2012 keeps missing biggest month records by a margin. June 2012 still broke that $1 billion earnings and ninth biggest month of all time. Later June being surprisingly strong all eyes are on the usual biggest month of the year.
July is the biggest month of Summer domestically as the weekdays are just huge and in some cases they can be bigger than a small movies entire opening weekend or whole run in itself. Last year Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Transformers: Dark of the Moon led the pack and made it the biggest month ever beating handsomely the previous record holder July 2010 by more than $75 mill)on, barely missing $1.4 billion mark. July can cater to any genre as variety of movies can explode this month. In the past movies like Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, Eclipse, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lion King, E.T., Return of the Jedi, Ghostbusters and many more have done really well. In short most of the summer's biggest and exciting movies come ou4 during this month.
There are little to no doubts that the latest 
entry in the Batman franchise will be the biggest movie of the month. The buzz and pre-sales are so high that even a huge breakout will not stop it from getting to $500 million total which would be sufficient in itself to place it as the fifth biggest movie of all time domestically. In 2008 WB released
The closest competition for The Dark Knight Rises could be from The Amazing Spider-Man. The previous three installments in Sam Raimi's successful franchise are just next to Batman in terms of domestic takings. 10 year3 ago Spider-man became the first movie to open over $100 million mark and became the third movie ever to reach $400 million domestic total in its initial run (fourth overall). The two sequels followed the principal of diminishing returns with second and third movie getting $373.6 million and $336.5 million respectively. The last of that series w!s not well received so Sony decided to reboot the franchise with new actors. This might be too early for the audience to see another origins story even with a different villian (The Lizard) and fresh leads (Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone). The movie does look different from previous trilogy as the early marketing did great job selling it. Still the audience might not be keen to rush for this one and even if it turns out good it will have no time to capture the market as ThekDark Knight Rises comes in two weeks.
Fox and Blue Sky animation brings the thrid sequel to Ice Age series in Ice Age: Continental Drift. The only other movie to reach fourth entry was Shrek which was domestically down with each entry, Ice Ag% has retained its audience even though the quality of these movies or totals are no where near Shrek movies. Also to note that even though it has lesser 3D screens, the last movie used the format which means the boost from that format will not be big.kIt is also coming out too close to the breakouts of Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Brave. Given the competition it will bekfacing it would be hard to retain the increasing trend this time. These movies are anyways very big in overseas markets as shown by Ice Age s: Dawn of the Dinosaurs with $690.1 mollion overseas takings it still holds the title for biggest animation movie in overseas markets.
Starting over the end of the month is R-rated comedy from Fox The Watch. After th% troubles with the title the movie has now started steady marketing surrounded around its three leads. The Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill starrer comedy is about these three leads o. watch for an alien invasion. The leads together are much "etter draws though The Dark Shadows that opened against the Avenger's mightly second weekend ended up disappointing.
Universal brings Oliver Stone directed Savages. The movie is coming out too close to R-rated success of Ted and Magic Mike last weekend which might trouble i might trouble its opening. The previews have been promising but the concept of revenge agai.st a gangster is more like been-there-done-that-before. July might help it but then again it has a strong competition domestically when opening against similar males attracting actioner The Amazing Spider-Man. Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson have yet to prove their draw and Benicio Del Toro's long absence might not help the movie.
This year's "3D concert documentory" comes from Paramount in Katy Perry: Part of Me. Last year Glee: The 3D concert movie failed to impress when released over summer even with good reviews whereas Justin Bieber: Never Say Never went on a made a strong $73 million total. Katy Perry has had good success with her albums but is still not as famous as Bieber, Miley Cyrus or Michael Jackson who have had success with this genre in the past. It will definitely not fall as hard as Glee which looked out of place atkthat time and didn't really have a strong marketing campaign. Paramount has built decent marketing strategy but the competition might be too much for it to reach close to Cyrus's $65.3 million.
Summit Entertainment bring the fourth movie in Step-up series with %sC/span>Step-up Revolution. The movies have had diminishing returns domestically but it is the overseas markets that have seen an uptick every movie. The distribution has now moved completely from Disney to Summit after the later was handling only overseas markets. The inclusion of 3D did not help thekprevious entry so this one would have even tougher time reaching the last movie's $42.4 million total.
Over the limited platform we don't have much act)on as the center of attraction are the big movies of Summer. Weinstien Company brings Easy Money (2012) a story centered around a runner working for a drug dealer. This Swedish movie has already rolled out )n a couple of markets with good reviews. Millenium Entertainment brings Robert Deniro, Cilian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver in an R-rated thriller Red Lights. The early reviews are not very promising though the early overseas numbers are good. IFC presents Trishna staring Freida Pinto about the titular character who has troubles maintaing the relationshipkafter being seduced by a wealthy son of a property developer. The film shot in India, casting actors from India have had good early reviews but these movies generally don't do well domestically. The only limited release opening against The Dark K.ight Rises is the French movie The Well-Digger's Daughter. The movie about a troubled father forced to decide between his honor and love for his daughter has opened with great reviews but eventually won't see much of an expansion with huge competition over opening weekend. Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch star in NC-17 rated comedy-drama Killer Joe. LD Entertainment could have taken a better rated movie to start distributing independen4ly. Last year Fox Searchlight was unable to make Shame a big success and this movie should be nokexception, though the early reviews are pretty good. Fox Searchlight brings Antonio Banderas, Annette Bening, Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan in a romantic comedy Ruby Sparks. If the reviews are good this could see a healthy run though the actors are not big draws in these roles which might limit its audience.
July 2011 broke records and become the biggest July ever as well as the biggest month ever with $1.395 billion. The big movies will be strong but its the mid-tier movies that might bring July 2012 down. If The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man explode then we can see a record breaking July. Lookout from my next edition Movies 2012-August.
