Box Office: Hollywood Thunders to Record Summer

Crime fighters, caped crusaders and a dark knight saved the theater this season.

ByABC News
September 2, 2008, 1:13 PM

Sept. 2, 2008 — -- No one believes in superheroes like studio executives, and for good reason.

Crime fighters, caped crusaders and a dark knight saved their summer.

Thanks to avengers masked and unmasked, this year's summer films racked up a record $4.2 billion in ticket sales, according to season-end figures from Media By Numbers.

Though increased ticket prices mean that attendance was down 3.5%, the total still surprised most analysts and studio executives.

"I thought we were going to be about 5% down from last summer," says David Poland of MovieCityNews.com.

Last year had a diverse slate of heroes (including an ogre and pirate), but this summer was all about secret identities.

Comic-book and superhero films alone racked up nearly $1.4 billion.

"I don't think you can consider them a genre or a niche any more," Christopher Nolan said after directing "The Dark Knight." "They are serious literature, which is why serious actors and filmmakers want to be a part of them."

Indeed, films that leapt from the comics also generated some of the best reviews: The Batman installment garnered raves from 94% of the nation's critics, according to RottenTomatoes.com. "Iron Man" got recommendations from 93%, and graphic-novel-based Wanted got a thumbs-up from three-fourths of reviewers.

In addition to churning out some well-crafted flicks, studios did something rare: They got original. There were nine sequels this summer, the lowest number in half a decade. There were 14 in 2007.

"We had an assembly of chip franchises last year," including "Spider-Man 2," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Shrek the Third," says Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony Pictures.

"Sequels help the DNA of any franchise," says Blake, whose studio went sequel-free and had the fourth-largest film of summer in Hancock ($226.5 million). "But fresh ideas really took off this summer and probably got some new franchises off the ground."

Another group that kept ticket sales brisk this summer: older women. They pushed "Sex and the City" and "Mamma Mia!" into blockbuster territory.