Box Office Recap: September 7, 2014

Guardians leads again, but the Summer was one of the worst ever.

Someone once said that you never know the bottom of something until you're down in it. Summer 2014 will definitely have something to say about that, as it attained levels of infamy unseen in over 30 years. While Guardians of the Galaxy easily held on to first place for the third-straight weekend, the news about the overall health of the Summer market was fairly grim.

According to our friends at Box Office Mojo, the top 12 movies this weekend earned approximately $51.9 million, making it the lowest-grossing in two years ($51,85m). You would have to go back to September 5-7 2008, when the top 12 grossed $50.3 million, to see a similar competitor. The reason for such a horrible performance is simple: only one new film was released this week, at nearly one-third the theaters of a standard release. That film - the poorly-received The Identical - arrived at 11th place with just $1.91 million. Yes, you heard me correctly: the only "major" release of the week garnered one-fortieth that of a film released over one month ago.

But the news doesn't end there:

• Factoring in inflation, Summer 2014 receipts will go down as the worst in 17 years (via uproxx.com).
• It's the first time in 8 years in which the box office didn't make $4 billion. In 2007, the box office took in only $3.7b.
• With a mind-boggling 20% decrease, Summer saw the worst year-to-year slump in over 30 years.

Movie houses depend on Summers for the majority of their receipts, much like retailers depend on Christmas shoppers to line their pockets in order to turn a profit. To have the main money-getter actually see a DECREASE in profits is unheard of.

So, this begs a question: does GoTG's 'dominance' really mean anything, particularly when its inevitable $300m domestic take finally arrives? Imagine what might have happened if Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians had switched release dates. Higher praised than Guardians - and liked a whole lot more by this reviewer - it's highly unlikely that the 'smash hit film of the Summer' would have been anything but a blip on the radar once the season started in earnest. That's not to take away from its success, but it does make one realize the value of release dates.

And while it's too early to say, Summer 2015 is not as solid as one might hope: there, tentpoles such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, Fury Road, and Ted 2 represent the only sure-fire hits in a relatively small schedule. Granted it's early, but we hoped that Hollywood might have learned its lesson with 2014 in scheduling 2015. Not yet:Fast 7 is slated for an April 7th release, and August looks pretty thin, with Assassin's Creed and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. from its success, but it does make one realize the value of release dates.

Will September bring us films we can actually see? Check out our film preview post and decide for yourself.

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