The last 26 summer movie seasons, ranked

Although summer officially begins June 21, we're already just about to the midway point of Hollywood's summer movie season. The tradition began in 1975 when "Jaws" shattered nearly every existing box office record on the book and was honed throughout the 1980s. By the early 1990s, the studios had the four-month period down to a science — at least in terms of weekend-by-weekend scheduling. Some summers, Hollywood captures the zeitgeist, turning out one crowd-pleasing smash after another. Other times, it completely misreads the marketplace, littering multiplexes with disappointments and outright flops. Let's take a look back at the last 26 summer movie seasons and rank them in order of best to disastrous. One caveat: A couple of transcendent movies do not a great summer make. We're looking for maximum May-to-August satisfaction.

Let’s make this easy. The great/good/passable: “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Inception,” “MacGruber,” “Toy Story 3,” “Knight and Day,” “The Other Guys,” “Get Him to the Greek” and “The A-Team.” That’s it for the watchable entertainment of summer 2010. Now for the rest.(You might have to IMDb some of these, they’re that forgettable.): “Iron Man 2,” “Robin Hood,” “Shrek Forever After,” “Sex and the City 2,” “Prince of Persia: Sands of Time,” “Marmaduke”(!), “The Karate Kid” (the new one, not the one you have good memories of from the 1980s), “Killers,” “Jonah Hex,” “Grown Ups,” “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” “The Last Airbender,” “Despicable Me,” “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” “Predators,” “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” “Salt,” “Dinner for Schmucks,” “The Expendables,” “Eat Pray Love,” “The Switch,” “The Last Exorcism” and “Takers.” Somehow the film industry survived.

“Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” brought the divisive prequel saga to a close, “Batman Begins” returned The Dark Knight to theaters and Sony lost upward of $100 million on “Stealth,” a sci-fi/action film about a psychotic warplane. It was a down year commercially for Hollywood, and who could blame moviegoers for avoiding the likes of “Kicking and Screaming,” “Bewitched,” “The Island,” “The Bad News Bears" (the Billy Bob Thornton one, not the Walter Matthau one), “The Brothers Grimm,” “Rebound,” “Herbie: Fully Loaded,” “The Honeymooners,” “The Cave” and “Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo”? Two of the summer’s best films (“Cinderella Man” and “Land of the Dead”) tanked, while hits like “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “The Longest Yard” and “Fantastic Four” were richly undeserving of their success. The other bright spots: “War of the Worlds,” “Sky High,” “Wedding Crashers” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”

Not a single studio or entertainment biz reporter went into the summer of 2002 believing “Spider-Man” had a shot at outgrossing “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones," let alone dusting the fifth film in the ultimate summer movie saga by $100 million. 2002 was an important summer in this regard. It was not, however, a good summer, thanks to the likes of “Men in Black 2,” “Scooby-Doo,” “Halloween: Resurrection,” “The Country Bears,” “The Master of Disguise,” “xXx,” “Serving Sara,” “FearDotCom,” “The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course” and one of the most costly flops in studio history, “The Adventures of Pluto Nash,” cluttering the multiplexes. On the plus side, we did get “The Bourne Identity,” “Lilo & Stitch,” “Minority Report,” “Unfaithful” and “Insomnia” (the success of which earned Christopher Nolan his shot at the Batman franchise). 

One weekend you’re opening the year’s eventual Best Picture in “Gladiator,” and the next you’re soiling multiplex projectors with “Battlefield Earth.” This summer was built around an absurdly stupid game of box office chicken over the Fourth of July holiday, which Warner Bros. and Sony had staked out respectively for “The Perfect Storm” and “The Patriot.” Neither studio backed off, and both films — neither of which was particularly good in the first place — probably shaved a quarter off their domestic grosses as a result. The overbudget “Titan A.E.” bombed in June, forcing Fox to kill its entire animation division. Everything was just kind of "eh" in 2000, though this was the summer of “X-Men," which further proved that non-geek audiences weren’t opposed to superhero movies.

^20th Century Fox introduced the “summer starts in April” strategy with “Volcano” to disastrous commercial results. May was half-great (“Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," “Breakdown” and “The Fifth Element”) and half-excruciating (“Father’s Day” and “Gone Fishin’”). “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” was unexpectedly ho-hum. Moviegoers looking for mindless mayhem were in luck and got their fix and then some with “Face/Off” and “Con Air” (less so with “Speed 2: Cruise Control” and “Air Force One"). “Men in Black” and “Spawn” fanned the flames of Hollywood’s graphic novel obsession, while “Batman and Robin” snuffed out WB’s Phase 1 love affair with the Caped Crusader. The sublime “Contact” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” make up for a lot.

