Remember all the whining last year about decreasing box office profits? Well throw that out the window, because this year Hollywood made more money than ever. Tinsletown’s big studios raked in a record $4 billion in receipts, whalloping the $3.95 billion record set three years ago. That’s right, this summer was the biggest box office summer in history.

The summer’s biggest earners were Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Shrek 3, and Harry Potter 5. All but one of those movies was awful, but all three broke the $300 million mark. Close behind and setting records of its own was Transformers, one of the few big earners that wasn’t a sequel of some sort.

If like me, you’re a glass half empty kind of guy, then this news is somewhat depressing since the entire summer movie season was basically bereft of originality. I’m not saying there weren’t any good movies, it’s just that almost all of them were sequels to sequels, and those that weren’t (like Stardust), didn’t make any money. Rest assured that the success of this threequel summer means even more sequelizing of familiar franchises on the horizon.

Hollywood is of course, trying to downplay their massive profits. The NY Times quotes WB president Dan Fellman as saying, “You have to first realize that before the first ticket is sold, you can have $300 million in costs to recoup... It’s hard to judge the health of an entire business based on one summer.” Sounds like positioning to me, in preparation for the negotiations they’ll soon be mired in, with that long-rumored, impending strike soon to arrive.