Summer exceeds boxoffice expectations

August 28, 2008 It's been a boxoffice season of surprising strength thanks to unsurprisingly robust sequels and a shockingly lucrative performance by the latest installment in a 19-year-old superhero franchise. With the boxoffice season about to conclude on Labor Day, summer 2008 finds itself in a photo-finish race that could produce yet another record domestic gross and just a modest downtick in admissions because of ticket-price increases.  The “Dark Knight” phenomenon well compensated for one fewer $300 million-plus domestic performances compared with last summer, when four films surpassed that milestone, including three May 2007 openers.

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