Summer 2009 Film Season Wrap-up Wrap-up

I think we can wrap up the summer film season here at Hang a Lantern On It: Hey, everyone else has.

The L.A. Times, Time Magazine and many other MSM sources have made lists which summarize the character and flavor of the 2009 summer movie season. Like the films themselves, they're sort of all alike. So in the interest of efficiency, Here's a summary of the summaries:

• A-List actors are out. This is a trend that's been long coming. Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy failed to open their pictures. The likes of Chris Pine, Shia LaBeauf and Bradley Cooper (who?) topped the bills of the winners.

• Toys always bring 'em in (Transformers 2, G.I. Joe).

• Grown-up films don't bring 'em in (Pelham 123, Public Enemies).

• Reviews don't matter that much anymore. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was, amazingly, not pre-screened for reviewers. And when the reviews came out, they were universally blistering. It still made $400 million. (I'm constitutionally bound not to consider the other explanation for this: Summer moviegoers are illiterate. I'll moderate this idea and go with the prevailing MSM wisdom, that people were looking to escape into loud, fast-paced, spectacular popcorn movies featuring Megan Fox.)

• Buzz is now instantaneous. Brüno fell 40% the day after release: Apparently, bad word-of-mouth was likely via texts and Twitter.

• More of the same always works (Transformers 2, Harry Potter, etc.) It seems the law of diminishing returns was suspended for the duration of the season.

• Pixar's success defies Hollywood logic. Up, starring nobody, did $289 million in BO. IMHO, Pixar's stock in trade is not animation, but quality, especially in writing. That's the part that defies Hollywood logic.

• The most successful Judd Apatow film this summer was an imitation Judd Apatow film (The Hangover).

• Julia Roberts may have lost her mad deal-making skills. She passed on The Proposal (not enough $), so Disney gave it to Sandra Bullock. It did $160 million.

• In a bad economy, status quo = success. Overall summer box office was up 1.3% from last year. This uptick doesn't even cover ticket price inflation from last year.