Summer of sequels!

The major Hollywood studios are making big bets on some familiar names. With Spidey, Shrek, Jack Sparrow and Harry all on tap, could this be a record-breaking summer at the box office?

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
July 20
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Universal Studios (GE)
If it's summer, it must be time for an Adam Sandler comedy.

Sandler, who starred in last year's "Click", is back with "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, " a movie in which he and co-star Kevin James of "The King Of Queens" play Brooklyn firefighters who pretend to be gay in order to get domestic partner benefits.

Exhibitor Relations' Bock said the movie probably should do an "automatic $100 million" because of Sandler. But the film's plot has some analysts wondering if the movie can possibly be a hit.

McAlpine said that this movie - as well as Universal's other big summer contenders "Knocked Up," and "Evan Almighty" - need to do well or else there could be even more pressure on Universal's parent, GE, to do something with its NBC Universal division.

"GE/Universal has a lot of stake. They have a tough row to hoe this summer since they are going up against a lot of big name movies," McAlpine said.

To that end, an analyst at Citigroup suggested in April that GE should spin off NBC.


Spider-Man 3

Shrek the Third

Pirates of the Caribbean

Knocked Up

Ocean's 13

Fantastic Four

Evan Almighty

Live Free or Die Hard

Ratatouille

Transformers

Harry Potter

Chuck and Larry

The Simpsons

The Bourne Ultimatum

Rush Hour 3
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.