Party has crossed $65 million after 10 days. Feel free to leave a comment or two regarding what you thought were the standouts this summer, money-wise or quality. Either way, there’s a lot to talk about after the summer we’ve had.
