5. Dawn of The Planet of The Apes
The $72m opening weekend was 33% higher than Rise of The Planet of The Apes, demonstrating the esteem in which that film is held. The only way is down, usually, but Cloverfield director Matt Reeves boldly created a follow-up that matched its predecessor’s excitement and intelligence and took mo-cap technology to a new apex.
Even James Cameron must have muttered, “How the hell did they do that?!” The most critically acclaimed blockbuster of the summer, its final $204m tally was well-deserved and ensures that the Apes will rise again – on July 29th 2016 to be precise.
4. X-Men: Days of Future Past
There was a sneaking suspicion that this ‘Old Cast Meets New Cast’ entry might have turned out to the X:Men version of Star Trek: Generations, with all the negative, disappointing connotations that suggests. It was a masterstroke to bring back director Bryan Singer, whose absence has been felt ever since he vacated the chair after X2.
Days of Future Past pleased the core fan-base but a 64% drop in its second week suggests that the well of X-Love isn’t as deep as it seems. Its eventual $232m total didn’t match Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s spring grosses, and he’s supposed to be the boring one.
Great summary of the summer. I am not sure why opinions were SO mixed on Godzilla. I thought it was EASILY the best Godzilla movie of all time. I mean have the complainers actually seen any of the source material? The new Godzilla was The Godfather comparatively. Apes, Xmen and Guardians were my other favs of the summer. Disappointing though Michael Bay will be reinforced to make more Transformers of the same ilk. T4 was the worst. I liked Revenge of the Fallen better for goodness sake. Yet it still made a billion globally so another one is on the way. I mean, Optimus easily flying at the end kind of defeats the purpose of a lot of the crap from the first three doesn’t it? Sigh…..
I hear tell that Michael Bay is handing the reins to another director for Tran5formers. It would be nice if they gave it to Lars Von Trier to play with but I suspect that Louis Leterrier is already on the phone to Hasbro. Thanks for the comments