With Hollywood talking about a record-breaking year for box office revenue in 2007, anything less than that will now be considered a disaster.
The busy season will kick off in May as three blockbuster film franchises offer their new productions that will be the third in the series for each of them. They will all be launched within a three-week period.
Starting off the onslaught will be “Spider-Man 3,” which returns Tobey Maguire 
and Kirsten Dunst as his love interest. Following on the heals of that will be “Shrek the Third,” will all the main characters returning with their voice actors intact.
Then will come the 2006 top movie continuation of Captain Jack Sparrow's adventures in “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” which takes up where the last film ended.
Not too long after this another couple of powerhouses will be offered in "Ratatouille," a project from Disney/Pixar (DIS) which should continue building on Pixar's string of hits. Last but not least, follows the fifth installment of Harry Potter in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” with major characters Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint returning to continue their training in their wizardry school.
In a normal year, the following movies would be be getting top billing: “Rush Hour 3”“ “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and Ocean’s Thirteen.” There won't be a lack of potentially good movies to see.
The only problem that may come out of this is that the industry in this case may be trying too hard to gain back their prestige; as they lost it two years ago in the terrible year they had then. How many movies will people want to go to watch during the summer season will be the question that remains to be answered.
The other thing is that it isn't breaking box office records that will determine the health of the industry, but in the end it's still will come down to profits, as any business must deal with.
In the long-term it also leaves a question. If they do break box office records, which that almost must do with the lineup they have or the year will be considered a distaster, what does it leave them for an encore the following year?
This short-thinking attention span that inhabits Hollywood may turn it into an extremely unpredictable industry that sways back and forth even more than it has throughout the decades.
2007 will be a defining year one way or another. It may cause some boasting from the studios if they get their record-breaking season, but then could also set themselves for failure the next year by their very success. This is going to be an important year that will be a very interesting story that emerges in the entertainment industry. Whatever happens will have an impact - one way or another - for years to come.
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