Shrek is the man. Well, ogre.

He helped to save the summer box office, especially when the early entries such as "Van Helsing" and "Troy" didn't exceed or meet last year's "X-Men 2" and "The Matrix Reloaded." The jolly green guy swooped into theaters and attracted packed houses of all ages.

DreamWorks Pictures via AP Shrek 2 starring the voice talents of Mike Meyers and Eddie Murphy was Hollywood's biggest money-maker this summer. Click photo for larger image. Online graphics See a graphic that shows how much money summer movies made annually since 1998. See a graphic that shows the top 10 movies this summer.

"It really turned everything around," says Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. "'Shrek 2' has to be considered a surprise, not that it did well, but that it did this well. It is the third-highest-grossing film of all time now," behind "Titanic" and the first "Star Wars."

"Who'd have thought 'Shrek 2' would be the biggest movie of the summer, especially in a summer where 'Spider-Man 2' was released?" Dergarabedian asks.

"The bottom line of the summer of '04? It was a solid summer, and audiences, by and large, were much more satisfied with the movies they saw this year," he says, with 2002 still the "cinematic equivalent of the hundred-year flood." That summer saw "Spider-Man," "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones," "Minority Report" and other blockbusters.

While 2004 avoided the overload of summer sequels of recent years, it turns out that four of the five highest-grossing movies of the season feature characters we've seen in previous movies: Shrek, Spider-Man, Harry Potter and Jason Bourne.

"As opposed to last summer, there were not all these sequels thrown at the audience. The ones that were released were very good; '03 nearly killed the sequel, even though they did well at the box office, the audience didn't have much of a choice, there were so many of them. This summer ... a lot of audience confidence was restored," Dergarabedian says.

There were movies for grown-ups, prestigious projects such as "The Manchurian Candidate" that usually debut in cooler weather, and a gray-haired Tom Cruise, who crossed over to the dark side in "Collateral" and brought moviegoers with him. (Cruise's co-star, Jamie Foxx, could vault to another level of stardom this fall with "Ray," in which he plays Ray Charles.)

Although Dergarabedian will track summer numbers through Labor Day, he projects a 2 percent uptick in revenue -- to nearly $4 billion -- and a 2 percent downturn in attendance. Tickets are nearly a quarter more than last year, with the average price $6.25.

The dominant summer movie genre remains action-adventure. Only three of the top 10 films come from other genres: the comedies "Shrek 2" and "Dodgeball" and the documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11."

The box-office blockbuster of the summer, in some ways, is Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," the first documentary to gross more than $100 million (also the first to gross as much as $25 million, which makes its performance all the more remarkable). The rest of the top 20 movies opened on at least 2,300 screens. "Fahrenheit 9/11" opened on 868 screens.

The independent hits of the summer are "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Open Water," which have grossed at least $22 million each. The doldrums of August have driven moviegoers into some of the other smaller pictures, such as "Garden State."

Before we call it a wrap, a look at summer 2004:

Redemption: Eric Bana, who made us miss the late Bill Bixby with 2003's "The Hulk," redeemed himself as Hector in "Troy" and is being floated as the next James Bond.

Oops, he did it again: Will Smith retained his title as "Mr. July" with "I, Robot," which made $52 million its first weekend and $140 million so far.

Kleenex with your Twizzlers? Critics were loath to open "The Notebook," but fans of tearjerkers or the Nicholas Sparks book were happy to blubber through "The Notebook" and then recommend it to their girlfriends.

Breakout stars: Zach Braff, well known to TV's "Scrubs" fans, emerged as a triple threat with "Garden State." Ron Howard's daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, made critics sit up and take notice with "The Village." So did Catalina Sandino Moreno in "Maria Full of Grace." Rachel McAdams showed her range with "Mean Girls" and "The Notebook," and Steve Carell is breaking out of "Anchorman" to play Uncle Arthur in "Bewitched" and Maxwell Smart in a movie version of "Get Smart."

Real vacation from hell: A hurricane sent you scrambling for I-95. Your flight was postponed, then canceled. The dog developed motion sickness. But the vacation from hell award goes to the scuba-diving couple in "Open Water" who are left behind in shark-infested waters, due to a snafu in counting tourists using hatch marks on a sheet of paper. And, as the husband says in an outburst of pique and frustration, they paid for the privilege of being abandoned in the middle of nowhere.

