With the summer around the corner, everybody is betting one the new ‘Indiana Jones’ to take the top spot. People in other countries may go out swimming or sunbathing, but the US has its bussiest season during those days, with 40% of the tickets sold between May and August.

Last year a whopping $9.62 billion was made, with summer blockbusters like ‘Spider-man 3,’ ‘Shrek the Third’ and ‘Transformers.’ But this summer isn’t short on potential box office wonders either. Here are the candidates with their budgets as found on the speculative internet.

• ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian’ ($100 million)
• ‘Speed Racer’ ($100 million)
• ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ ($125 million)
• ‘The Dark Knight’ ($150 million)
• ‘The Incredible Hulk’ ($125 million)
• ‘Iron Man’ ($186 million)
• ‘The Happening’ ($57 million)
• ‘Wall-e’ ($120 million)
• ‘Tropic Thunder’ ($150 million)
• ‘Meet Dave’ ($100 million)
• ‘You Don’t Mess with the Zohan’ ($75 million)
• ‘Sex and the City: The Movie’ ($65 million)
• ‘The X-Files: I Want to Believe’ ($35 million)
• ‘Get Smart’ (”biggest Peter Segal budget,” $100 million maybe?)
• ‘Hancock’ (??)
• ‘The Love Guru’ (??)

You don’t have to add up all these budgets to know it will be a good summer for Hollywood.

Hollywood is desperate for some Muslim money. Getting ready to set up several theme parks, they are putting their focus on getting all their signature characters out there. “On the one hand, they hate America. On the other hand they love America to the bone,” said Michael Izady, an expert on the Middle East to the AP.

While Captain America might not be a major hit, a ‘bare-shouldered Wonder Wonder’ wouldn’t be a problem “unless we depicted her as a Muslim woman,” said Tsujihara, who’s setting up a Warner theme park in Abu Dhabi.

One of the first theme parks will be a $2.2 billion Universal Studios project, with franchises like ‘King Kong’ and ‘Jurassic Park,’ set to open in 2010. Followed by a $1 billion park by Marvel Entertainment Inc. in Abu Dhabi by 2011, making a new home for ‘Spider-Man,’ ‘Fantastic Four’ and ‘X-Men.’

Showing how important global distribution is today, Sony extended their contract with Vice Chairman Jeff Blake until at least 2012.

“Jeff has built an unparalleled global marketing and distribution network, which is recognized as the best in the business. His leadership [...] has been critical to the success of Sony’s biggest hits. When it comes to knowing how films will play in different corners of the world, Jeff’s opinion and counsel matters — not only to us but to the filmmakers and talent, who respect and rely on his guidance.”

You got to give it to him, his track record is pretty great. Overseeing all world-wide releases he was responsible for films like Spider-man (all 50 of them), Casino Royale and The DaVinci Code. Doing respectively $1.4 billion, $426 million and $540 million outside the US.