5 takeaways from a punch-less summer

The movie of the summer might have been Marvel's irreverent hit Guardians of the Galaxy, the top domestic film at the box office. Or it could have been Michael Bay's sequel-reboot hybrid Transformers: Age of Extinction, the lone movie to even approach $1 billion globally.

But really, the movie of the summer was Star Wars: Episode VII. Even though it's not due in theaters for more than a year, no other film captured the popcorn-hunger of moviegoers quite like J.J. Abrams' resurrection of George Lucas' space opera. As the blockbuster-to-come went into production over the summer, every bit of casting news was eagerly consumed; every hint of its plot was carefully parsed. Nothing can stop it, not even the broken leg of an aged Hans Solo (Harrison Ford), at the mercy of a mechanical door on his trusty Millennium Falcon, no less.

The rabid interest for Star Wars is good news for Hollywood's 2015. No so much for its 2014.