May started off two-for-two with “Captain America: Civil War” and “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising," and then it all went to hell with “The Secret Life of Pets," “The Angry Birds Movie," “X-Men: Apocalypse," “Alice Through the Looking Glass," “Warcraft," “Now You See Me 2” and “Independence Day: Resurgence.” The two best films of the summer (“The Nice Guys” and “Popstar”) flat-out bombed, and the seemingly sure things (“Finding Dory," “Jason Bourne," “Ghostbusters” and Spielberg’s “The BFG”) missed the mark. “Sausage Party," “Pete’s Dragon," “Don’t Breathe” and “The Shallows” were oases of quality. 

May kicked off with the franchise-ending “Spider-Man 3” and only got worse with “Shrek the Third” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” Judged on tentpoles alone, it was a rough summer: “Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer," “Evan Almighty," “Live Free or Die Hard” and “Rush Hour 3” were abominable, and “Ocean’s Thirteen," “Transformers” and “The Bourne Ultimatum," while enjoyable to varying degrees, weren’t exactly transcendent. It was, however, a terrific year for comedies and animation. The Judd Apatow hit machine cranked out “Knocked Up” and “Superbad,” the Lonely Island crew unleashed “Hot Rod,” Pixar and Brad Bird blessed us with “Ratatouille” and, hey, “The Simpsons Movie” was actually really good!

After the brutal onslaught of “Cars," “Poseidon," “The Da Vinci Code," “X-Men: The Last Stand," “Click," “The Omen” and “Nacho Libre," we were desperate for “Superman Returns” to come to the rescue at the end of June. When he failed, Meryl Streep stepped up in the exuberant “The Devil Wears Prada.” “Mission: Impossible III” was a much needed hit for beleaguered couch-jumper Tom Cruise, while “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” was stuffed with two movies worth of exhausting set pieces. The lousy first two months were made bearable by “The Break-Up," “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” and “A Prairie Home Companion.” Late July and August picked up with “Monster House," “Miami Vice," “Talladega Nights” and “The Descent.”

Of the 11 movies that cracked $100 million domestic this summer, only four — “The Fast and the Furious”, “Jurassic Park III," “The Princess Diaries” and, begrudgingly, “Shrek” — were passable. The rest — “The Mummy Returns," “Pearl Harbor," “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," “Dr. Dolittle 2," “Planet of the Apes," “Rush Hour 2” and “American Pie 2” — were hot garbage. It’s dire before we get into the flops/underperformers like “Evolution," “What’s the Worst That Could Happen," “Swordfish” and “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within."  “A.I. Artificial Intelligence," “Moulin Rouge,” “Legally Blonde” and “The Others” were the only highlights. And “Pootie Tang.” Sa da tay for “Pootie Tang.”

The summer of “The Matrix Reloaded” wound up being the summer of Disney thanks to “Finding Nemo” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: “The Curse of the Black Pearl.” “X2” hit the superhero sweet spot, while Ang Lee’s “Hulk” was just too wonderful for its own good. “Bruce Almighty” was dreadful but popular. “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle," “Legally Blonde 2,” “Freddy vs. Jason” and “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life” were franchise killers. “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” should’ve been. The Cuba-invading insanity of “Bad Boys II” was a gleefully evil throwback to the wretched action excess of the ‘80s and ‘90s. “Down with Love” should’ve been a blockbuster. And “Seabiscuit," “Freaky Friday” and “Open Range” were pleasant late-summer surprises.

Three Best Picture nominees (“Apollo 13," "Babe" and the winner “Braveheart”) and “Clueless” were released this summer, and it still belongs in the bottom five. Alfonso Cuaron’s beautiful “A Little Princess” came out (and tragically bombed) in May. John McTiernan revolutionized action filmmaking in “Die Hard with a Vengeance.” “Pocahontas” and “Batman Forever” were decent. “Under Siege 2: Dark Territory” was far better than it had any right being. “Waterworld” wasn’t the disaster it was rumored to be. This should be a top 10 summer, right? Alas, summer is about fast food cinema, and the studios were serving up E. coli-laced burgers for four months. “Johnny Mnemonic,” “Congo,” “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie,” “Judge Dredd,” “Species,” “The Net,” “First Knight,” “Bushwhacked” and “Mortal Kombat” rank among the worst movies of that decade.

Do you like movies about…meteors? If so, the summer of 1998 was your Valhalla. Everyone ridiculed the idea of the dueling extinction level events, but “Deep Rising” and “Armageddon” both turned out to be pretty damn great. (The former has aged surprisingly well.) Aside from the crushing disappointment of Roland Emmerich’s “Godzilla," this was a splendid season overall. “Saving Private Ryan," “Out of Sight," “There’s Something About Mary," “The Mask of Zorro," “The Truman Show," “Mulan," “Bulworth," “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," “Small Soldiers” and “Blade” more than made up for a scant few misfires like “Six Days, Seven Nights," “The Avengers” and “Quest for Camelot.”

