t's surprising how quickly $1 billion dollars became a standard annual gross for a Hollywood studio. In the 1972 studio executives couldn’t believe that The Godfather was able to make over $100 million. While Gone With The Wind and other famous titles had managed to earn that amount over time through re-releases, it was an unheard of sum for a single theatrical run. Three years later, Jaws doubled that record gross with $260 million and two years after that Star Wars raised the stakes to $400 million. The age of the blockbuster began and studios started to make as much off of single films as they used to make in an entire year. In 1997,Titanic managed to bring in almost $2 billion worldwide. At this point if a studio makes anything less than $1 billion, it would be a sub-par year. But, making $1 billion dollars before the end of June, now that’s a box office feat.

Last weekend Paramount debuted the Mike Myers debacle The Love Guru. When the box office figures came in, the movie had earned only $13.9 million dollars. It was a pitiful sum well below the expectations of the studio heads. Yet, there were celebrations in the Paramount offices. Why? Because the weekend totals brought Paramount’s total box office to $1 billon dollars for 2008, easily the fastest any studio has ever managed to reach that total. It’s a big boon for the studio and one that they are boasting about, yet the achievement is not a lucrative for the studio as it seems.