David Germain for the Associated Press on the box office grosses for the traditional first weekend of the summer movie season:
The top 12 movies grossed $225.5 million, an impressive four-day haul but still 5.5 percent behind last year's record Memorial Day weekend, when "Shrek 2" and "The Day After Tomorrow" alone combined for $181 million in grosses between them."On the one hand, yeah, 14 weeks, that's a terrible slump," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "But I'm optimistic, because this weekend proves you can still get a heck of a lot of people in theaters with the right movies.
"It takes a lot more to excite people today, and the crop of movies this year other than `Star Wars' and the movies that opened this weekend haven't inspired audiences to make that step and go to the theaters."
