Summer is now in full swing and if you are like me, you’re probably headed to the movie theater to get out of the heat. While brainstorming some ideas for this post, we started talking about summer movie trends and what recommendations we would make to airlines.
Quick comparison to 2011
Last year, the Top 10 movies by revenue grossed a combined $2.47 billion USD. As of this writing, the Top 10 so far this year have grossed $2.17 billion USD (numbers from Box Office Mojo). Very comparable.
A big difference, though, is how the numbers spread out. In 2011, the difference between the #1 movie and #10 movie was $200 million. But in 2012, the difference is $490 million! That’s a huge disparity. Without The Avengers and The Hunger Games, 2012 wouldn’t be looking so good.
Despite all of that, Gregory Ellwood of HitFix.com made the following prediction:
2012 is looking like a record year at the box office for Hollywood and that’s partially because of some of the big guns coming your way. Super heroes will continue to dominate the top spots as three of the most anticipated films in recent memory hit theaters between May and July.”
Several movies that are expected to be box office stars that were just released or will be released this summer include The Dark Knight Rises, Amazing Spider-man and Brave (my girls are excited for this one).
With the exception of Brave, this is the summer of superheroes.
In-flight release schedule for blockbuster titles
We spoke with several of the studios and have below the release schedule for some of the top summer movies. Sorry to any movies that didn’t make the list (we couldn’t make it exhaustive).
- The Hunger Games - July
- Dr. Seuss’ Lorax - July
- The Avengers - August
- Brave - September
- Men in Black 3 - September
- Amazing Spider-man - October
- The Dark Knight Rises - October/November
Wanting the studios to weigh-in, we spoke with Jeff Crawford at Warner Bros. to get his thoughts on their summer line-up.
Warner Bros. is very excited about our upcoming releases Magic Mike, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Campaign. Already opened summer releases include Dark Shadows and Rock of Ages.”
A few recommendations
Avengers and Hunger Games are way ahead of all the others in sales. They should be part of the foundation of your movie line up, whatever else you pick. As they’ll be out soon, you probably have already picked them. If that’s the case, consider carrying them over another cycle.
Based on current predictions, “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Amazing Spiderman” will be also be outliers this year. You should plan to include them as well.
Work with your Content Service Provider to include a good mix of these titles that are sure to be favorites with passengers.
Photo Credit: Marcelo Acosta
