May in Review

In a way the month as a lot like the movies that filled it, big, bloated, fairly predictable and a little underwhelming. The box office, in recent months, has been on a record breaking streak until it hit this May, one of the worst starts to summer in years. Overall business was down 11% from last year. There were no surprises or break outs like last year’s Star Trek or Up. Then again this year did boast more big pictures, but outside a couple of big (but still under-performing) opening weekends, there wasn’t a whole lot of money to be made.

As I predicted in my box office predictions earlier this summer that Shrek Forever After would open significantly lower ($70 million and I was right on the money) than previous installments and that Iron Man 2 would fizzle out after the opening weekend and prove to have not-so-iron legs. Although I did not predict the box office for the rest of the month, my predictions for Sex and the City and Prince of Persia wouldn’t have been too far off. Here is a weekend by weekend highlight of the month. Continue reading →