NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — If this summer’s Hollywood blockbusters sound familiar, they are.Studios will release 14 sequels costing more than $2 billion in the US, beginning in May with the third instalments of “Spider-Man” “Shrek” and “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

The filmmakers are loading up the schedule, encouraged by the success of the second “Pirates” and third “X-Men” movies last summer. This year, the studios are putting out twice as many retreads. The flurry may spur record box-office receipts, or burn audiences out before some movies even hit the screen.

“You have three major sequels coming bang, bang, bang,” said Bill Mechanic, the former head of News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox.

“Spider-Man 3” from Sony Corp. opens on May 4, followed by DreamWorks Animation SKG’s “Shrek the Third” on May 18 and Walt Disney Co.’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” on May 25.

The fifth “Harry Potter” movie opens on July 13. George Clooney and Brad Pitt return for “Ocean’s 13” on June 8 and Matt Damon’s “Bourne” series will be reprised with “The Bourne Ultimatum” on August 3.

The sequels this year are the second-most for a summer, behind only the 15 released in 2003.

“This tight scheduling of high-priced, highly promoted films increases the risk of film write-offs,” New York-based Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Michael Nathanson, the top-ranked analyst by Institutional Investor magazine, said in an April 19 report. This summer “might just be the most competitive ever,” he said.

It may also be the highest revenue-generating summer ever, provided moviegoers retain their stamina, said William Kidd, an entertainment analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. Kidd predicts box office receipts may outstrip 2004’s record $9.54 billion.

Sequels in 2006 helped fuel a 5.6 percent rise in ticket sales to $9.49 billion, rebounding from the biggest drop in 20 years in 2005.

Disney’s fourth-quarter earnings last year doubled on revenue from “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest”. Sony recorded a 62 percent surge in quarterly profit when “Spider-Man 2” was released in 2004.

The films will probably cost more than $2 billion to make and advertise, according to Tuna Amobi, an entertainment analyst with Standard & Poor’s in New York. That’s almost double the amount spent on the 2003 sequels.

Sequel budgets are swelling as stars demand more money and filmmakers juice up special effects, “Spider-Man” producer Laura Ziskin said at an April 20 publicity event in Los Angeles.

“Spider-Man”, starring Tobey Maguire for a third time, cost $300 million to make, according to Internet Movie Data Base. That’s more than double the $139 million Tokyo-based Sony spent on the first movie in 2002.

The film probably will generate $381 million in sales just in the US, the most of any film this summer, Wedbush Morgan’s Kidd said.

“Being the first one out feels like the right place,” said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony Pictures.

“Pirates”, with the return of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, cost about $225 million, Burbank, California-based Box Office Mojo LLC said, compared with $140 million for the first film in 2003. US moviegoers will probably spend $317 million to see the movie, Kidd said.

The returns show that the big budgets can be worth the risk. The “Spider-Man” franchise brought in $1.6 billion worldwide so far, “Pirates” $1.72 billion and “Shrek” $1.41 billion, according to Box Office Mojo, which tracks ticket sales.

“There’s a natural tendency to try to repeat that success,” Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment in Los Angeles, said in an interview.

Studios are packing the movies into the summer, which the industry defines as May through August, because it accounts for about 40 percent of the annual US box office, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers LLC, an Encino, California-based box-office tracker. The summer slate also includes three major releases that aren’t sequels: the animated “Ratatouille”, from Disney’s Pixar; “Transformers”, from Paramount and “The Simpsons”, based on News Corp.’s animated Fox television show.

With so many titles, studio executives have shifted release dates to avoid clashes, said Nikki Rocco, president of distribution for Universal Pictures. Paramount Pictures moved “Hot Rod”, a comedy starring Andy Samberg, to August 3 to prevent bumping up against another comedy, Universal Pictures’ “Knocked Up”, on June 1, Dergarabedian said.