Summer has begun!
And with it, the box office has soared.
Money has been pouring into theaters the entire summer and it appears as though it won’t stop anytime soon. With such movies as The Hunger Games ($642 million worldwide) and The Avengers ($1.3 billion worldwide), the movie watching season started off strongly. It won’t stop there. The next wave of movies began releasing with last week’s Men In Black III, which opened to a stellar financial weekend ($202 million worldwide) and stronger than average reviews.
Back at the beginning of the year, I posted my Top 10 2012 Movies I Want Now. I’ve been mostly correct about my picks and their placement, although my placement of The Avengers at #4 will obviously be very wrong by the end of the year—at least when it comes to the financials.
There are a number of other high-powered movies coming out this summer and beyond. Snow White & the Huntsmen is released this Friday. The Alien prequel Prometheus hits a week later in the US. Rock of Ages could surprise everyone—kidding! Brave, the new Pixar movie, will undoubtedly draw the full spectrum of age groups to the theater, while the July superhero movie The Amazing Spider-Man can’t be counted out either.
Then there is the behemoth known as The Dark Knight Rises, which is the third and final Christopher Nolan Batman film. After the genius of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, the new movie could break even The Avengers.
Word of mouth is key. If Nolan has created a great movie, people will go and go again in droves.
Looking outside of summer, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will enter the box office fray in December.
The question is: Who can top The Avengers?
If I had to bet, I’d say The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will likely gross more than The Avengers worldwide but due to its release with only a few weeks left in 2012, I can’t count that. In defense of that argument, Return of the King grossed $1.1 billion. In the ten years since then, it has assuredly grown a fan base and added a new generation that will have it grossing more than that previous amount worldwide.
The late year technicality aside, that means I have to go with The Dark Knight Rises. Will it gross more than The Avengers? Depends if Nolan meets the wonderful darkness that is The Dark Knight. The last movie made $1 billion worldwide. If the new movie is better than its trailers have led us all to believe, The Avengers could be in trouble.
So what do you think? Vote and comment below!
