Summer by the numbers

Labor Day brings the official end to Hollywood's summer movie season. Before we get too caught up in fall movies, let's take a moment to look back at the just-concluded summer season. As is usually the case, there is both good news and bad news to report.

The good news is that major films—the so-called "wide releases" that play on at least 600 screens—were generally better in the summer than they were earlier in the year. There were 14 well-reviewed wide releases (with Metascores at 61 or higher) this summer, and the average score for all major films was two points higher than it was in the spring, and over eight points higher than films released in the winter season.

However, the average Metascore for all 2011 movies actually edged downward in the summer, thanks to an unlikely culprit: limited release films. These indie, foreign, and art-house movies averaged just under 59. That mark was lower than the Metascore averages for limited release films in the spring and winter seasons, and it was the first time in five years that summer limited releases failed to average at least 61.

Here is a closer look at the Metascore averages by season for 2011 so far:

2011 Movie Metascore Averages by Season

Type		Summer			Spring			Winter			Year to Date
		Avg.	#Good		Avg.	#Good		Avg.	#Good		Avg.	#Good
All Films		57.0	84		58.3	48		55.5	29		57.2	161
Wide Releases		51.8	14		49.7	7		43.2	1		49.4	22
Limited Releases		58.8	70		61.7	41		60.8	28		60.0	139

In this and all other charts on the page, re-releases and movies with fewer than seven reviews are excluded. The winter season ended March 3, the spring season ended May 5, and the summer season ended on Labor Day (September 5). A wide release film is one that screens at more than 600 theaters. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). A "good" film is one with a Metascore of 61 or above.

How does this year compare to past years? The average Metascore for summer wide releases actually hit a five-year high in 2011, and the average Metascore for the top grossing films of the season was at its highest point since 2008. However, thanks to all those lackluster limited releases, the average for all summer films this year was lower than it was in each of the previous four years.

Average Metascores by Year for Summer Movies, 2007-2011

It seems like every major summer movie these days is either an action film, a sequel, or both. As it turns out, that may not be such a bad thing; this summer, action-oriented movies received higher Metascores, on average, than any other genre, and sequels (including remakes and prequels) fared better than movies based on original concepts. Here are the averages for each type of film released during the just-concluded summer season (wide release films only):

2011 Summer Wide Releases - Metascore Averages by Movie Genre and Type

Genre *	Avg.	% Good		Type	Avg.	% Good
Action	56	42%		Sequels, Prequels, Remakes	56	43%
Comedy	55	29%		Original Stories	51	29%
Drama	51	50%		Other Adaptations (from book, etc.)	49	23%
Kids	48	25%
Horror	43	17%

* Each film was placed into the one genre that best fit the film. Action includes sci-fi, action-adventure, and fantasy.
% Good indicates the % of each type receiving mostly positive reviews from critics (i.e., scoring 61 or above).

Best and worst films of 2011 so far

While summer certainly brings films with mass appeal, that doesn't have to translate to poor quality; all but two of 2011's best-reviewed wide release films were released during the summer months:

= summer release Best Wide Releases of 2011 So Far

	Title	Genre(s)	Metascore	Users
1	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2	Fantasy	87	7.8
2	Midnight in Paris	Comedy	81	7.9
3	Rango	Family/Animation	75	7.3
4	Bridesmaids	Comedy	75	7.5
5	Winnie the Pooh	Family/Animation	74	7.3
6	Source Code	Sci-Fi/Thriller	74	7.5
7	Super 8	Sci-Fi/Thriller	72	7.4
8	Crazy, Stupid, Love.	Comedy	68	7.5
9	Rise of the Planet of the Apes	Sci-Fi/Action	68	7.8
10	Kung Fu Panda 2	Family/Animation	67	7.8

Although scores have been rounded to the nearest whole number, movies are ranked prior to rounding. User scores represent an average of scores assigned by Metacritic.com site visitors on a scale from 0 (bad) to 10 (good). All scores on this page are from September 5, 2011.

While the score for the final Harry Potter film was impressive, it is actually the lowest top score for a summer wide release in the last five years. It was also the first time in that span that the top spot hasn't been claimed by a Pixar movie. Interestingly, Pixar did have a summer release this year, but Cars 2 57 proved to be the worst-reviewed film in the studio's history. (In fact, it is the only one of Pixar's 12 films not to receive a Metascore in the green range indicating generally positive reviews from critics.)

Best Summer Wide Releases by Year

2011		2010		2009		2008		2007
	87		92		88		94		96
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2		Toy Story 3		Up		WALL-E		Ratatouille

While summer brought 14 wide releases that finished with green Metascores of 61 or higher, a total of 70 limited releases reached that mark during the season, which is the highest total in the past five years. However, only one of those summer films received a score high enough to qualify for our list of 2011's best limited releases (below). In other words, though there were a lot of good summer films this year, there were few great ones.

