Trend # 1: Summer Is Now 12 Months Long

Time was Memorial Day weekend was considered the start of the summer movie season. No more. These days, more and more tent-pole pictures (those movies that a studio stakes its year on, hoping for a rainmaker) are opening throughout the year. That’s why a popcorn adventure like “The Hunger Games” opened in the spring. It would have done exceptional in any season but by opening with less competition around it, the film became an utter phenomenon and one that ruled the box office for a month. And with the advent of Netflix and same-day-as-theater releases on cable, the May-August period is no longer as exceptional as it once was. Now, movie studios will open any movie at any time, in any way, in any place, if they see a golden opportunity. And popular movies like “The Hunger Games” have proven that any month can be a summer-esque one.

Trend # 2: We’re Number Two, We’re Number Two!

American movies get shown in America first, and then rolled out to foreign markets, right? Wrong. That has been changing over the last few years. You’ll recall that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” opened in foreign markets weeks before it opened at Christmas in the USA last year. And this year a number of summer movies already opened overseas in the spring. “The Avengers” was raking in the dough in April already across the pond before it opened here in early May. Same with “Battleship.” As film marketing becomes more and more global, Hollywood fare will no longer be stamped with “America first.” And movie studios love opening in a competitive American market being able to brag about it being a hit already overseas.

Trend # 3: 3-D Is Here to Stay

Trend # 4: Even Rich Actors Feel the Effects of a Bad Economy

Trend # 5: Everyone in Hollywood Wants To Be Liam Neeson or Noomi Rapace

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