The Screening room

The annual avalanche of summer blockbusters is beginning to rain down on theaters, with the opening of "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" this weekend and "The Hangover 2" and "Kung Fu Panda 2" due to arrive for Memorial Day. Before everyone becomes obsessed with whether "The Green Lantern" will outgross "Thor," or how many millions the final "Harry Potter" installment can conjure up in mid-July, let’s take a moment to look at some of the surprise hits and unexpected flops of the spring. They provide some telling insights into what the public is buying and what they’re waiting to Netflix a few months from now.

Certainly one of the out of left field success stories of 2011 has to be Bradley Cooper’s satiric thriller "Limitless," which opened with minimal hype and quietly collected $78 million so far at the box office. A slick, funny and thought-provoking story about a down-on-his-luck writer who gets near-miraculous results from using a mysterious new drug, "Limitless" got terrific word of mouth. Director Neil Burger’s film connected to adult audiences looking for some sophisticated entertainment.

That same demographic also responded warmly to "The Lincoln Lawyer," an enjoyable, twist-packed murder mystery with Matthew McConaughey as a suave attorney defending a wealthy but unstable client (Ryan Phillippe). Another thriller that managed to find a fanbase was director Duncan Jones’ time-shifting tale "Source Code," starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier repeatedly trying to change the past and avert disaster in downtown Chicago.

Matt Damon and Emily Blunt’s long-delayed "The Adjustment Bureau," which finally opened in March, raked in $62 million, a tidy sum for a movie that was somewhat deceptively sold as a suspense story; as viewers discovered, it was actually more of a metaphysical romance. But perhaps moviegoers were so enchanted by the chemistry between the stars that they forgave the misleading marketing.

Forgiveness was not in the cards, however, for director Zack Snyder, whose "Sucker Punch" was anything but a knockout. The "300" and "Watchmen" filmmaker tried to meld cheesecake, science-fiction, martial arts and horror, only to turn out what looked like the most overblown Loverboy video ever made. The $82 million extravaganza sold only $36 million in tickets (it’s performed slightly better in overseas markets, which are Warner Bros.’ only hope of breaking even on this bomb). Another heavily ballyhooed bust was "Your Highness," a puerile vanity showcase for Danny McBride, who managed to drag James Franco and Natalie Portman down into the mud as well. Budgeted at nearly $50 million — very little of which seemed to show up on the screen, given the shoddy special effects — the would-be comedy has made less than $22 million in six weeks, and won’t be making much more.

By far the biggest washout of the season (and possibly one of the biggest duds of all time) belonged to Disney, which crashed and burned with the kooky "Mars Needs Moms." The $150 million project stormed into IMAX and regular theaters in March, only to be flatly rejected by viewers of all ages. Its gross to date is less than $21 million. No wonder that shortly after "Mars" opened, Disney closed down a lavish planned remake of the Beatles’ "Yellow Submarine" that was supposed to be produced by Robert Zemeckis, who also produced this disaster.