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4. Certain franchises need to be put to bed, while others deserve to continue.

Related to the above, it became clear that certain franchises - in particular Fantastic Four and Terminator - need to be put to bed. Despite the fact that, based on the movies they produce, Hollywood thinks that audiences are stupid, box office results are starting to show that this is increasingly not the case.

With the rising cost of movie ticket prices and the increasing range of options for entertainment for consumers, box office results have been in consistent trouble, when measured by number of tickets sold, for years. Universal’s string of successes may obscure that a bit this year, but the flop of movies like Terminator show that if the product has been poisoned by crappy movies, audiences will stay away.

Fans are, then, clearly sick of some of these franchises, and they should be put to bed. News flash: they will not be, not as long as movies like Terminator continue to have appeal in large markets like Asia, which turns a red bottom line in North America into a profit.

Conversely, it is clear that fans of other franchises like Pitch Perfect, Minions (Despicable Me), and Mission: Impossible are thirsty for more. Or at least they were prior to this summer entries. All three franchises have green-lit (or are expected to) additional projects. Of the three, I can only see Mission: Impossible having another successful run - the other two may suffer from the same fatigue that Terminator and others did, given the relative weakness of the movies they produced. I’d also argue that the Magic Mike franchise (as entertaining as the second movie was) may have seen its last gasp.

Given the utter success of other franchises (we will get to that) and of sequels and remakes overall for the past 15 or so years, it is of course loony to expect producers to shut this valve off completely - for every three or four disasters, all they need is one big hit to pay it off - but to minimize losses they really should start listening to the audience more.

How may this translate into the fall? One franchise that has built up continued goodwill is undoubtedly the James Bond series, and I would bet that Spectre will fall on the “deserves to continue” side of the ledger.

3. Some stars are losing it, and had better get back to basics.

While Tom Cruise pulled off another stunner, the subject of a recent A-List, it was stunning to see George Clooney and Adam Sandler mostly miss with Tomorrowland and Pixels, respectively. Again, quality seemed to matter more to audiences than star power. Those two are higher than Ryan Reynolds, whose career is basically over with the additional disaster that was Self/Less, but they'd better turn it around quickly.

While newer faces like Amy Schumer and Chris Pratt rose to super stardom with their hit movies, and others like The Rock continued a string of successes, older stars were devastatingly uninteresting to audiences in the summer of 2015.

Again, it is interesting to ponder how this may affect receipts in the coming months. Will Tom Hanks’ star fade or shine in the upcoming Bridge of Spies? What about Leo’s for The Revenant? And will Johnny Depp’s string of flops end with Black Mass? Sure, those three movies also have awards buzz to propel them, but it is clear that at least in part they are banking on star power to push them through.

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