Summer movie season is over

If the year’s first four months defied all expectations for what Hollywood could do in a recession, this summer delivered some sobering reality.

Through the end of April, domestic box-office receipts leaped 17% while admissions surged nearly 16% from the previous year, according to Hollywood.com. But as the weather turned hot, business cooled: From May 1 through Aug. 31, attendance was down 2.4% from 2008 and 6% from 2007. Summer box-office revenues rose 1.3%, not even enough to account for ticket price inflation, let alone the premiums charged in a growing number of 3-D theaters.

In the midst of the economic crisis, the best that studios could argue is that almost flat is the new up.

“To be marginally down on attendance and up on box-office at a time when so many other industries are struggling is a great comment on our business,” said Adam Fogelson, president of marketing and distribution at Universal Pictures.

If there was one lesson the studios learned -- often the hard way -- it was that audiences were in the mood to be amazed and to laugh. Big-budget spectacles like “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and gut-busting comedies like “The Hangover” ruled the season.

“It’s definitely true in a time of recession that people are looking for an escape, to be distracted, to be entertained and to laugh,” said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures.

On the flip side, adult dramas (“The Taking of Pelham 123” and “Public Enemies”) and neither-fish-nor-fowl comedies (“Funny People” and “Land of the Lost”) labored to cover their production costs.

“Adult dramas are more vulnerable than ever before in this business,” said Fogelson, whose studio was stung by several flops in the genre, including this spring’s “State of Play” and “Duplicity.”

The other victim of the summer was A-list stars, who studios used to think could “open” a movie on their names alone. Eddie Murphy in a family comedy used to seem like box-office gold, but “Imagine That” tanked. Jack Black wasn’t enough to light a fire under “Year One” -- and neither was Adam Sandler in “Funny People” nor Will Ferrell in “Land of the Lost,” one of the season’s biggest failures.

“This was not a star-driven summer,” said Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Group. As a result, all studios are now rethinking their commitment to $20-million actor paydays.

More than ever, box-office performance was inextricably linked to word of mouth. Good reviews still help -- as evidenced by “Star Trek” and “Up” -- but Twitter-era audience buzz spreads faster.

After a strong opening day, “Bruno” collapsed because of sour public reaction. “The Hangover,” meanwhile, moved from a buzz-propelled $45-million opening weekend to gross more than $270 million through Aug. 31.

“Audiences have become far more sophisticated in knowing what they want to see,” said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution at Sony Pictures. “In today’s world, you’d best have the goods.”

Here’s a report card on how each of the major studios fared this summer. The ranking is based on several factors, including evaluating a film slate’s box-office returns against production costs, the execution of marketing campaigns, and each studio’s ability to turn potential lemons into lemonade. All box-office grosses are through Aug. 31 and are domestic unless otherwise noted.

No. 1: Warner Bros.

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was the studio’s highest-grossing release this summer, with ticket sales of $294 million, the second best in the history of the boy wizard franchise.

But the sixth “Potter” installment, with a budget of $250 million, was far less profitable than “The Hangover,” a $35-million comedy that grossed more than $270 million. The bachelor-party movie proved not only that the usually conservative studio was willing to embrace a raunchy, R-rated production, but that Warner Bros. could successfully market a movie that didn’t feature Batman, Superman or Harry Potter.

Tellingly, the studio didn’t have an utter fiasco, as it did last year with “Speed Racer.” The lowest-grossing release, Robert Rodriguez’s “Shorts,” took in just $13.2 million, but the production was backed by two other financiers.

“Terminator Salvation” grossed substantially less than the previous two killing machine sequels, but Warner Bros. had a steady stream of niche-marketed, $40-million-plus grossing singles: “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” “My Sister’s Keeper,” “The Time Traveler’s Wife” and “Orphan.”

No. 2: Paramount

Last summer’s No. 1 studio released “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” -- the season’s biggest hit by far. With domestic ticket sales of more than $399 million and even more overseas, the robot movie far outperformed the first “Transformers” despite some of the worst reviews of any 2009 release.

With far more favorable notices, the studio fruitfully relaunched its moribund “Star Trek” franchise, which took in $256.7 million, and dodged a bullet with “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” a troubled, expensive production that nonetheless sold more than $132 million worth of tickets.

But Paramount suffered two massive misfires, “Dance Flick” ($25.6 million) and “Imagine That” ($16.1 million, less than what Murphy was paid to star). The flops helped cost production executives John Lesher and Brad Weston their jobs, and contributed to cash flow problems that forced Paramount to postpone Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” by four months to February.

No. 3: Disney

When the studio was casting “The Proposal,” it offered the lead role to Julia Roberts, who balked at Disney’s pay cut -- which was more than the studio ultimately paid Sandra Bullock to star. The romantic comedy not only opened to better business ($33.6 million) than any film in Bullock’s career but also grossed more ($160.2 million) than Roberts’ last two movies -- “Duplicity” and “Charlie Wilson’s War” -- combined.

With sales of $289.6 million, Pixar’s “Up” was the summer’s third-highest-grossing release, and Disney’s marketing department overcame a potential “Up” stumbling block: A septuagenarian widower floats away on balloons?

And although “G-Force” wasn’t a disaster with sales of nearly $112 million, Disney clearly missed the mark with the $150-million Jerry Bruckheimer production that the studio had hoped could become a new franchise and attract teens. Any wonder Disney is buying Marvel?

No. 4: Fox

From its catastrophic summer a year ago (“Meet Dave,” “Space Chimps” and “The Rocker” among the wreckage), Fox had nowhere to go but up. “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” grossed more than $193 million domestically, and more than three times that amount overseas.

The fan base wasn’t blown away by “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” but each topped $176 million. “I Love You, Beth Cooper” was a mid-budget dud, as was “Aliens in the Attic.”

No. 5: Sony

“Angels & Demons” cost more than its predecessor, “The Da Vinci Code,” and grossed substantially less domestically ($133.4 million) and overseas ($348.6 million) than 2006’s first Dan Brown film.

“The Taking of Pelham 123” and, especially, “Year One” vanished quickly, but a creative marketing campaign helped turn “District 9” into a late-season hit (more than $90 million), and women flocked to “The Ugly Truth” and “Julie & Julia.”

Buying foreign rights to “Terminator Salvation” proved to be a savvy move for Sony, as overseas business was almost double domestic.

No. 6: Universal

It’s a testament to Universal’s dreadful summer that the studio’s brightest spot was “Inglourious Basterds” -- a movie Universal released only internationally, while Weinstein Co. handled it domestically.

“Bruno” made money for the studio despite underperforming “Borat,” while “Public Enemies” was basically a draw.

“Funny People” was an expensive misfire, and “Land of the Lost” was a debacle. Now we’ll see if there’s a studio shake-up.

Wrap-up

Thanks to strong early months (Fox’s “Taken,” Universal’s “Fast & Furious” and Sony’s “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” among the breakouts), 2009 revenue is still up more than 7% from a year ago, while attendance has improved more than 3%. But with DVD sales collapsing (down 13.5% in the first half of the year) and production and marketing costs hardly falling, Hollywood will need the rest of the year to do at least as well as the summer -- if not better -- to keep its business healthy.

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ben.fritz@latimes.com

john.horn@latimes.com