= summer release Best Limited Releases of 2011 So Far

	Title	Genre(s)	Metascore	Users
1	My Perestroika	Documentary	92	8.0
2	Poetry	Foreign, Drama	90	7.9
3	The Arbor	Biography, Documentary	88	6.8
4	I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You	Foreign, Drama	87	n/a
5	Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives	Foreign, Fantasy, Comedy	87	6.6
6	13 Assassins	Foreign, Action	87	7.4
7	The Interrupters	Documentary	86	n/a
8	Cave of Forgotten Dreams	Documentary	86	7.0
9	Of Gods and Men	Foreign, Drama, History	86	6.7
10	Nostalgia for the Light	Documentary	85	n/a

The summer season also introduced several new titles into our list of the year's most terrible films, including the Dermot Mulroney-directed rom-com Love, Wedding, Marriage (starring Mandy Moore as a marriage counselor with a PhD in psychology), which is the lowest-scoring summer release since 2007's Daddy Day Camp.

= summer release The Worst Films of 2011 So Far

	Title	Genre(s)	Metascore	Users
1	Love, Wedding, Marriage	Comedy	13	n/a
2	Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil	Family/Animation	20	3.7
3	Apollo 18	Sci-Fi/Thriller	21	5.4
4	A Love Affair of Sorts	Drama	22	n/a
5	Passion Play	Thriller	22	n/a
6	Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son	Comedy	22	4.2
7	The Roommate	Thriller	23	3.1
8	An Invisible Sign	Drama	23	n/a
9	Shark Night 3D	Horror	24	5.1
10	The Family Tree	Drama/Comedy	24	n/a

Money matters: Summer's biggest successes and flops

At this point last year, eight movies had exceeded the $200 million mark (led by Toy Story 3's $400 million); this year, just five films have done so. Does that mean this summer has been bereft of hits? Far from it. Nine of the year's highest grossing films to date were released during the summer season, including big budget sequels in the Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Transformers franchises, comedies such as The Hangover Part II and Bridesmaids (the latter also doubling as summer's biggest box office surprise), and family films like Cars 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2.

Three of the top four films (all but the Hangover sequel) were massive foreign hits as well, each grossing more than $1 billion worldwide. Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was also notable for becoming the highest-grossing Harry Potter film in the series, and scoring the biggest opening weekend in movie history.

However, not all was well at the box office, even with some of the higher grossing films. On Stranger Tides is the worst performing entry in the Pirates franchise (ditto the underperforming X-Men First Class in the X-Men series, though that did just well enough to merit another sequel), while Cars 2 was not only a critical disappointment, but will also likely finish as the lowest grossing Pixar film in the studio's history (adjusted for inflation).

And then there were the outright flops. Remember Tom Hanks doing double duty as director and star of Larry Crowne? You probably don't; it grossed just under $36 million, placing an uninspiring 58th among 2011 releases so far. Are you among the Gleeks who checked out Glee The 3D Concert Movie? Probably not; that film suffered through the worst opening weekend of any major release this summer, and has grossed just $11.8 million to date. But the summer's biggest money-losing failures were comic book movies Green Lantern (grossing just $116 million domestically against a $200 million budget) and Cowboys & Aliens ($97 million against a $163 million budget), while both the Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night remakes also look unlikely to be profitable (though both had lower budgets).

= summer releaseHighest Grossing Films of 2011 (Through September 5)

	Title	Release	Metascore	Users	Domestic Gross
1	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2	Jul. 15	87	7.8	$375,552,093
2	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	Jun. 29	42	5.9	$350,500,012
3	The Hangover Part II	May 26	44	5.7	$254,416,436
4	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	May 20	45	6.5	$240,794,584
5	Fast Five	Apr. 29	67	7.4	$209,837,675
6	Cars 2	Jun. 24	57	5.9	$189,256,895
7	Thor	May 6	57	7.1	$181,030,624
8	Captain America: The First Avenger	Jul. 22	66	7.2	$172,272,760
9	Bridesmaids	May 13	75	7.5	$168,517,430
10	Kung Fu Panda 2	May 26	67	7.8	$164,827,049

The above table includes movies released in 2011 only. Note that many of the above films are still in theaters. Source of box office grosses: Box Office Mojo.

Below, you can compare the total grosses for all summer releases and the year to date through Labor Day with the same figures for the previous four years. And there is some good news. While 2011 trails behind the previous two years for full year grosses earned through September 5, total revenue collected during the summer months (including for films originally released in the spring) is estimated at just under $4.4 billion, which is an all-time record high for the season.

That record does hide an uncomfortable fact for the movie industry, however: the number of tickets sold this summer was either declined slightly or increased by just 1% compared to 2010 (depending on whose estimates you trust). While summer ticket sales routinely topped 600 million between 1999 and 2007, only 543-550 million tickets were sold in the just-concluded summer season. These relatively flat attendance figures reveal the real reason revenues were so high this summer: rising ticket prices.

Still, the summer figures brought continued good news to exhibitors and studios who were hurting after a disastrous start to the year. Full year-to-date domestic receipts now trail the 2010 figures by about 4%, a marked recovery from early March, when 2011 trailed the previous year's grosses by over 19%.

Total U.S. Box Office Grosses (in Millions)

Year	Summer Grosses		Full Calendar Year Grosses to Date *
2011	$4,397.4		$7,366.0
2010	$4,215.3		$7,678.7
2009	$4,326.0		$7,389.8
2008	$4,131.3		$6,895.6
2007	$4,167.5		$6,971.8

* Year to date totals are through September 5 of each year, and include all domestic grosses earned during the calendar year (including receipts for movies first released during the previous calendar year that carry over into the following year).
Source: Box Office Mojo.

What are your favorites?

Have you seen any good movies yet this year -- or any terrible ones? Let us know in the comments section below.