Box Office Review: June 2012

June is essentially over, but the box office is about to heat up as July looks to beat last July's $1.395 billion to replace it as the highest grossing month of all time.

It is still too early to call this weekend's releases hits or misses, although Ted and Magic Mike, which both look to open around $50 million, will definitely be better off than Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection and People Like Us. However, their success really depends on how well they hold up against two of the biggest films of the year: Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises.

But anyway, here's my box office scorecard for the month of June.

What worked:

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
With $170 million already in the bank domestically, the third outing of everybody's favorite group of talking former zoo animals is definitely going to outgross the first two installments' $193 and $180 million domestic grosses. I'm sure y'all are just as excited to find out where they'll end up in the next sequel...

Brave
Pixar's thirteenth film looks to continue the studio's remarkable $200 million track record. After this weekend the film should have a gross of $130 million domestically. It should continue to play well throughout the summer, considering that Merida's only family friendly, animated competitors are Madagascar 3, Ice Age 4 and ParaNorman. Madagascar 3 has a few weeks' head start, but Brave has a good chance of outgrossing it and The Lorax to become the highest grossing animated film of the year.

The Avengers
Joss Whedon sure is greedy these days. Breaking all of the records wasn't enough, so now he has to go and beat Titanic's original run of $600.8 million. Whedon's behemoth grossed $70 million this month, making him the second ever director of a $600 million domestic grossing film. Jim Cameron's response? Avatar 2, 3, and 4.

Moonrise Kingdom
Though released in May, Moonrise Kingdom didn't receive wide distribution until the last weekend of June. After an amazing opening weekend, Anderson's most recent film has continued on an impressive incline, and looks to finish out the month above its $16 million production budget.

What didn't:

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Steve Carell might be able to weather the end of days (I don't really know because I haven't seen it yet...) but he didn't do such a great job weathering the summer box office. Of all the films released in June in more than 1000 theaters, Seeking had the worst domestic opening weekend with almost $4 million. It will probably get close to its $10 million production budget, but has no chance of doing any better than that. Is Steve's star fading? I hope not, because he is one of my favorite comedic actors.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
I normally don't have complaints about films involving Tim Burton, but 2012 has been a tough year for him so far. From the reviews I have read about Lincoln, the biggest problem for the film was the decision to play it straight rather than going campy. (Ironically, I remember criticizing Burton's Dark Shadows for going too far in the opposite direction.) The result? A $70 million should-be blockbuster with a tiny $25 million domestic gross.

Rock of Ages & That's My Boy
Same release date, both recalling the 1980s, both with production budgets around $70 million, and both have currently grossed $30 million domestically. Bad investments? Probably. Worth discussing further? Not in my opinion.

Honorable Mention:

Prometheus
If you've read my reviews you know how much I liked Prometheus, so it makes me sad that it hasn't quite reached the blockbuster proportions that I feel it deserves. A domestic gross of $115 million is respectable, except for the fact that the film is Ridley Scott's return to the Alien universe and the science fiction genre. Adjusted for ticket price inflation, Prometheus currently has the third highest domestic gross of the franchise, behind Alien and Aliens, with $249 million and $181 million respectively. It's a little better knowing that the film's $260 million worldwide gross is double its production budget, and hopefully that will be enough to convince Fox to invest in a sequel.

June 2012 Preview!

Here is a quick list of the films I plan to see in June:

Prometheus
Ridley Scott's return to science fiction and the Alien universe.  Written by Damon Lindelof. Staring Noomi Rapace.  Charlize Theron.  And Michael Fassbender as a robot.  Definitely worth standing in line for hours and hours to see in IMAX 3D at the midnight premier.

Safety Not Guaranteed
From the producers of Little Miss Sunshine comes another quirky indie comedy, this time about a reporter (Julie from Scott Pilgrim) investigating a man who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
I'm not totally sold on this one yet, and it's opening against Brave, so I will probably wait to see it until the following weekend since I won't be lining up to see Yet Another Bad Sequel Based On A Toy Brand (which has now been pushed back to March 2013 so it can be 3D-ified) or Steven Soderbergh Wishes He Was A Stripper.  The title is pretty self explanatory, and the trailers released so far look interesting.

Brave
In a competition against Lincoln (above) and Seeking (below), Brave is the clear winner in my opinion.  Pixar has only ever released one film that hasn't been universally loved, and I doubt that will ever happen again. 

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Don't you just love it when the title is longer than the movie itself?  This would be a no-brainer for seeing opening weekend if it weren't for the lead actress.  Steve is always hilarious, but I'm most interested in how they end the film. 

Beasts of the Southern Wild
If you haven't seen the trailer or director Benh Zeitlin's short Glory at Sea, go watch them RIGHT NOW.  Zeitlin's visual storytelling style is so unique and beautiful that I can't do it justice with words.  It's only getting a limited release from Fox Searchlight, but it will definitely be worth the time and effort to find a theater showing it.  Did I mention that it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Camera d'Or at Cannes?