Summer 2017 Box Office Wrap-Up!

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The summer movie season of 2017 offered the standard supply of big-budget spectacle, CGI excitement and superpowered wonders to behold, but ultimately had the lowest overall collective gross in more than a decade.

Here's the way things went down at the domestic box office for Summer of 2017:

Things look pretty different with overseas business added in, which continues to be true for many of Hollywood's blockbusters. Here are this summer's worldwide totals:

THE UPS & DOWNS

Amazon Prime – Dominating the top of the domestic chart was WONDER WOMAN, completely defying the "risk" associated with putting the most popular female superhero in the world on the big screen. Audiences were clearly overjoyed to finally see a solo adventure of the bullet-deflecting, lasso-whirling warrior woman from DC Comics. It also helped that director Patty Jenkins made a solid movie with a stoic performance from Gal Gadot, which brought moviegoers back for multiple viewings — WONDER WOMAN did steady theatrical business throughout the summer, right up until its recent VOD release.

Fail to the King – By now, everyone is familiar with the medieval tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table… but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be interested in paying to see a $175 million version of it. KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD, director Guy Ritchie's edgy twist on the Excalibur myth, was intended to be the start of a six-movie series. But with less than $40 million domestic and $146 million worldwide, the rest of that story will likely remain a legend for now.

Party Profits – Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Tiffany Haddish had a naughty reunion vacation in New Orleans and celebrated the summer's only breakout comedy with GIRLS TRIP. The ladies and their raucous R-rated activities in the Big Easy nudged the movie into a similar territory staked out last summer by female-fronted raunch comedy BAD MOMS — $112 million domestic on a reported cost of $19 million.

R-Rated Comedies – There was a time that Will Ferrell routinely cracked $100 million with his comedies, but not the case with THE HOUSE ($25 million). An R-rated BAYWATCH hoped for some 21 JUMP STREET success of converting TV to the big screen, but even after last year's summer hit CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE, The Rock got buried in the sand ($58 million). Teaming Amy Schumer with comedy veteran Goldie Hawn in SNATCHED didn't capture audiences ($45 million). And Scarlett Johansson's booze-filled bachelorette bash ROUGH NIGHT couldn't catch a buzz ($22 million).

More Marvel Might – Marvel may not have won the highest honors this summer, but they helped battle "superhero fatigue" by filling out the top three with additional comic book characters. The return of Star-Lord and his colorful crew in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 didn't seem to elicit quite the same exuberant critical and fan response as the first, but the sequel still financially surpassed the original by a decent margin at both the domestic and worldwide box office. And the wall-crawler's first solo adventure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe proved popular enough for SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING to web up third place as it hung around the Top 10 for two months (and ultimately beat the domestic totals of the first two IRON MAN movies).

Robots in Decline – The seemingly interminable brawl between Autobots and Decepticons continued this summer with TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT, but audiences are obviously (finally) starting to lose interest. Mayhem maestro Michael Bay's fifth time around with the ongoing CGI metalstorm ended up a franchise low point, just sputtering into the domestic Top 10 and stalling with a little over half of the $1.1 billion global total for previous entry TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION. A 1980s-set spinoff with BUMBLEBEE is still on the way, but that planned cinematic universe may no longer have the allspark that it needs.

Not Too Despicable – With DESPICABLE ME 3, Steve Carell's reformed supervillain Gru and his jabbering yellow henchmen didn't quite reach the domestic heights of the previous sequel and the MINIONS spinoff. But the third entry's near-billion worldwide haul continues the global domination of the Illumination Entertainment series, which has now gathered $3.6 billion across its four releases.

Other Animation – Minion-less movies didn't hit anywhere near as big this summer. Pixar's CARS 3 managed to coast into the Top 10, but Lightning McQueen's third time around the track was a financial drag for a franchise that seems more appreciated for its ability to generate income from merchandise. CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE did get to $100 million worldwide — not a bad return on a $38 million budget, but not necessarily a powerful enough start to justify a perpetual series of epic movies. THE EMOJI MOVIE typed its way to $160 million worldwide even though most moviegoers gave it the "meh" symbol. And sequel THE NUT JOB 2: NUTTY BY NATURE and import LEAP! barely registered at the box office.

