This year has seen a number of hits at the box office as well as a number of flops. The winter season saw "The Lego Movie," "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Divergent" surpass expectations and became successful financially. However after the first month of the summer season, Box Office Mojo is reporting that the box office took a hit, and this past May is the lowest since 2010 because of the lack of successful movies.

Back in 2010, the country was going under a number of economic struggles, and the May slate lacked popular franchises. It only had "Iron Man 2," "Sex and the City 2" and "Shrek Forever After." There were also some high budget films including "Robin Hood" and "Prince of Persia: Sands of Time" that were expected to hold their own at the box office as well. However none of these films came out strong and barely registered with audiences with exception of "Iron Man 2." The 2014 May slate is quite the opposite. Not only did it have two big franchises, but it also featured two reboots and one huge surprise hit.

The summer season started with "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," which opened to an outstanding $91 million. However it quickly vanished from the box office and, at the moment, has had a hard time getting to the $200 million mark. It will not only be the worst reviewed installment of the 12-year-old franchise, but it will also be the lowest grossing domestically.

The third weekend of the summer featured "Godzilla," which had a lot of buzz going for it especially after its intricate and fascinating viral campaign. The reviews were outstanding, and the cast also had a lot of buzz. As a result it opened with a resounding $93 million gross and ranks among the best this year. However the film has quickly faded, and it had one of the worst second weekends for a tentpole film. The movie currently has made $176 million, but analysts worry about whether or not it will make $200 million by the end of its run.

"X-Men: Days of Future Past" is also struggling to reach audiences. While it had an outstanding $90 million opening during Memorial Day weekend, it had a 64 percent second weekend drop. It is performing solidly during the week and is sure to make more than $200 million, but the movie's gross does not match the rave reviews and great word-of-mouth the franchise film has obtained.

Even Disney has struggled with its latest Live Action adaptation of "Sleeping Beauty." While "Maleficent" opened to almost $70 million, which was better than expected, the movie fell below the openings of "Oz: The Great and Powerful" and "Alice in Wonderland." The movie is currently on track to reach $180 million, which is yet another film that will not reach the $200 million mark; "Alice in Wonderland" and "Oz: The Great and Powerful" both surpassed $200 million in domestic intake.

Two high profile comedies "A Million Ways to Die in the West" and "Blended" flopped and were not able to make at least $20 million during their opening weekends. In another year, these films would have been successful regardless of their terrible reviews. Additionally, "Legends of OZ: Dorothy's Return" failed conquer family audiences despite having no real competition in the children-targeted market.

The faith-based flicks were also conquering the box office during the spring season, but the summer release "Mom's Night Out" underperformed and was quickly taken out of cinemas.

The trend is very interesting given how the winter and spring releases aforementioned over performed and seemed to foreshadow what should have happened over the summer. "Captain America" remained in the top 10 for seven weekends and was not even hurt by "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," which was supposed to be fierce competition.

Meanwhile "The Lego Movie" came out in a time when no other tentpole films were scheduled and defied expectations. The film opened with $69 million and held on for three weekends at number one. It also made over $255 million.

With May having been a big failure, the studios may be looking at a trend that could affect the rest of the summer blockbusters.

There are a number of reasons for these disappointing numbers. One of the main reasons for this is that audiences are becoming increasingly fatigued by all the reboot and sequel films. Not only are the franchises continually having similar story lines but, the action sequences are lacking in originality and vision.

Take "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" for instance. When the 2012 reboot was released, it not only became the worst grossing in the franchise, but it also had a lot of criticism for basically being the same movie as the original 2002 "Spider-Man." Audiences also felt it was too soon to reboot the franchise. This year the sequel scored the worst reviews in the franchise and was also marred by comparisons to "Spider-Man 3" because it featured three villains. All of these factors did not play into the opening weekend, but they did hurt the film's overall box office.

Another factor for May's failure is the overcrowded slate. There is no time to view a film more than once since audiences have to catch up with the latest blockbuster. As a result, no matter how much word-of-mouth the movie has, audiences are only going during the opening weekend.

Marketing seems to be another factor. Movie trailers, one of the major tools for studios to brand their products, are also not helping as most of the previews are only featuring action sequences with explosions and not many story details. Movie audiences have always been intrigued by the story. And when every trailer looks exactly the same, it is hard to differentiate what movie they will be seeing, and it is also hard to convince audiences that they have not seen that specific action sequence before.

In the case of "Maleficent," audiences were not clear about the tone of the movie and the plot. While it performed better than expected, there may have been a possibility of having a better opening weekend if the trailers would have explained more about the film.

Arguably the most crucial factor is the high tickets prices. Audiences are more attuned to reviews nowadays and prefer to spend on a great film rather than a mediocre one -- if at all. Thus Adam Sandler's "Blended" fared horribly and has become one of the actor's worst flops in years.

Interestingly enough, the lower budget films are the ones overperforming. "Neighbors" which only cost $18 million, opened with $49 million. The movie has already made $130 million and is on track to make $140 million. It is uncertain why this movie in particular is over performing, but it may be do to the unique concept, the cast and most importantly the correct timing.

As June approaches, a similar trend is already being seen. "The Fault in Our Stars" has already broken Fandango records for a romance, while Tom Cruise's "Edge of Tomorrow" is struggling to reach its audiences. The science fiction film has rave reviews, but the marketing campaign has failed to focus on the story and instead has paid more attention to the action and special effects.