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2. Quality and Originality Still Brings Audiences (a.k.a. Pixar’s still got it).

As I mentioned earlier, and as has been the case for years now, sequels, prequels, remakes, and reboots have dominated the summer movies line-up for years. It is easy to understand why: a studio exec that takes a risk on a previously proven item is much less likely to be in trouble if the product fails, than one who greenlights an unknown quantity. And, given the big dinosaur, er, elephant in the room regarding the 2015 summer box office, it is not hard to understand why these movies dominate.

Yet despite all this, I return to what is perhaps the overarching and maybe even hopeful theme of summer 2015: audiences are yearning for quality and, most of all, originality in movies and are rewarding it. Box office forecasters were simply unable to predict the solid success of Straight Outta Compton, and it seems difficult to believe that Inside Out obtained the highest opening weekend of all-time for a movie that did not debut in first place. Meanwhile, Mad Max: Fury Road (technically, a reboot), also did surprisingly well. Indeed, all three of these movies are arguably headed for at least some awards recognition, and are likely the three best movies of the summer.

It was, of course, a pleasant surprise to see Pixar doing what it does best. The question is whether the goodwill can translate into fall success with its release of The Good Dinosaur, and also whether audiences will respond to Pixar’s next two offerings as well as they did to Inside Out - for 2016 and 2017 Pixar has two sequels set for release (Finding Dory and Toy Story 4, respectively).

Of course, for all the success of Inside Out or Compton, one can look at the more or less mediocre performances of a long list of films, including The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Vacation, Southpaw, Paper Towns, American Ultra, Hitman: Agent 47, and Ricki and the Flash. So, to hope that the success of these new(ish) elements will signal good things to come is likely futile. New ventures like this fall's The Martian will either continue this string of successes or fall by the wayside as well.

1. Nostalgia won the day.

In the end, however, one movie clearly devoured the competition this past summer, and that story is undoubtedly the biggest of the summer. No one did or could predict the stunning success of Jurassic World in the months that preceded its release. When its numbers started coming in that June weekend, it began to surprise and the only question that remained was how far it could go.

It turns out that it had the stamina to go all the way, and all the way it went. At the end of the weekend, Jurassic World had swiped The Avengers’ opening weekend record, and as of this writing sits dangerously close to Titanic’s #2 spot in the all-time list.

In retrospect, it seems clear that Jurassic World would dominate. After all, the first and second entries in the franchise broke the opening weekend record when they made their debut. Audiences have some attraction to people being devoured by dinosaurs. And, perhaps like with Mad Max, enough time had passed for audiences to be thirsty for more. Despite a tepid last episode in the list, the public still expected big things from it.

And so you have it.

The final question, one that Jurassic World’s performance may hold clues as to, is whether its success will be replicated later this year by one of the most anticipated films left to open in 2015. Think of it: a long-beloved franchise that has held box office records in its prior incarnations, a good chunk of time between the last entry and the coming film, a tepid last few episodes but still public expectations, and the promise of a reboot of cast into fresher faces while including sufficient old ones so as to please old-timers….

Will we soon be speaking of the stunning success, or the devastating failure, in a galaxy far, far away?

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