Sidelines Features

Robots in disguise

Earlier this week, it was thought there was a tie at the box office with both action film 

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and kiddie flick Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs raking in over $40 million on the 4th of July weekend. It has come out that Transformers beat Ice Age by approximately $600,000. Despite this success, Transformers will probably enjoy this weekend as its last as the top of the box office.

Why?

Because next week, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the next in the multi-million dollar Potter franchise is poised to take down all the movies currently at the top of the box office. It seems that the major studios bowed out of this week since the only film scheduled to premier the same week as Half-Blood Prince is the  limited release of the indie flick (500) Days of Summer.

After Potter, we won’t have another predicted summer blockbuster until G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra  is released on August 7 and then the  much anticipated Quentin Tarantino-Brad Pitt flick Inglorious Basterds, which will be released on August 21. Inglorious Basterds seems to be the last blockbuster of this summer.

Its been an okay blockbuster summer so far, especially considering that we are in the midst of a reccession. Sure, we haven’t had any major success stories a la Titanic nor any major disappointments like Hulk or Pearl Harbor. There is still much speculation why the critically panned Transformers with a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes  is still the top at the box office, but I chalk that one up to Megan Fox and explosions. In fact, Transformers is being called the most financially successful critically panned movie of all time by some reviewers.

The ending of the summer blockbusters is yet another sign that summer is coming to a close and the school year is rapidly approaching, but film fans have no reason to worry. Fall break and Thanksgiving blockbusters are just around the corner.