After a 2014 season of underwhelming returns, Variety reports this summer’s box office was a record-breaker—almost.
Total domestic ticket sales between Memorial Day and Labor Day tallied up to $4.48 billion—up 10% from that much-discussed summer of 2014. That total was no doubt buoyed by the giant numbers Jurassic World put up, as well as Avengers: Age of Ultron (which ended up grossing $457 million, disappointments and thinkpieces be damned) and the family hits Inside Out and Minions (each of which topped $300 million).
Unsurprisingly, only three movies in the top ten—Inside Out, San Andreas, and Straight Outta Compton—weren’t sequels or franchise films. (Four more appear in the top twenty.) And according to Variety, 60 percent of the market share for the season was gathered by two studios alone: Universal (Jurassic World, Minions, Pitch Perfect 2, Compton) and Disney (Avengers, Inside Out, Ant-Man, Tomorrowland).
But for all the talk of bounce-backs, 2015 still came up short of the all-time summer box office record of $4.75 billion, set back in 2013 (the summer of Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, and Monsters University). Better luck next year, Hollywood—you’d better slot in an abundance of sequels, just to play it safe. Ah, I see you’ve already done that. Carry on!