Summer has come and gone and as the seasons change so too, do the offerings at the cinema. The studios have just finished counting their summer box office receipts and the results show that this year's gross was the second biggest in history.
According to Variety, the traditional summer window that begins on May 1 and ends on Labor Day Weekend brought in $4.48 billion in ticket sales. That figure is a 10.4% improvement over last year's numbers. Analysts also predict that approximately 530 million people went to the cinema over the summer.
The season's big earnings come from Disney and Universal's rosters of big hits. The two studios combined to take 60% of the total market share during the summer window.
Boxofficemojo's figures show that Universal had three films in the top 5. Leading the way was the summer's apex predator Jurassic World, which brought in close to $650 million domestically. The number 4 spot went to their animated hit Minions with $330 million. Acapella sequel Pitch Perfect 2 rounds out the top 5 with $183 million in earnings. Another Universal film, the rap biopic Straight Outta Compton, came in tenth overall with $150 million. What's amazing to note is that these figures don't include Universal's other big 2015 hit Furious Seven, which screened earlier in the year.
Disney's summer one-two punch of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Inside Out took the second and third spots respectively. Ultron's $1.4 billion haul is nothing to scoff at, but it failed to top the $1.5 billion mark set by its predecessor which has some higher ups in the company labelling it a failure. Inside Out continued a strong run at the box office for Pixar, coming away with a $330 million haul.
