With the days getting shorter and the summer drawing to a close, thoughts inevitably drift to the state of the Box Office in the midst of the wider Credit Crunch. And the outlook is bright. The 2008 US Box Office is all but assured of finishing on a par with last year's record-breaking take of $4.16 billion - a great result given the bleak mood elsewhere.
A big reason for such success is undoubtedly "The Dark Knight", Christopher Nolan's juggernaut helping itself to an unprecedented $477 million at the US Box Office having appealed to a wide cross-section of the cinema-going public. Just shy of last year's total, there's still two weekends left in this season to reach the record equally tally. The bright shining hope to achieve this is none other than Jason Statham and his "Death Race".
This time last year Rob Zombie's "Halloween" helped itself to an R-Rated $26.4 million take over the long weekend and Paul W.S. Anderson's equally adult offering will be looking to go one better with Statham's Box Office draw. The "Crank" and "Transporter" star has become something of a US action pin up and has successfully negotiated his action films to near consecutive $10 million weekends ("Transporter 2" and "War" to name but two). All eyes will be on the 'carmegeddon' to see if its success over Labor Day can propel the summer Box Office into the stratosphere once more.