Summer surprise: "Hero," a martial-arts film nominated for a 2002 Oscar but not released in the United States until late August, opened No. 1 at the box office with almost $18 million. Despite being in Mandarin with English subtitles, it slashed through the competition.

"Those we don't speak of": Catchphrases were few and far between this summer. "The Village" gave us that line, which became clear by movie's end (or 15 minutes in, if you were among the more observant patrons). One of our favorite moments came in "Spider-Man 2" when Tobey Maguire's character is sized up by a fellow elevator passenger: "Cool Spidey outfit."

Moore and Mel: Or those we do not speak of, part two. In late July, Peter Bart wrote in the trade publication Variety: "Were it not for Mel Gibson and Michael Moore, the year would surely be a major disappointment. The two filmmakers who had the most doors slammed in their faces thus saved Hollywood's butt in 2004." Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" was a February release, but "Fahrenheit 9/11" ignited entertainment and editorial pages, not to mention talk shows and political conventions, this summer.

Mom-daughter outing: Two for "Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement," please.

Family values: Except for "Shrek 2," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" and, to a much lesser degree, "Garfield," movies that aimed specifically at kids or families failed to find much favor at the box office. Among the also-rans: "New York Minute," "Thunderbirds," "Two Brothers," "America's Heart and Soul," "Yu-Gi-Oh" and "Benji Off the Leash" (which is trying to save the movie with a grass-roots e-mail campaign).

Chicks Trump Clive: If anyone had asked, we would have bet the castle that "King Arthur" would outperform "White Chicks." We would have been wrong, although "King Arthur" is making twice as much money overseas as domestically. We forgot that it's tough to sell teens on a period movie.

Worth their weight in popcorn: Shrek. Spider-Man. Harry Potter. Brad Pitt. Matt Damon. Will Smith. M. Night Shyamalan. Will Ferrell. And Ben Stiller, who never met a humiliation comedy or cameo he didn't like.

Worth their weight in free publicity: Was there a news organization, including this one, that didn't hype "The Day After Tomorrow" or "Fahrenheit 9/11"?

Geek chic: Harold, Kumar and Napoleon Dynamite had their names in the titles of their summer sleepers. Who would have thought that the actors whose real names are John Cho, Kal Penn and Jon Heder would garner attention in, variously, "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" and "Napoleon Dynamite."

Here today, gone tomorrow: The end of summer was flooded with three-day wonders such as "Exorcist: The Beginning," "Without a Paddle" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!"

Double duty: Alan Tudyk thought he was a pirate but fit right in with the misfits in "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story," but perhaps his weirdest turn this summer was as the title robot in "I, Robot." His voice and movements provided the robot with its human qualities, a la Andy Serkis' Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Tudyk, a regular on Joss Whedon's short-lived TV series "Firefly," will reprise his character when it moves to the big screen next year as "Serenity."

And the Oscar went to: Your Oscar winners were busy, in popcorn or prestigious pictures. Halle Berry morphed from meek graphic designer to bold beauty in "Catwoman," and Adrien Brody played a mentally challenged man in "The Village." Nicole Kidman was one of "The Stepford Wives," and grief became Kim Basinger in "The Door in the Floor." Tom Hanks took up residence in "The Terminal," Ben Kingsley hunted "Suspect Zero," Holly Hunter encouraged snooping in "Little Black Book," and Kevin Kline tickled the ivories in "De-Lovely." Leading the pack: "The Manchurian Candidate," with Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep, who each own a pair of Academy Awards.

Ratings roundup: Only three of the top 20 movies were rated R. Most of them carried the PG-13 rating.

The Duh Report: If you regularly go to the movies, you suspected this. Violence, sex and profanity have increased significantly between 1992 and 2003, according to a study by researchers from the Kids Risk Project at the Harvard School of Public Health. They call it "ratings creep," and it means more violence in PG and PG-13 movies, more sexual content in PG, PG-13 and R films, and more profanity in PG-13 and R releases. No kidding.

Top 10 movie we never want to sit through again: "Van Helsing."

Looking ahead: Although Tom Cruise has put "Mission: Impossible 3" on hold, so he can work on another project, summer 2005 holds promise with another "Star Wars" adventure, "Bewitched" with Nicole Kidman, "Batman Begins" with Christian Bale, "The Pink Panther," "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Herbie: Fully Loaded."