The Number

Blame it on the lack of tent poles. Blame it on the World Cup. But the result was major Hollywood studios recorded one of the weakest summer movie seasons in recent memory. And the four San Fernando Valley area film companies did even worse. Warner Bros. Studios, Walt Disney Co., Universal Studios, and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. grossed about $1.8 billion at the box office, a 33 percent decrease from the $2.7 billion in summer 2013 – and far worse than Hollywood’s overall 14 percent drop. Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst in the Sherman Oaks office of entertainment data firm Rentrak, said the bumpy ride was not a surprise. “It was never expected to be a record-breaker,” he said, noting the lack of blockbusters and the growing popularity of the World Cup. There were, though, high-profile sequels to the “Spiderman,” “Transformers,” “X-Men,” and “Planet of the Apes” franchises, and the destructive lizard “Godzilla” returned to theaters. But they lacked box office superpowers, with none grossing more than $300 million – or recording an opening weekend like “Iron Man 3,” which brought in $174 million in its May 2013 debut. Valley area studios had mixed results with their summer slates. Disney fared best at $660 million on the strength of “Planes: Fire & Rescue,” “Maleficent” and the late summer entry, “Guardians of the Galaxy.” But it still fell short of the $857 million from the prior summer. Warner Bros., the other Burbank studio, grossed $555 million, down from $948 million in 2013. Universal Studios grossed $425 million with six films, but that was almost half as much as the $809 million last year when the studio had hits with “Despicable Me 2” and “Fast & Furious 6.” DreamWorks’ sole summer release “How to Train Your Dragon 2” grossed $174 million compared with the $83 million the previous year with “Turbo.” – Mark R. Madler