War, It's Fantastic – Filmmaker Christopher Nolan had the summer's other "risk" with DUNKIRK , his depiction of the Allied troop evacuation from the titular French city during WWII. The $100 million war drama should end up surpassing Nolan's previous effort INTERSTELLAR at the domestic box office, where it's the third-biggest WWII movie behind PEARL HARBOR and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN , and it continues to earn money internationally.

Space Sadness – Director Ridley Scott again returned to the roots of the sci-fi series that first launched his career into the stratosphere. But his ALIEN prequel/PROMETHEUS sequel ALIEN: COVENANT ended with far less than PROMETHEUS' $126 million domestic/$403 million worldwide (COVENANT's $74 million domestic total was lower than the first ALIEN movie's $78 million back in 1979 — about $265 million in today's bucks). Meanwhile, THE FIFTH ELEMENT filmmaker Luc Besson had trouble luring audiences to his latest ambitious interstellar curiosity VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS , which ended with less than $40 million domestic and $172 million worldwide (a figure still shy of its considerable cost).

That Sinking Feeling – Johnny Depp's rum-guzzling swashbuckler Captain Jack Sparrow sailed the high seas yet again, but his ship has taken on water and the winds are no longer in his favor. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES sank to the franchise bottom in North America, while internationally (where it's SALAZAR'S REVENGE) the fifth bloated adventure drifted to nearly $800 million and yet still came in below global totals for all but the first movie in the series.

Stealer's Wheels – BABY DRIVER, the R-rated heist/musical/romance passion project from filmmaker Edgar Wright (SHAUN OF THE DEAD), zoomed into theaters and ended up speeding away with over $200 million worldwide on a modest cost of $34 million. Audiences grooved to Wright's novel combination of catchy tunes and criminal activities, which came packed with practical stunts and a surplus of style.

Fresh Franchise Fumbles – Universal had big plans for their "Dark Universe", a high-profile series of relaunches based on their classic monsters with A-list talent. Unfortunately they started it with THE MUMMY, an expensive Tom Cruise vehicle that barely shambled to $80 million domestic (although it did stretch to $400 million worldwide, so there may still be a future for the New Universal Monsters). And THE DARK TOWER was envisioned as the start of both a movie franchise and a TV series based on the Stephen King books, but poor box office performance (and negative fan and critical response) could be a sign that the Gunslinger's ongoing adventures may not be guaranteed. (See also: KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD, CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE.)

Monkey Business – WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES may have been a satisfying end to the new APES trilogy for critics and audiences, but the third chapter of Caesar and his army of intelligent simian companions was the least lucrative of the series — the current $366 million worldwide total is just a little more than half the $710 million finish of DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.

Little Hits and Low-Cost Thrills – Kumail Nanjiani's beloved relationship comedy THE BIG SICK eventually made it to $40 million. ATOMIC BLONDE kicked its way to $90 million worldwide on a $30 million cost, besting the debut of JOHN WICK (also from director David Leitch). EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING injected some teen melodrama into the busy summer schedule and took $34 million (on a $10 million cost). The $15 million ANNABELLE: CREATION continues the successful trend in the unlikely franchise of THE CONJURING. Shark cheapie 47 METERS DOWN floated into theaters instead of a planned VOD release and swam away with $53 million. WIND RIVER seems like this summer's HELL OR HIGH WATER, a late-summer crime-drama welcomed by audiences seeking serious alternatives.  THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD paired Ryan Reynolds with Samuel L. Jackson, and will end up grossing more than twice its $30 million cost (after sitting on top of the chart for three straight weekends). And then there's the Hong Kong action movie WOLF WARRIOR 2, which made zero impression in North America but has devoured more than $800 million globally (on a $30 million budget).