The summer of “The Avengers” and…not much else!  Moviegoers had high hopes for “The Dark Knight Rises," “Prometheus," “The Amazing Spider-Man," “The Bourne Legacy” and “Snow White and the Huntsman," but quality wise, they fell short of their pre-release hype. “Men In Black 3” was a surprising bounce back from the dire second installment, while “Magic Mike” delivered loads of USDA prime-cut beefcake. Wes Anderson’s extraordinary “Moonrise Kingdom” got a wide-ish release, so we’ll count that. But there were bombs and misfires aplenty — or perhaps you have more fondness than most for “Dark Shadows," “The Dictator," “Total Recall," “Rock of Ages," “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” (no, you didn’t dream that) and “The Campaign."

This was a pretty limp summer tentpole-wise until July. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” was bad enough that Sony had to negotiate joint custody of the web-slinger with Marvel. “X-Men: Days of Future Past” was an overpopulated botch. “Maleficent” blew the sure thing of Angelina Jolie portraying the famous Disney villain. “Transformers: Age of Extinction” was a Transformers movie. Then “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” arrived, and all was forgiven. Marvel successfully went cosmic and comedic with “Guardians of the Galaxy," “Godzilla” launched Legendary’s MonsterVerse and “22 Jump Street” featured Ice Cube trashing a buffet. And then there was Tom Cruise dying over and over again in the terrifically inventive “Edge of Tomorrow."

Can’t get off to a worse start than the May quartet of “Van Helsing,” “Troy,” “Shrek 2” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” but summer 2004 got better. Much better. “Harry Potter and the Prince of Azkaban,” “Dodgeball,” “The Notebook” and “Spider-Man 2” (still the greatest superhero film ever made) were more than enough to offset the lackluster likes of “Garfield,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” “The Chronicles of Riddick” and a rare Spielberg dud in “The Terminal.” The decade’s funniest comedy, “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” hit in July as did “The Bourne Supremacy” and the serviceable “I, Robot.” There were some legendary flops (“Catwoman” and “King Arthur”) and some uncommonly intelligent hits (“Collateral” and “The Manchurian Candidate”). Bonus points for closing out with Zhang Yimou’s long-shelved-in-the-U.S. masterpiece “Hero.”

Aside from “Iron Man 3” and “The Wolverine,” this was a brutal summer for sequels: “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “The Hangover 3,” “Fast & Furious 6,” “Monsters University,” “Despicable Me 2,” “Grown Ups 2,” “Kick-Ass 2” and the “Cars” spinoff, “Planes,” all fell well short of their predecessors (or, in a couple of cases, lived down to expectations). The promise of “Man of Steel” has since been dashed, so that goes in the debit column (as does Neill Blomkamp’s hugely disappointing “District 9” follow-up, “Elysium”). The good? “This Is the End,” “Pacific Rim,” “The Conjuring,” “The Purge,” “The Heat,” the enjoyably lunkheaded “White House Down” and the unjustly maligned "The Lone Ranger" (which contains the most rousing finale of just about any film released in the last decade).

“Avengers: Infinity War” kicked things off early at the end of April, dominating multiplex screens and generally sucking the air out of the marketplace until “Deadpool 2” showed up three weeks later. Quality-wise, there were a lot of duds: “Solo: A Star Wars Story," “Oceans 8," “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," “Skyscraper” and “The Meg." But “Incredibles 2," “Ant-Man and the Wasp," “Mission: Impossible – Fallout," “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again” all met or far exceeded expectations. Leigh Whannell’s gore-soaked action flick “Upgrade” and the NBA-star-studded comedy “Uncle Drew” were pleasant surprises. Overall, it was an above-average summer.

Summer started a week early with the late April release of franchise “Fast Five,” setting a high bang-for-buck bar that no film, not even Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” could clear. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II” movingly closed out the boy wizard saga, while “X-Men: First Class” revitalized Fox’s moribund mutant series. Marvel completed its Avengers prep with “Thor” and “Captain America: The First Avengers,” while J.J. Abrams failed to recapture Amblin magic in “Super 8.” There were some crushing disappointments like “Green Lantern” and “Cowboys & Aliens," but "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," "Bridesmaids," "Bad Teacher," "Horrible Bosses," "Winnie the Pooh" and "Final Destination 5" were great-to-agreeable.

