Box office update 2008

Although it's something that I check almost as religiously as my email, I haven't formally given a box office update for the year so far. And since Will Smith's Hancock recently had a subjectively successful holiday weekend, I thought it would be a good time to mention some of the winners and losers of the year so far. As of today, the top-grossing movies for 2008 domestically are as follows (courtesy of Box Office Mojo):

1. Iron Man ($312 million)
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($306 million)
3. Kung Fu Panda ($193 million)
4. Dr. Suess' Horton Hears a Who! ($154 million)
5. Sex and the City: The Movie ($145 million)
6. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ($139 million)
7. Wall-E ($127 million)
8. The Incredible Hulk ($125 million)
9. Hancock ($104 million)
10. Get Smart ($98 million)

We're over halfway through the big summer movie season, and it looks like Indiana Jones is poised to be the big winner for the summer (as expected), if not the year. Still, we've got The Dark Knight coming up in a couple of weeks, plus a new Mummy movie in early August, both of which will likely shake up this list a bit.

The surprise winners of the year so far are Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, and Sex and the City, all of which have exceeded expectations. Disappointments so far have included Disney's Prince Caspian, which is poised to make less than half of its predecessor (though costing far more), and Speed Racer, which was a huge bomb for the creators of The Matrix. Will Ferrell's Semi-Pro was a big bust, and Mike Myers' The Love Guru got no love from moviegoers.

The jury is still out on some of the others. While Hancock made a bunch of money over the weekend, its take was less than expected, and word of mouth has not been very complimentary, likely indicating a huge drop-off in coming weeks. Wall-E will likely out-gross last year's Ratatouille, but will probably fall short of the gross of other recent Pixar movies like Cars and The Incredibles (good thing Oscar-talk is already generating for the little guy...). And The Incredible Hulk will likely end up earning just about as much as its disappointing predecessor (2003's Hulk), which would seem to be a stake through the cinematic heart of the angry green giant.

Ron Weasley finally gets his shot at quidditch in November's HP6

Some of the upcoming releases for the year that are expected to do well are High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Oct. 24), James Bond in Quantum of Solace (Nov. 7), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Nov. 21), and Twilight (Dec. 12). Is there anything out there that isn't a sequel, remake, or literary adaptation?