Summer Box Office Rakes In $4.35 Billion
Harry Potter, The Hangover
Recession or not, the box office had a big summer, pulling in a total of $4.35 billion, a 5 percent increase over last summer.
The big winner this summer was Warner Bros., which earned just over $1 billion, 59 percent of which came from two films: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the surprise hit comedy The Hangover.
See the summer movies we were most excited for
Paramount scraped up $848.8 million with only nine releases. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen did most of the heavy lifting, earning $400.7 million during its run, the highest of any other flick domestically this summer.
Fox and Disney, which both ventured into the animated 3D realm this summer finished in third and fourth, respectively. Fox earned $652.3 million, led by Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ($193.4 million), and Disney raked in $612.6 million with Up ($290.9 milllion) leading the charge.
Sony and Universal earned $548.3 million and $344.1 million to round out the major studios' tally. The indies were led by the Weinstein Co., which pulled in $122.1 million with three titles, $95.1 million of which was earned by Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
What were your favorite movies of the summer?
