While summer doesn't officially end on calendars until mid-September, Labor Day marks the end of the summer blockbuster onslaught. Critics don't expect much to change with the release of the two final studio films "November Man" and "As Above, So Below" so they have already begun their final analysis. It looks like it wasn't a good summer overall for revenue, but "Guardians of the Galaxy" comes out on top. In fact, even Robert Downey Jr. has nothing but praise for the latest from Marvel and Disney.

Variety reports: "For the first time in 13 years, no summer film cracked $300 million domestically. With the exception of "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "The Fault in Our Stars," the thrill of discovery was lacking among major blockbusters. Sequels blurred together, and at multiplexes, the story was too much of the same. That stifling of creative fire has commercial repercussions, particularly in an era where everyone's a critic with a microphone."

It would seem that the continued downturn has little to do with alternative media like Netflix and more with the quality of films being released.

Forbes also weighed in on this summer's box office results, stating that "If you want a single reason why the total summer box office was down, take a look at the sheer number of top-tier movies that ended up not dropping this season, with nothing of a similar scale to take their place. July was supposed to be ‘Maleficent,' ‘Fast & Furious 7,' ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,' and ‘Jupiter Ascending.' Two of those films got moved to 2015 and one got moved to May of 2014. Guess why July was down 41% from July 2013?"

In that sense, perhaps the summer box office downturn was the result of small scale sub-par films being released and almost everything that film fans were waiting for getting moved to 2015. Despite the slow somewhat dead summer numbers, one film rose above all others to claim the top spot: "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Recently, even Robert Downey Jr. admits to being a fan of the film. According to IGN, Downey Jr. stated in an interview, "Galaxy in some ways is the best Marvel movie ever."

Overall it seems that critics expected a pretty slow summer, especially since the summer slate did not include as many films as expected. Nevertheless, Matthew Harrigan, an analyst for Wunderlich Securities believes that if double digits don't happen in 2015, something is seriously wrong.