Hollywood had one of its best summers ever at the domestic box office, but it was a sharply lopsided victory. Studios either thrived or withered¹, an outcome that reflects the winner-take-all nature of the mass-appeal movie business.

今年夏天，好莱坞的国内票房可以跻身史上最佳之列，但这却是一个极为不平衡的胜利。制片公司不是大赚特赚，就是大赔特赔，这个结果反映出迎合大众的电影业赢者通吃的本质。

Ticket sales at North American cinemas rose an estimated 10.4 percent, to $4.48 billion, for the period between the first weekend in May and Labor Day, from the same period a year earlier, the analytics firm Rentrak said on Sunday. Hollywood’s summer, which was one week longer this year because of a calendar quirk², has historically accounted for up to 40 percent of annual domestic ticket sales.

星期日，统计公司Rentrak宣布，从5月第一个周末到劳动节（9月的第一个星期一——译注）期间，北美影院票房比去年同期约增长10.4%，达到44.8亿美元。由于历法巧合，今年好莱坞的夏天在统计上要长出一个星期，这段时期的国内票房达到全年国内票房40%，创下了历史记录。

But the strong season was overwhelmingly owing to movies supplied by just two of Hollywood’s six major studios. Twelve movies took in more than $100 million in the United States and Canada, and eight of them were from Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast’s NBCUniversal, and Walt Disney Studios. Together, Universal and Disney controlled 60 percent of the market, Rentrak said.

但这强势的一季主要应归功于好莱坞六大制片公司中的两家。12部影片在美国和加拿大贡献了超过一亿美元的票房，其中八部来自康卡斯特的NBC环球(Comcast’s NBCUniversal)旗下的环球影业(Universal Pictures)，以及迪士尼公司(Disney Studios)。Rentrak称，环球与迪士尼控制着60%的市场。

Universal’s “Jurassic World” was the No. 1 draw, taking in nearly $647 million, for a global total of $1.65 billion, and Imax theaters did particularly well.

环球的《侏罗纪世界》(Jurassic World)位居票房首位，国内票房近6.47亿美元，全球票房16.5亿美元，Imax影院票房表现尤佳。

“Avengers: Age of Ultron,” from Disney’s Marvel³ division, was second, selling $457.8 million ($1.4 billion worldwide).

迪士尼漫威部门的《复仇者联盟2：奥创纪元》(Avengers: Age of Ultron)位居第二，国内票房达4.578亿美元，全球票房达14亿美元。

Third place went to one of the few original movies to hit big: “Inside Out,” from Disney’s Pixar unit, took in $348.2 million ($706 million worldwide).

第三名是少有的原创电影大片《头脑特工队》(Inside Out)，来自迪士尼的皮克斯公司，国内票房达3.482亿美元，全球票房达7.06亿美元。

But almost every other film studio struggled.

但其他公司就几乎都不大妙了。

The once rock-solid Warner Bros. found hits in “San Andreas” and “Mad Max: Fury Road” but mostly suffered dud after dud, including “Magic Mike XXL,” “Entourage,” “Hot Pursuit,” “Vacation” and “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” After a stellar summer last year, 20th Century Fox had a major flop⁴ this time around with “Fantastic Four.” Sony Pictures was barely in the game at all.

曾经强劲稳定的华纳兄弟公司推出的《末日崩塌》(San Andreas)和《疯狂的麦克斯4：狂暴之路》(Mad Max: Fury Road)表现出色，但大多数影片一部不如一部，诸如《魔力麦克2》(Magic Mike XXL)、《明星伙伴》(Entourage)、《别惹得州》(Hot Pursuit)和《秘密特工》(The Man From U.N.C.L.E.)。经历了群星荟萃的去年夏季，20世纪福克斯公司今年带来的《神奇四侠2015》(Fantastic Four)彻底失败。索尼影业几乎没什么值得一提的影片。

There are two major lessons from all of this, analysts⁶ say, one involving Hollywood as a whole and one concerning specific film companies.

分析师们从中总结出两个教训，一个是关于整个好莱坞的，另一个是关于个别电影公司的。

For years, Hollywood has pursued event-style movies intended to play to everyone — old and young, male and female, domestic and foreign. (“Old” is defined by the studios as anyone over the age of 35.) But some of these offerings have grown so colossal⁷ that other movies, even very expensive and heavily marketed ones that receive decent reviews, are having a hard time getting noticed.

多年来，好莱坞追求大片类型的电影，希望能吸引所有人——无论男女老幼，无论国内国外（对于制片公司来说，“老”意味着35岁以上）。但是这类影片当中，有些变得过于庞大，导致其他影片就算投入高昂成本、进行大量市场宣传，口碑也不错，但还是不太受人关注。

“We’re not seeing as many doubles and triples, and those movies are the ones that really keep the box office healthy,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior analyst⁵ at Rentrak. “It was an extremely top-heavy summer.”

“我们没看的影片是已看的两三倍，正是这些影片让票房保持健康，”Rentrak的高级分析师保罗·德加拉贝迪安(Paul Dergarabedian)说。“今年夏天的票房实在是太头重脚轻了。”

Last summer, nine of the top 10 movies in North America collected roughly $200 million or more in ticket sales. This year, only four movies did that: “Jurassic World,” “Age of Ultron,” “Inside Out” and Universal’s animated⁸ “Minions⁹.”

