Box office stays hot in July

'Dark Knight' jumpstarts sluggish start to month

By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

The 'Dark Knight' performance boosted July box office to 2007 levels.

'Pineapple Express' is among the high-profile upcoming pics that could help boost B.O. to record levels.

Thanks to "The Dark Knight," the July box office recovered from a sluggish start to finish essentially on par with July 2007.

That gives the film biz a real shot at scoring its second consecutive record-breaking summer domestically.

Through Sunday, summer grosses were running 1% ahead of the same period in 2007. Year-to-date grosses are running a half a percentage point behind.

In terms of how many people are actually going to the movies, the picture isn't as rosy, with attendance down roughly 3.2% for the summer and 4% for the year.

The average price for a movie ticket jumped from $7.08 in the first quarter to $7.16 in the second, according to new stats provided last week by the National Assn. of Theater Owners. Last year, the average ticket price was $6.88; in 2006, it was $6.55.

Strength of the summer box office came as something of a surprise to both studios and exhibitors. Few thought it would be possible to replicate the summer of 2007, which posted $4.16 billion in B.O. grosses, the best on record.

For the first time ever in one summer -- or year -- four films made north of $300 million in 2007: "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Spider-Man 3," "Shrek the Third" and "Transformers."

This summer, three films have grossed north of $300 million domestically, with one, Batman sequel "The Dark Knight," now on the brink of topping $400 million. And so far, three pics -- "Kung Fu Panda," "Hancock" and "Wall-E" -- have made between $200 million and $300 million, the same number as last summer.

With a month of summer still left, six films have grossed between $100 million and $200 million, again matching 2007 for the same period.

To best last summer's total B.O. gross of $4.16 billion, theater owners will have to rack up roughly $790 million in ticket sales between now and Labor Day. If movies continue to perform, that's doable.

Last year's August box office grosses totaled roughly $814 million, led by "The Bourne Ultimatum," "Rush Hour 3" and "Superbad."

There are several high-profile releases yet to unspool this summer, including R-rated laffers "Pineapple Express" and "Tropic Thunder," actioner "Death Race" and George Lucas' CGI-animated "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." The rest of the August crop includes sequel "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," 3-D toon "Fly Me to the Moon," comedy "The Rocker" and "Babylon A.D."

There's also a batch of strong holdovers, led by "Dark Knight," which many predict could hit $500 million domestically. "Mamma Mia" and 3-D action adventure "Journey to the Center of the Earth" also continue to enjoy good business. It remains to be seen whether R-rated comedy "Step Brothers" will be dinged by Wednesday's release of "Pineapple Express," also R-rated. Both laffers were produced by Judd Apatow and are being released by Sony.