2008 Summer boxoffice kicks the ass of 2007

Against considerable odds, the summer boxoffice suddenly is sizzling.

Three consecutive weekends of big year-over-year upticks in domestic grosses has the seasonal boxoffice pacing ahead of summer 2007 for the first time. This season is just 2% ahead so far, but weekend comparisons with year-ago grosses look manageable over the next three frames.

Many had expected the sequels-challenged summer to lag the record ‘07 summer boxoffice substantially, and that certainly was the case throughout May. Here’s what’s gone right since then:

– “Iron Man” has shown legs of steel.

– Boxoffice underachievers have been few.

– “Kung Fu Panda,” “Sex and the City” and “The Incredible Hulk” opened better than expected.

“Iron Man” this week is likely to become the year’s first $300 million grosser, a feat few would have predicted for the Robert Downey Jr. starrer before its release. Paramount’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” also appears on track reach that magical benchmark, and executives are feeling good about the clear public appetite for entertaining film fare.

“There have been seven straight weekends in which a movie has done $50 million or more over that one weekend,” Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore said. “That goes to show that if the movies are compelling, a big audience will show up.”

- from THR