Steven Spielberg single-handedly invented the summer movie season with “Jaws” in 1975, and he returned 18 years later to show the kids how it’s done with “Jurassic Park.” It was the box office highlight of a mostly terrific summer. May boasted “Dave,” “Cliffhanger” and “Hot Shots! Part Deux,” while the dinos of June had crowd-pleasing company in “Sleepless in Seattle” and “The Firm.” July was a mixed bag of good (“In the Line of Fire,” “So I Married an Axe Murderer”) and god-awful (“Son in Law,” “Weekend at Bernie's II” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”), but August came through in a big way with “The Fugitive,” “Searching for Bobby Fischer” and “Hard Target.”

This was a well-above-average summer until it abruptly stalled out in August. “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2” brought us tantalizingly closer to “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Alien: Covenant” clarified and deepened the dark themes of “Prometheus,” “Baby Driver” earned Edgar Wright the box office success he’d deserved since 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead,” “Dunkirk” restaged the heroic World War II evacuation with startling, you-are-there verisimilitude…and then there was “Wonder Woman,” a movie generations of comic book readers had yearned to see for over 40 years. Alas, Sony’s big August movie, “The Dark Tower,” collapsed into a misadapted heap. “Logan Lucky” was the sole worthwhile release before Labor Day.

A tepid May (“Maverick,” “Beverly Hills Cop III” and “The Flintstones”) was redeemed by a splendid June and July (“Speed,” “The Lion King,” “Forrest Gump,” “Little Big League,” “True Lies,” “It Could Happen to You,” “The Mask” and “Fresh”). Then it all fell apart again in August when the excellent “Clear and Present Danger” was overwhelmed by a miserable spate of releases including “Airheads,” “The Little Rascals,” “Blankman,” “Color of Night” and “Milk Money.” Two of the decade’s biggest box office bombs, “Wyatt Earp” and “North,” also detonated this summer.

May kicked off with the rebirth of one old franchise (“Star Trek”) and birth of a new franchise (“The Hangover”), and the near death of two others (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Terminator Salvation”). Pixar turned out one of its best in “Up,” Sam Raimi roared back to “spook-a-blast” form with “Drag Me to Hell,” the big-screen adaptation of Sid and Marty Krofft’s was a subversively hilarious surprise, "Land of the Lost," and Sony scored an August hit with “District 9.” These movies went a long way toward offsetting the wretchedness of “Angels & Demons,” “Transformers: Rise of the Fallen,” “Night at the Museum: The Battle of the Smithsonian,” “The Ugly Truth,” “G-Force” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.”

The studios rallied from a fun-deficient 1995 to deliver one of the most satisfying summers on record. “Twister,” “Mission: Impossible,” “The Rock,” “Eraser” and “The Nutty Professor” capably set the stage for the massively hyped blockbuster event “Independence Day,” which played to repeat business well into the fall. Most of the commercial disappointments “The Cable Guy,” “The Frighteners” and “Kingpin” have aged well. August, however, was a landfill. “Chain Reaction,” “Jack,” “Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood,” “The Fan” and “The Island of Dr. Moreau” were only slightly redeemed by “Tin Cup.” And, of course, “Phat Beach.”

Despite numerous high-profile disasters (“Tomorrowland," “Fantastic Four” and “Terminator: Genisys”), this is easily one of the best summers of the last two decades. “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Inside Out,” “Spy,” “Magic Mike XXL,” “Ant-Man,” “Trainwreck,” “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” “Straight Outta Compton,” “The Man from Uncle," “Rikki and the Flash” and “Vacation” were unmitigated delights. So what if “Jurassic World” was the most anti-human film to which Steven Spielberg ever lent his name (including “1941”)? Speaking of “anti-human," the “Entourage” movie also came out this summer!

This was a weird, wonderful summer made possible by rival studios’ fear of getting caught in the box office churn of “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace." Released on May 19, Lucas’ return to The Force scared off immediate competition — though the films that dared to open on either side of it (“The Mummy” and “Notting Hill”) did quite well. There were only two sequels (“Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” and “Universal Soldier II: The Return”) and five IP-reliant titles (“South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut,” “The General’s Daughter,” “The Iron Giant,” “The Thomas Crown Affair” and the flop “Wild, Wild West”). For the most part, an eclectic mix of originals dominated, including “American Pie,” “The Sixth Sense,” “The Blair Witch Project,” “Bowfinger,” “Eyes Wide Shut” and “Deep Blue Sea.” This was a summer to savor.

This perfectly balanced summer ushered in, for better or worse, the new age of superhero blockbusters. The Marvel Comics Universe kicked off its 10-year (and still going strong) run with “Iron Man,” while Christopher Nolan redefined the genre with “The Dark Knight.” There was something worthwhile opening nationwide every weekend for four months: “Speed Racer,” “The Strangers,” “Sex and the City,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “Get Smart,” “WALL-E,” “Mamma Mia!,” “Step Brothers,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army,” “Pineapple Express” and “Tropic Thunder”…this is how it's done, studios!