去年夏天，在北美票房前10名影片中，前9部都得到了2亿美元以上的收入。而今年，只有4部影片取得了这个成绩，分别是《侏罗纪世界》、《复仇者联盟2：奥创纪元》、《头脑特工队》和环球影业的动画片《小黄人大眼萌》(Minions)。

“Jurassic World” ranked first or second for five weekends in a row. Universal’s “Straight Outta Compton” was No. 1 for three weekends straight. Because of the continued popularity of those films, some competing movies faced a limited chance to play in the biggest theaters, including those operated by Imax and a screen network known as Premium¹⁰ Large Format¹¹, both of which charge more for tickets.

《侏罗纪世界》一连五周保持在票房第一或第二的位置。环球影业的《冲出康普顿》(Straight Outta Compton)连续三个周末保持票房第一。因为这些影片持续流行，同期竞争影片在大影院上映的机会就受到限制，包括那些由Imax运营的影院，以及提供优质大画幅(Premium Large Format)的影院系统，二者都要收取更高票价。

It may only get worse: In the summer of 2017, for instance, Disney has new installments¹² from its “Toy Story,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Guardians¹³ of the Galaxy¹⁴” and “Star Wars” franchises¹⁵ opening back to back. That lineup is expected to leave little room for anything else to bloom.

这种局面可能会变得更糟：比如说，到2017年暑期，迪斯尼将持续推出《玩具总动员》(Toy Story)、《加勒比海盗》(Pirates of the Caribbean)、《银河护卫队》(Guardians of the Galaxy)和《星球大战》(Star Wars)等系列大片的新作。估计这一系列影片给其他影片留下的空间会非常小。

The summer season that just ended also reflected specific problems at certain suppliers. Warner, for instance, has been struggling through a lingering shaky period resulting from upheaval¹⁶ in 2013, when the studio’s movie chief departed in a broader management overhaul¹⁷.

刚刚结束的暑期放映季也反映出某些公司的特殊问题。比如华纳公司，2013年，公司经历了人事动荡，电影部门的主管在管理层的大改组中离开。如今公司仍在艰难地克服动荡期的余波。

“Our business is cyclical, and we had a transitional summer,” Dan Fellman, Warner’s president of domestic distribution, said. “The good news is that Greg Silverman and his team are really lining¹⁸ up a series of movies that look to be huge box office hits,” including “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Mr. Silverman is Warner’s president of movie production.

“我们的经营有自己的周期，今年夏天是一个过渡，”华纳公司国内发行部总裁丹·菲尔曼(Dan Fellman)说。“好消息是，格里格·席尔瓦曼(Greg Silverman)和他的团队正在组织一系列既可能成为票房大片的电影，”这其中包括了《蝙蝠侠大战超人：正义黎明》(Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice)。席尔瓦曼是华纳电影制作部门的总裁。

Sony, which as recently as 2013 found major warm-weather hits in “Men in Black 3” and “The Amazing Spider-Man,” had the most difficult summer of all. The studio did not have a single film among the season’s top 25 performers, according to Box Office Mojo, a database. “Pixels,” starring Adam Sandler, was Sony’s biggest draw, taking in roughly $73.3 million in North America.

索尼公司上一次在夏季取得成功的大片还要追溯到2013年的《黑衣人3》(Men in Black 3)和《神奇蜘蛛侠》(The Amazing Spider-Man)，今年夏天，它的日子比谁都难过。根据电影票房数据库Box Office Mojo统计，该公司没有一部电影跻身本季票房前25之列。亚当·桑德勒(Adam Sandler)主演的《像素大战》(Pixels)是索尼最成功的一部影片，在北美获得7330万美元票房。

Sony, which declined to comment for this article, brought in a new movie chief, Thomas E. Rothman, in February. Mr. Rothman, who had been working to revive Sony’s TriStar label, replaced Sony’s longtime movie picker, Amy Pascal, who was edged out because of a shortage of hits and the fallout from last year’s cyberattack on the studio.

索尼公司拒绝了采访要求，今年2月，公司迎来了新的电影部门主管托马斯·E·罗斯曼(Thomas E. Rothman)。罗斯曼曾令索尼的TriStar品牌起死回生，他取代了索尼长期以来的电影主管艾米·帕斯卡(Amy Pascal)，她离职是因为没能推出足够多的票房大片，此外还受到去年公司受黑客攻击带来的影响。

The fall promises to be better for Sony, which will release the next James Bond film, “Spectre,” on Nov. 6. Sony also got a bit of box-office help over the weekend. Its religious drama “War Room” took in about $9.4 million from Friday to Sunday, for first place.

今年秋季，索尼可能会有些起色，11月6日，它将推出007新片《007：大破幽灵危机》(Spectre)。这个周末，索尼在票房上也有不少收获，关于宗教的新片《战争房间》(War Room)刚一上映，就在周五到周日的这段时间里获得了940万美元的票房。