The Final Tally ...

The 2016 Summer Movie Season is in the books!

As it turned out, the season's two biggest money makers belonged to Disney. Captain America: Civil War led the way for the first month, but then gave way to the juggernaut that was Finding Dory. Either way, the bean counters working for the Mouse have to be pleased with the results.

Universal also managed to get two of its tentpoles into the summer's top five. The Secret Life of Pets took third place by a wide margin, and according to BoxOfficeMojo.com passed Disney-Pixar's Inside Out over Labor Day weekend as the eighth highest grossing animated feature of all time.

Jason Bourne, meanwhile, also proved to be a big win for the studio. Though it opened relatively late in the summer (July 29), it made enough at the box office to round out the top five, and proved that Matt Damon's most well-known recurring screen character still has some movie muscle.

Finally, Warner Bros. got their third DC Extended Universe film, Suicide Squad, into the top five in impressive fashion, ruling the box office for three weeks in August. The ensemble "bad guys do good" adventure now ranks #2 among the DC films behind Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

So what do we make of this?

Overall, superheroes, talking animals (and in the case of Sausage Party, talking food), and action dominated the cineplexes, just as one might expect. But certain series that have enjoyed immense success in the past -- the X-Men, Star Trek, and Ice Age franchises, most notably -- came up surprisingly short of industry and studio expectations.

It's easy to blame their box office performances on competition. After all, it was a crowded summer as far as franchises and series go.

But franchise and remake fatigue is something to watch out for, especially when considering the domestic performance of the Ghostbusters and Ben-Hur remakes. Yes, Ghostbusters made back its budget thanks to worldwide grosses, but Ben-Hur should serve as a cautionary tale for any studio looking at sinking lots of money into remaking a cinematic classic.

A better test of just how much remake fatigue might be taking hold of movie audiences is coming up with the release of The Magnificent Seven later this year. Yes, Magnificent Seven has had a much more robust marketing campaign than Ben-Hur did, and boasts a cast full of A-listers led by Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt.

But it's still a retread of a beloved classic, one that old time Hollywood fans might argue should not be done.

If it fails, perhaps the glut of high profile remakes will slow down. But if it doesn't ...

Time will tell.

Cinemascore grades for the films listed above were generally high, with Independence Day: Resurgence and Sausage Party receiving the lowest grades in the top 15, each with a "B."

Major Fall Releases

Just because summer is over doesn't mean it's the end for big releases. In fact, late Fall/early Winter will deliver to theaters a Harry Potter prequel and a new Star Wars film.

Here are some of the highlights of what 2016 has left in store for movie fans:

September:

  • Sully (Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney)
  • Snowden (Joseph Gordon Levitt, Shailene Woodley)
  • Bridget Jones's Baby (Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey)
  • The Magnificent Seven (Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke)
  • Deepwater Horizon (Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell)

October:

  • The Girl on the Train (Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson)
  • The Accountant (Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick)
  • Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (Tom Cruise, Cobie Smulders)
  • Inferno (Robert Langdon series) (Tom Hanks, Felicity Jones)
  • Rings (Vincent D'Onofrio, Johnny Galecki)

November:

  • Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams)
  • Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Harry Potter prequel) (Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell)
  • Bad Santa 2 (Billy Bob Thornton, Kathy Bates)

December:

  • La La Land (Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone)
  • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Riz Ahmed, Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen)
  • Patriot's Day (Melissa Benoist, Mark Wahlberg, Kevin Bacon)
  • Assassin's Creed (Michael Fassbender, Jeremy Irons)