Hollywood's box office wins streak continues

Its been a good Summer for the Hollywood movie studios. The Summer got off to fast start with the release of Iron Man back in early May and the more recent success of another comic book hero, Batman, is continuing the hot streak. So far a dozen Summer movies releases have grossed over $100 million at the domestic North American box office. (Movie attendance may slow down once the Olympics are underway.)

In addition to Iron Man and The Dark Knight (which will shortly overtake Iron Man to become the biggest Summer hit) the fourth Indiana Jones installment has also grossed over $300 million. Meanwhile, animated feature Kung Fu Panda is over $200 million and Pixar's Wall-E is likewise poised to exceed that milestone later this week.

Name recognition continues to be the secret to unlocking moviegoers wallets. Of the top 12 releases, three are comic book adaptations, three are sequels, two are based on book series and another two are based on TV series. The biggest surprises to crack the Top 10 are arguably Kung Fu Panda and Wanted. The latter and Sex and the City dispel the notion that only G/PG/PG-13 rated movies can attract broad based viewership.

In the list below, the 2nd last column shows the cumulative gross thru Sunday (in thousands of $ US) and the final column shows the movie's release date:

1 Iron Man Par. $314,905 5/2
2 The Dark Knight WB $314,245 7/18
3 Indiana Jones … Crystal Skull Par. $313,626 5/22
4 Kung Fu Panda P/DW $208,972 6/6
6 Wall-E BV $195,235 6/27
8 Sex and the City NL $150,854 5/30
9 Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian BV $139,745 5/16
10 The Incredible Hulk Uni. $132,543 6/13
11 Wanted Uni. $128,616 6/27
12 Get Smart WB $124,214 6/20