It's good to be king, especially when you're sitting on top of the box office heap. This summer saw a record take in domestic sales with a grand total that will top $4.2 billion and according to a report from Hollywood Reporter the studio walking away with the biggest slice of that pie is Warner Brothers.
The studio will roll in at $957 million, nearly one quarter of the summer's total sales. That's down from the $1 billion they banked last year, but they also missed having a record breaking bankroller like Dark Knight on the docket. Another big help was the surprise success of The Hangover which took in $270 million and broke the record for highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time (previously held by Beverly Hill's Cop at $235 million).
Despite being the top overall grosser, WB didn't have the number one summer flick. That honor went to Paramount's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which is homing in on $400 million in US sales. WB's top earner was Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince which will top off around $300 million to be Warner Brother's third all-time highest earner behind The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Just because WB had the highest gross doesn't mean they had the highest profit. That fact is always tough to figure out since budgets aren't the only costs involved with a movie and studios don't see 100% of the gross (the average is about 60% but varies movie to movie). But with the money WB banked this summer you can bet their stock holders have a lot to be excited about.
Check out Cinema Blend's full summer box office wrap up, Revenge of the Bloggers.
