Did Summer Movies Burn Out At the Box Office?

“Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will”, explains Quentin “Q” Jacobsen in the book Paper Towns. Although the protagonist of John Green’s bestseller was talking about his voracious neighbor, this most accurately how the movie adaption had the prospect to be more successful than it was. It fell short in its attempts to surpass the adaptation of Green’s other young adult novel, The Fault in Our Stars. The expected gross for opening weekend was anticipated to be much more than $20 million, however it only reached $12.6 million; the emotionally-gripping The Fault in Our Stars grossed around $48 million when it was released last year. Actor Nat Wolff had a pivotal role in both films. However, in Paper Towns, Wolff was unable to carry the whole movie as a leading role, despite excellently portraying an innocent, lovesick, high schooler. The plot is reminiscent of every existing YA novel: his character, Q, and three of his friends go on a bold road trip to explore the unknown side of the already mysterious Margo Roth Spiegelman (Cara Delevingne) when she disappears. He follows clues that she left behind for him and realizes she isn’t the person he thought she was. As cliché as the plot sounds, it still had a touch of John Green’s complex philosophical spark embedded in it.

Animated movies were at their peak this summer. Disney explored the world of emotions in its newest animated film, Inside Out. Determined to show how our emotions work on the inside, Disney took a risk and focused on an ordinary girl named Riley instead of a princess. Riley is a young girl who abruptly moves to San Francisco, a city that’s far from her hometown in Minnesota. After emotions Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) accidentally get thrown out of their headquarters, the only emotions left to guide Riley are Disgust, Anger and Fear. Bent on getting back to their headquarters, Joy and Sadness embark on an tedious journey, where Joy learns how happiness is truly created.

The enthusiastic shout of “Banana!” in Despicable Me was all it took for the minions to have their very own movie. This animated film was produced by Universal Studios to, perhaps, rival the release of Inside Out. In Minions, it is explained how the minions searched for a leader before they met Gru. Three minions, Stuart, Kevin and Bob, leave their home and search for a new master. During a villain convention, they meet Scarlet Overkill, who conveniently needs minions to steal Queen Elizabeth’s crown. Sure enough, they become rivals with Scarlet, who believes they had tricked her. Earning more than a million dollars in its opening weekend, it is fair to say that Minions was more than successful.

Another movie that exceeded expectations was Jurassic World, the newest addition to the Jurassic Park series. In this action-packed movie, esteemed actor Chris Pratt tackles the dangerous, genetically-modified Indominus rex as an animal expert named Owen in the Jurassic World luxury resort. Amidst the initial chaos, other dinosaurs begin to run rampantly around the resort. In addition to fighting the infamous creature, he also has to protect two young brothers, Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson) and the rest of the vacationers. This movie earned an astounding $208,806,270 in its opening weekend, despite the numerous editing mistakes. In one scene, Chris Pratt talks without moving his mouth. Besides the mistakes, Jurassic World was unparalleled this summer. It seems like our interest in dinosaurs will never become extinct.