Summer Movie Box-Office Wrap Up: The Pirates Came. They Saw. They Conquered.

At the beginning of the summer, I predicted what the top 25 movies of the season would be. Below is listed the actual top 25 and behind several are what I predicted they would do.

Also, I predicted that The Devil Wears Prada and Little Miss Sunshine would be the sleeper hits of the summer and that Miami Vice and Poseidon would bomb. Ha! (Several of my other predix were off, but oh well. I got those right so I'm happy!)

Top Movies of Summer 2006

(Many grosses are projected final grosses.)

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - $422m (325)
2. Cars - $244m (250) SCORE!
3. X-Men: The Last Stand - $234m (180)
4. The Da Vinci Code - $218m (225) SCORE!
5. Superman Returns - $199m (240)
6. Over the Hedge - $155m (155) OH SNAP!
7. Talladega Nights: Ballad of Ricky Bobby - $148m (100)
8. Click - $137m (130) SCORE!
9. Mission Impossible 3 - $133m (200) OUCH
10. The Devil Wears Prada - $124m (62) I'm so happy to be off with this one!
11. The Break Up - $119m (105)
12. Nacho Libre - $80m (74)
13. You, Me and Dupree - $76m (86)
14. Word Trade Center - $72m (58)
15. Monster House - $72m (125) OUCH!
16. Barnyard - $70m
17. Little Miss Sunshine - $66m
18. Step Up - $64m
19. Miami Vice - $64m (80)
20. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift - $62m (65) SCORE!
21. Poseidon - $61m (95)
22. Invincible - $60m
23. Little Man - $58m
24. The Omen - $55m (56) OH SNAP!
25. The Lake House - $52m (52) OH SNAP!
26. Lady in the Water - $42m (72)
27. John Tucker Must Die - $41m
28. The Illusionist - $40m
29. Snakes on a Plane - $35m (70)
30. Accepted - $34m
31. The Ant Bully - $28m
32. Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties - $28m (60)
33. The Descent - $26m
34. An Inconvenient Truth - $25m
35. Clerks 2 - $24m
36. My Super Ex-Girlfriend - $22m (64)
37. Waist Deep - $21m
38. Pulse - $20m
39. A Prairie Home Companion - $20m
40. Beerfest - $18m

Final Thoughts:

The 10 Movies That Define Summer 2006:

Cars
Pixar still owns it.

The Da Vinci Code
May not have been the film audiences wanted, but that controversy and hype sure was fun!

The Devil Wears Prada
Remember the studio movies of yesteryear that had fabulous stars and witty writing! DWP does, and audiences are hungry for non-juvenile, non-grossout comedies like this one.

An Inconvenient Truth
I hate to say that some films are important and must be seen, but....

Little Miss Sunshine
Mainstream indies make people feel hip. And they really, really, really love Steve Carell.

Mission Impossible 3
If no one wanted a sequel to begin with, it's not going to do anything despite it easily being the best in the series. This disappointment began the summer, and the Cruise-Paramount fallout ended the summer.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
.....

Snakes on a Plane
Proof that fanboys and internet marketing aren't really as powerful as we thought. Nevertheless, this is going to have a long happy life on DVD.

Superman Returns
It's what happens when a movie is in development for far too long: like MI3, no matter how good it ends up being, people will just lose interest.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
You could credit this success to Will. You could credit it to the funny trailers and solid marketing. But really, it's NASCAR. And NASCAR only.

How do you end this summer?

To quote the most quoted character of the year....

"That's all."