Summer Movie Recap: Best Films, Prediction Results, and More

Best-reviewed films

Below are the highest-scoring films (with a minimum of 7 reviews from professional critics) released during the summer months this year.

Best Summer Movies of 2013 – Wide Releases

Movie		Genre	Metascore
1	Before Midnight	Drama	94
2	Fruitvale Station	Drama	85
3	The World's End	Comedy/Sci-fi	81
4	Blue Jasmine	Drama	77
5	The Grandmaster	Drama/Foreign/Action	73
6	Star Trek Into Darkness	Action/Sci-fi	72
7	The Conjuring	Horror	68
8	The Way, Way Back	Comedy/Drama	67
9	This Is the End	Comedy/Sci-fi	67
10	The Bling Ring	Comedy/Drama	66
... and the worst:
47	Grown Ups 2	Comedy	19

And here are the under-the-radar films that never made it to nationwide release but drew praise from the critics who saw them:

Best Summer Movies of 2013 – Limited Releases

Movie		Genre	Metascore
1	Stories We Tell	Documentary	90
2	The Act of Killing	Documentary	89
3	Drug War	Foreign/Action/Drama	88
4	Museum Hours	Foreign/Drama	86
5	Viola	Foreign/Drama	85
6	Short Term 12	Drama	85
7	Cutie and the Boxer	Documentary	84
8	Blackfish	Documentary	83
9	Twenty Feet from Stardom	Documentary	83
10	Frances Ha	Comedy/Drama	82
... and the worst:
159	Evidence	Thriller	14

Limited releases are films that played in fewer than 600 theaters at their peak. Re-releases and films with fewer than 7 reviews are excluded.

Highest-grossing films

Below are the films with the highest domestic box office receipts released from May-August this year (data through Labor Day; some of these films are still in theaters and will continue to add to their grosses). As a whole, despite a large number of flops, the industry did very well this summer; the total of $4.71 billion in North American grosses represents a 10.2% increase over last summer. And that rise wasn't just due to higher ticket prices; attendance was up by over 6% as well.

Highest Grossing Summer Movies of 2013

Movie		Domestic Box Office	Metascore
1	Iron Man 3	$409 million	62
2	Despicable Me 2	$356 million	62
3	Man of Steel	$290 million	55
4	Monsters University	$264 million	65
5	Fast & Furious 6	$239 million	61
6	Star Trek Into Darkness	$228 million	72
7	World War Z	$201 million	63
8	The Heat	$157 million	60
9	The Great Gatsby	$145 million	55
10	The Conjuring	$134 million	68

Domestic box office receipts through September 2, 2013 for films released between May 3, 2013 and August 30, 2013.
Box office data from Box Office Mojo

Best/Worst Opening Weekends for Summer Movies – 2013 *

Best Openers		1st Weekend Gross	Metascore
1	Iron Man 3	$174 million	62
2	Man of Steel	$117 million	55
3	Fast & Furious 6	$97 million	61
4	Despicable Me 2	$84 million	62
5	Monsters University	$82 million	65
Worst Openers		1st Weekend Gross	Metascore
1	Paranoia	$3.5 million	32
2	Getaway	$4.5 million	22
3	Peeples	$4.6 million	52
4	Jobs	$6.7 million	44
5	You're Next	$7.0 million	66

* Wide releases only; grosses are domestic only. Box office data from Box Office Mojo

Metascore prediction results

For the fourth consecutive year, we asked Metacritic users to predict the Metascores for the biggest summer films prior to the start of the summer movie season. This, however, wasn't their year. On average, user guesses were 10.9 points away from the actual score—a result far worse than last year's 8.5 point average gap and the worst figure in the four years we've been doing this. Once again, users were too optimistic, overestimating the scores for 20 of the 29 films (a 30th film was delayed to 2014). And while user predictions were off by fewer than 20 points for every film last summer, they met or exceeded that mark for three separate films this year, topped by a 33-point discrepancy for Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive follow-up Only God Forgives.

User Metascore Predictions vs. Actual Scores for 30 Key Summer Movies

Movie		Predicted		Actual		Difference
Pacific Rim		64		64		0
Despicable Me 2		63		62		-1
White House Down		50		52		2
RED 2		50		47		-3
The Smurfs 2		37		34		-3
Star Trek Into Darkness		75		72		-3
The Bling Ring		62		66		4
The Wolverine		56		60		4
Iron Man 3		67		62		-5
The Internship		50		42		-8
Monsters University		73		65		-8
World War Z		55		63		8
Fast & Furious 6		51		61		-10
The Great Gatsby		65		55		-10
The Heat		50		60		-10
This Is the End		57		67		10
Elysium		72		61		-11
Grown Ups 2		30		19		-11
Planes		50		39		-11
The World's End		65		81		16
After Earth		50		33		-17
Blue Jasmine		60		77		17
Man of Steel		72		55		-17
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones		50		33		-17
Much Ado About Nothing		61		78		17
The Lone Ranger		55		37		-18
The Hangover Part III		50		30		-20
Kick-Ass 2		63		41		-22
Only God Forgives		70		37		-33
300: Rise of an Empire		n/a (Delayed to 2014)

"Predicted" represents the median of over 2,800 user predictions submitted in April 2013.

What do you think?

What were your favorite movies this summer? Give us your list in the comments section below.