One Crazy Warner Bros Summer
Fri, December 4, 2009 
Warner Bros, the studio that routinely kicks all kinds of ass when it comes to the Summer movie season, has released their entire schedule for 2010. WB's summer slate looks slim to put it lightly. The studio that brought us films such as "Batman Begins", "The Dark Knight", "Superman Returns", and "The Hangover" in past Summers appears to be pumping the breaks in 2010. Their most high profile release for Summer 2010 will be "Sex and the City 2" which drops on May 28th. The film is sure to make a solid run at the box office providing an alternative to Paramount's "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time", but could be hard pressed to surpass the 415 + million take the original enjoyed
On June 18th WB is releasing obscure comicbook film "Jonah Hex", starring Josh Brolin and with a small role by the "hot" but no longer a media darling, Megan Fox. I personally don't think this film is going to play that well at the box office and releasing it in the summer is a mistake. Hex makes a lot more sense in late August or even in September. Going up against Paramount's "Footloose" and "Toy Story 3" won't help it. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is set for a 6/30 release which will bury any possible success that "Jonah Hex" might have a chance to experience.
Christopher Nolan, the man who had fanboys drooling with 2008's "The Dark Knight" was given complete control of "Inception" which is set to be released on July 16th. Featuring an all star cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page you would think that this movie is set up for major success. With all due respect to Nolan, who shook the movie world with his dark and gritty look into Gotham's only hero, Inception has the possibility to be a slight disappointment for the studio. The budget is around 200 Million and I can't see "Inception" making this back domestically due to a really tightly packed July, sandwiched between similar movies like "Knight & Day' & "Salt"
"Cats and Dogs: Revenge of the Kitty Galore" and "The Lottery Ticket" bring up the rear for WB's Summer. The sequel to 2001's successful movie "Cats and Dogs" debuts on July 30th and should perform solidly, pulling between 90 - 100 million domestic, in the same range as the original. "The Lottery Ticket" is a much smaller comedy with Bow Wow in the lead. Instead of going out with a bang, WB is going out with a wimper. The comedy reads like a 30 million dollar domestic flick, a young man who is living in the projects needs to make it through a harrowing three day weekend when his neighbors discover he has a winning $350 million lottery ticket in his possession.
How the mighty have fallen. I'd bet my Tron poster that WB is kicking themselves for not positioning a Superman film or other similar tentpole for Summer 2010. It is all together possible that they can move around some tentpoles, it's not like moving furniture but it sure is doable. WB could still be feeling the after effects of the strike, but it seems odd that a perennial Summer Box Office Champion is going into Summer 2010 with a butter knife while studios like Paramount are bringing the heat with rocket launchers courtesy of "Shrek Forever After", "Iron Man 2", and "The Last Airbender". For WB, that's one crazy summer.
Check out WB's entire 2010 slate at Coming Soon.
Reader Comments (2)
WB was hit the hardest by the strike and 2010 is the result of that. They rushed a lot of projects and then canceled them all when the writers signed back. I really hope they push Jonah Hex away from these other blockbusters so people will see it.
Does it matter? Potters gonna be doing 1 billion worldwide next November.