There may be a few more weekends of the summer movie season remaining, but the studios have already assessed the summer as something of a disappointment.
For one thing, there weren't nearly as many $100 million movies as expected — though that's not to say that there weren't a few blockbusters.
Here's a survey of the damage, studio by studio:
THE WINNERS
DreamWorks Pictures. One word: "Shrek." The summer's biggest hit proved once and for all that another studio besides Disney could succeed in the animated-film department. Even with the "Ghostbusters" wanna-be "Evolution" tanking, DreamWorks had a great summer.
Miramax/Dimension Films. Dimension successfully launched a potential franchise with "Spy Kids," which it's re-releasing next week with three minutes of additional footage. And "Bridget Jones's Diary" was a sleeper hit. But "Scary Movie 2" hasn't come close to making as much as its predecessor (at this point, it looks like it won't even hit the magical $100 million mark).
Universal Pictures. Having risen from the dead over the past year, the studio had three of the summer's biggest successes in "Jurassic Park III," "The Mummy Returns" and "The Fast and the Furious," which will also likely spawn a sequel. In fact, about the only negative was for Universal was "Josie and the Pussycats" — a film the studio has conveniently forgotten.
THE LOSERS
Disney Entertainment Group (Buena Vista/Hollywood/Touchstone Pictures). Normally you wouldn't label any studio with a nearly $200 million-grossing movie a loser, but considering that the film in question, the costly "Pearl Harbor," needed to make at least a third more than it did to break even, you can certainly make that argument.
Elsewhere, the studio's animated release, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire," drowned in the wake of "Shrek," and "crazy/beautiful" disappeared without a trace.
Sony Filmed Entertainment (Columbia Pictures, TriStar, Revolution Studios). The studio will be smarting from the pricey flop "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" for a long time to come. And Revolution Studios got off to an inauspicious start with a string of duds, including "The Animal" and "Tomcats."
SOMEWHERE IN-BETWEEN
Fox Filmed Entertainment. At this point, the studio has to be thanking "Planet of the Apes" director Tim Burton for saving its summer. "Dr. Dolittle 2" may have been a success, but the pricey "Moulin Rouge" still hasn't made its money back, and the less said about the disastrous "Freddy Got Fingered," "Say It Isn't So!" and "Monkeybone," the better.
Paramount Pictures. Another studio with one big hit, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," and a string of disappointments, including " 'Crocodile' Dundee in L.A.," and one outright bomb, "Pootie Tang."
Warner Bros. Pictures. The family comedy "Cats & Dogs" did surprisingly well. But the supposed "prestige picture" "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" failed to hit the century mark at the U.S. box office, as did "Driven."
(For those who are wondering why New Line Cinema or MGM Pictures didn't make the list, neither had much of a presence during the summer.)
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"Now, my gratification comes from being at it for 48 years; I've made a career, had a long one, and my enjoyment is getting up and going to work and doing a full day's work and coming home and saying, 'Yes, I did the best I could that day.' That's the satisfaction, not what the movie does commercially, or how much the critics like it. I gave my best." — 73-year-old actor James Garner, reflecting on his lengthy career.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com