It was a Hulk-sized summer at the movies. Unfortunately.

Lowlighted by a less-than-socko comic-book flick and a pack of underperforming sequels, summer box-office attendance fell by nearly 2 percent, from 655 million moviegoers in 2002, to 642.6 million, the first drop in summer attendance since 2000, according to the tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.

Do the subtraction, and that's 12.4 million fewer warm bodies buying tickets, sipping soda and buying overpriced candy this summer than last.

Hollywood's sun-and-sandals season, led by big-fish Finding Nemo, officially wrapped Monday with the close of the Labor Day weekend.

Overall, films from Nemo to Gigli combined to gross a record $3.9 billion for the 18-week, summer period, up 2 percent from 2002's $3.8 billion. Credit inflation with that upward tick. Per Exhibitor Relations, the average ticket price rose nearly 4 percent this summer, up from $5.80 in 2002 to $6.03.

According to the firm's Paul Dergarabedian, Finding Nemo had something that much of the summer competition didn't: A story people--lots of people--wanted to see told.

"That movie is a movie that can appeal to absolutely everybody," Dergarabedian says.

Appealing to absolutely everybody turned out to be a fine idea. Through Monday, Nemo had hooked $332.7 million, making the Disney-Pixar creation the top-grossing animated film of all time, the top-grossing G-rated film of all time and (so far) the eighth top-grossing overall film of all time.

Making sequels--lots and lots of sequels--turned out to not be such a fine idea.

"This summer, there were so many of them it just became oversaturated," says box-office expert Brandon Gray of the Website Box Office Mojo.

In all, Hollywood studios released 12 sequels. Just five--The Matrix Reloaded (second place, $279.8 million), X2: X-Men United (fifth place, $214.9 million), Bad Boys II (seventh place, $135.1 million), Spy Kids 3D: Game Over (10th place, $107.4 million) and Freddy vs. Jason (19th place, $73.9 million), a sequel for both the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th series--made more money than the proceeding entry in their respective franchises.

For every Matrix Reloaded, which improved on the take of its 1999 original by more than $100 million, there was a Lara Croft: Tomb Raider--The Cradle of Life (21st place, $64 million), which backslid by more than $67 million.

Other non-sizzling sequels: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ($149.1 million, down from T2's $200 million-plus gross in 1991); American Wedding ($97.7 million, down from $145 million for 2001's American Pie 2); and Rugrats Go Wild! ($39.3 million, down from The Rugrats in Paris' $77 million in 2000).

At least the Lara Croft sequel was a relatively cost-efficient disappointment. While Paramount spent an estimated $95 million to squeeze Angelina Jolie into a tightest, whitest unitard since Raquel Welch's Fantastic Voyage, that was $20 million less than it invested on 2001's Tomb Raider adventure.

Usually, the opposite was the case. Universal, for instance, spent $38 million on The Fast and the Furious, upping the budget to $76 million for 2 Fast 2 Furious (ninth place). For its efforts, it got a Vin Diesel-less sequel that made $126.8 million, or about $18 million less than its stripped-down forerunner.

Arguably the most disappointing summer sequel was Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (15th place).

In 2000, the first Charlie's Angels was a quick hit with a fast and fat $125 million. Despite all the hype surrounding Demi Moore's big-screen return as a bad Angel, despite of all the hype surrounding Ashton Kutcher's red-carpet photo op with Moore, and arguably because, as Brandon Gray says, "no one was begging for a Charlie's Angels sequel, it took Full Throttle all summer to creak past the $100 million mark.

As with the case of 2 Fast 2 Furious, Full Throttle required more funds--an estimated $120 million budget, compared to the original Angels' $93 million--and produced less results.

"Sequels are a staple of Hollywood...I think the difference is [after this summer] the financial model will really be looked at carefully," Dergarabedian says. "The problem is audiences accept bigger, better, faster from their sequels. And bigger, better, faster cost more money."

T3's financial model--a $149.1 million domestic take, versus an estimated $200 million budget--makes more sense when the foreign box office is added in.

The Hulk could have used an international star like Arnold Schwarzenegger to help pump up its bottom line. Marvel Comics' big green guy isn't overwhelming overseas markets, much as he didn't overwhelm stateside audiences.

"The Hulk wasn't really the next Spider-Man," says Gray, very nearly summing up why 2003's summer box-office attendance couldn't match 2002's.

The comic thinkpiece grossed $131.8 million to take eighth place--great for mere mortals, not-so great for mega-hyped movies with $137 million budgets.

Movies that experts say lived up to, and exceeded the hype, included: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (third place, $275.1 million); Bruce Almighty (fourth place, $241 million); and, The Italian Job, which like Full Throttle, received a late push to roll past $100 million for a 14th place finish.

Movies that outright bombed, living down to low expectations, included: Harrison Ford's dead-on-arrival Hollywood Homicide ($30.2 million); DreamWorks' sole entry Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas ($26.2 million); and Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's own private Ishtar, Gigli ($6.1 million). Unlike even The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (20th place, $65.2 million), which also underwhelmed, none of those films cracked the top 25.

Overall, 15 films made $100 million or more this summer, up from 12 in summer 2002. Another two--American Wedding (16th place, 97.7 million) and Freaky Friday (17th place, $90.8 million)--may yet break the nine-digit barrier, Dergarabedian estimates.

Five films made $200 million or more--a "pretty incredible" feat, says Gray.

Here's a look at the top 10 grossing summer films of 2003, according to Exhibitor Relations:

1. Finding Nemo, $332.7 million
2. The Matrix Reloaded, $279.8 million
3. The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, $275.1 million
4. Bruce Almighty, $241 million
5. X2: X-Men United, $214.9 million
6. Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines, $149.1 million
7. Bad Boys II, $135.1 million
8. The Hulk, $131.8 million
9. 2 Fast 2 Furious, $126.8 million
10. Spy Kids 3D: Game Over, $107.4 million