The end of summer spells the end of many things, one of which is the summer movie season. Going back on the last few months in film one can see a very clear trend emerging, based on the films that did well and those that did not. While this year’s blockbuster season was not the best in history, there were some lessons learned for studios as they prepare films for the next several year.

Lesson number one, people like good movies. The two most successful films of the year were Toy Story 3 and Inception, both of which raked in simply preposterous amounts of money. Toy Story has even broke the billion dollar mark worldwide, not too bad for a charming film about toys. There is naturally not very much in common between the two, one aimed at families and the other a twisting, exceedingly complicated thriller for adults. However, they shared one thing in common, and that’s that people liked them, were intrigued by them, and told their friends. They opened well and sustained that momentum to make their creators enough money to build a small country.

Lesson number two, people don’t like really terrible movies. I’ll admit that I haven’t seen Marmaduke, since I could barely sit through the entire trailer. The one person I know who did see it was stumbling and incoherent, unable to form sentences. The only thing he could say was one word, “don’t”, so I think it’s safe to assume he didn’t enjoy it. Nobody did, from appearances, since the film flopped hard. It might have had talking animals and William H. Macy, but audiences knew a stinker, and stayed home in droves. It’s not that people were unwilling to buy a ticket – again, look at the draw of Inception and Toy Story 3 – but that they went to movies that might actually be good.

Lesson number three, vampires are trendy. I’m not a teenaged girl, so I don’t understand the Twilight series. Still, Eclipse brought in lots of money, so clearly teenage girls are a good market to shoot for. It was far from the only vampire movie out there, from half-hearted parodies to more serious work. Plus, there are countless TV series’ and books about the same subject. It remains to be seen how long the trend goes before it plays out, because once something becomes over exposed suddenly people are not particularly interested anymore. Once the vampire trend wears out its welcome, a backlash might be inevitable.

Lesson number four, Michael Cera is no longer a draw. Cera’s affable but awkward persona has officially worn out its welcome, as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World opened to a thunderclap of indifference. While it opened to generally positive reviews and had a well executed marketing campaign, it was a financial disappointment. An increasingly large number of people have expressed that they are sick of the young actor, including some critics and many people Scott Pilgrim is marketed towards. It’s a shame, because the people behind Scott Pilgrim are genuinely talented, and many who do see it enjoy it. Cera is serving as a mental barrier before people will commit to buying a ticket. Perhaps a confident, assertive Cera role is needed to save his career.

If the lessons from this year are followed, one might expect that next summer we’ll see scores of creative and unique films, along with plenty of vampires. At a bare minimum, hopefully talking animals like Marmaduke are finally gone forever.