The worst August in 21 years is fortunately put out of its misery. Story by Matt Cummings 2015 might become the biggest box office draw ever, but August will go down as one of the all-time worst. Theater owners saw empty lines for popcorn and even more depressing receipts last month, as the industry experienced a perfect storm of unprecedented flops, poorly-timed releases, and a lackluster set of films that kept audiences away in droves. The problem actually began in July, which included the under-appreciated ( Southpaw and Self/Less ), the dull ( Paper Towns ), and the just plain awful ( Vacation ). This set the stage for three nearly-instant August duds, The Fantastic Four , Ricki and the Flash , and The Man from UNCLE , before delving into two of the worst weekends of the year. In fact, August 2015 has achieved a set of records that theater owners and Hollywood fat cats would just as soon forget. Here are just a few: August 2015 was the worst since August 1994...