This weekend marks the official end of the summer box office period and start of the fall season. And so, it’s time to review this summer’s releases.

There was plenty of negative buzz surrounding the summer season, but given the substantial amount of blockbusters and high-profile sequels, overall numbers were positive and box office earnings came in at $4.67 billion, which is up 9 percent from last year and up 6 percent from 2011, according to BoxOfficeMojo.

It was also a record-breaking, high-grossing season for Hollywood, which released worldwide hits like “Iron Man 3” ($1.2 billion), “Despicable Me 2” ($832 million), “Man of Steel” ($660 million), “Fast & Furious 6” ($788 million) and “Monsters University” ($724 million).

While those films were all expected to be successful given their franchise status — sequel, prequel or reboot — there were also plenty of expected hits that turned into surprising disappointments. “The Hangover Part III” grossed $351 million worldwide, which might seem successful, but the film was the lowest grossing film in the franchise. “The Lone Ranger,” which cost an estimated $215 million to make, only grossed $243 million worldwide. Lastly, “Turbo” only grossed $156 million worldwide on an estimated budget of $135 million.

There is plenty of good and bad news from this summer’s box office. The good news is that there is still a viable market for new horror films, as some originals proved quite successful. Released in early June, “The Purge” made more than $85 million worldwide on a budget of $3 million. One month later, “The Conjuring” shattered expectations with a $41.8 million opening, and has since grossed more than $259 million on a budget of only $20 million.

The second piece of good news is that certain comedies thrived this summer, evidenced by the global success of “The Heat” ($218 million), “We’re the Millers” ($179 million) and “Grown Ups 2” ($213.5 million).

The bad news about this summer is that there was an excessive amount of animated features.

In a period of three months, six major animated films were released, of which only two  — “Despicable Me 2” and “Monsters University” — were big hits. The other four — “Epic,” “Turbo,” “The Smurfs 2” and “Planes” — underperformed and could not compete against the other blockbuster fare.

The second piece of bad news is that there were no indie hits. The last two summers’ breakout independent films — “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Midnight in Paris” — grossed more than $68 million and $151 million, respectively. While this summer’s “Fruitvale Station” was relatively successful ($15.7 million thus far), it was nothing like the indie movies that hit the mainstream the past few summers.

Lastly, this summer proved that star power alone does not guarantee success. Take the disappointing results of Johnny Depp’s “The Lone Ranger,” Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx’s “White House Down” and Will Smith’s “After Earth.”

While audiences might have criticized major studios for releasing too many blockbusters, ticket purchases imply it may not have been that bad. After all, the reason this summer was so profitable for Hollywood was because of blockbuster films. The numbers are slightly skewed, however, because while Hollywood made more money, it also spent more on a larger number of films.

The good news for audiences, though, is that it’s time to focus on the Oscar-destined films that will soon be released.

Published on September 10, 2013 at 10:43 pm