Total box office receipts in North America for the year 2001 passed $5bn this week - setting a record pace not only for the summer season - which closes in a fortnight on Labor Day weekend - but for the year.

This time last year, box office was at $4.71bn and had peaked by the year-end at $7.7bn. With great expectations for holiday titles Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (Nov 16), The Fellowship Of The Ring (Dec 19) and Monsters Inc (Nov 2), 2001 should sail pass the uncharted $8bn barrier.

Leading the studio market share table as the summer comes to a close is Universal Pictures with $621.3m total gross and a 12.2% share. Universal's heavenly summer continued last weekend with the $45.1m opening of its R-rated sequel American Pie 2 which was a record breaker in that it gave the studio an unprecedented four consecutive $40m-plus openings. Its previous three summer smashes were The Mummy Returns, The Fast And The Furious and Jurassic Park III.

Ironically, the summer was on a downturn in July with three consecutive weekends failing to match corresponding weekends last year. But, unlike 2000 which collapsed in August, this year's August has already seen awesome results from New Line's Rush Hour 2 and American Pie 2 as well as one of the season's few sleeper hits in Buena Vista's The Princess Diaries.

The real story of the summer is how the opening-is-everything mentality which has dominated Hollywood studio thinking for some years became such a merciless reality. Most blockbusters were released into over 3,000 sites and within those sites, often on three or four screens. As industry-wide records fell week after week, it became clear that the lion's share of a major film's business is now done in those all-important three days when a film has its maximum screen space and advertising exposure.

A $50m opening does not seem so special in these days when The Mummy Returns, Planet Of The Apes and Rush Hour 2 all topped $65m.

And then came the drop-offs - almost as gigantic as the openings themselves. Pearl Harbor fell 61% in its second weekend, Planet Of The Apes 60%, AI Artificial Intelligence 59%. Teen audiences had consumed the films the weekend before and were on to new thrills. In previous years, it would have been unheard of for a film opening on over $30m not to pass $100m eventually. Now, as America's Sweethearts, Cats And Dogs and Scary Movie 2 struggle to the century mark, that has become entirely possible.

Of course, if three days can make a film, they can also break it. If you fail to stir up interest - as Osmosis Jones did last weekend, or Original Sin the weekend before - you are instantly dead. Subsequent weekends will offer no chances of redemption.

There was one exception to the rules of this new high-stakes business. Still playing after 13 weeks on release, DreamWorks SKG's Shrek - arguably the only genuine across-the-board crowd-pleaser of the season - is the biggest hit of the summer ($259m gross and counting) and one which generated the summer's most sought after commodity - repeat business.