by Brad Brevet
Summer 2018 has come to an end, along with the month of August. To Hollywood’s delight, August finished up +29% compared to 2017’s disastrous performance and the summer movie season was up nearly +15% compared to last year’s similarly dismal showing. Disney led the way over the summer months serving as the only studio to top $1 billion in calendar grosses for the time frame, led by the June release of Incredibles 2, which brought in over $600 million to become the highest grossing animated domestic release ever.
Summer was also bolstered by such releases as Universal’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Fox’s Deadpool 2, the late-spring carryover Avengers: Infinity War and late-summer releases including Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Warner Bros.’s August surge in the form of The Meg and Crazy Rich Asians. In fact, The Meg and Crazy Rich Asians helped push WB over the $1 billion mark domestically for the year, taking the studio crown for the month of August.
