--- title: Movies Are Having the Worst Summer Since 1997 description: It's partially because there's a dearth of new movie ideas out there canonical: https://time.com/3228698/summer-movies/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-30T16:00:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:33.101Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Movies Are Having the Worst Summer Since 1997 og:description: It's partially because there's a dearth of new movie ideas out there og:url: https://time.com/3228698/summer-movies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt654784dfae3758e5/69869e92cd68480ab7095f2c/guardians-of-the-galaxy-movie-trends.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, from left: Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Movies Are Having the Worst Summer Since 1997 twitter:description: It's partially because there's a dearth of new movie ideas out there twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt654784dfae3758e5/69869e92cd68480ab7095f2c/guardians-of-the-galaxy-movie-trends.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Movies Are Having Their Worst Summer Since 1997 > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Tech Breakthroughs in Film: From House of Wax to Gravity [Watch (HLS stream): Tech Breakthroughs in Film: From House of Wax to Gravity](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/C4dqJ7xz.m3u8) (3:46)  _Published 2013-10-04. Gravity Director Alfonso Cuaron had to wait four and a half years for technology to catch up to his vision before filming characters floating in zero gravity in his latest space thriller. That’s just one benchmark in the history of tech breakthrough_ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Aug 30, 2014 4:00 PM UTC  Dave Bautista and Chris Pratt in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Dave Bautista and Chris Pratt in Marvel's Guardians of the GalaxyDisney by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Aug 30, 2014 4:00 PM UTC If you can’t remember the last time you went out and saw a great movie, you’re not alone. North American box offices are having their [worst summer season](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/movies/movies-have-worst-summer-since-1997.html) in 17 years, and it’s because no one is particularly excited about the flicks that have occupied the silver screen for the past several months. Ticket sales in the United States and Canada are expected to total roughly $3.9 billion between the first weekend in May through the end of August, a 15 percent decline from the same stretch last year, the New York _Times_ reports. Sequels that were expected to rake in cash at the box office by adhering to tried-and-true formulas ended up bombing. Tom Cruise’s sci-fi _Edge of Tomorrow_ looked kind of like _Oblivion_ (2013, also starring Cruise) and sounded kind of like _The Day After Tomorrow_ (2004). It brought in $99.4 million, but Warner Bros spent at least $250 million on production and domestic marketing. _Amazing Spider-Man 2,_ _Step Up All In_, and _Hercules_, all with familiar themes, did poor to middling in ticket sales. The No. 1 movie of the summer, Marvel’s _Guardians of the Galaxy,_ sold more than $258 million in ticket sales, at least partially for offering something new to moviegoers: a 1970’s-era soundtrack and eclectic range of lesser-known comic book heroes (including a talking raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper) materialized into solid ticket sales. Here’s to new ideas and better sales next summer. \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/movies/movies-have-worst-summer-since-1997.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3228698/summer-movies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3228698/summer-movies/"},"headline":"Movies Are Having Their Worst Summer Since 1997","datePublished":"2014-08-30T16:00:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:33.101Z","description":"It's partially because there's a dearth of new movie ideas out there","url":"https://time.com/3228698/summer-movies/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt654784dfae3758e5/69869e92cd68480ab7095f2c/guardians-of-the-galaxy-movie-trends.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt654784dfae3758e5/69869e92cd68480ab7095f2c/guardians-of-the-galaxy-movie-trends.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, from left: Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt, 2014.","caption":"GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, from left: Dave Bautista, Chris Pratt, 2014.","creditText":"Disney","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3228698/summer-movies/","name":"Movies Are Having Their Worst Summer Since 1997"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Tech Breakthroughs in Film: From House of Wax to Gravity","description":"Gravity Director Alfonso Cuaron had to wait four and a half years for technology to catch up to his vision before filming characters floating in zero gravity in his latest space thriller. 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