Here they are, with US box office grosses, via Pajiba:
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: $381 million
2. Transformers Dark of the Moon: $352 million
3. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1: $275 million
4. The Hangover Part II: $254, million
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides $241 million
6. Fast Five: $209 million
7. Cars 2 $191 million
8. Thor: $181 million
9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes : $176 million
10. Captain America: The First Avenger: $176 million
11. The Help $169 million
12. Bridesmaids: $169 million
13. Kung Fu Panda 2: $165 million
14. X-Men: First Class: $146 million
15. Puss in Boots: $145 million
16. Rio: $143 million
17. The Smurfs: $142 million
18. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol: $134 million
19. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows: $132 million
20. Super 8: $127,004,179
21. Rango: $123 million
22. Horrible Bosses: $117 million
23. Green Lantern: $116 million
24. Hop: $108 million
25. Paranormal Activity 3: $103 million
I count 6 movies out of 25 that are neither sequels nor based on comic books. You have to get down to #11, The Help, to find a film targeted at an adult audience – that’s if you don’t count the R-rated Hangover II. (Frankly, I’d sooner sit through Hangover II again than The Help.) I’ve seen 15 out of these 25 and enjoyed some of them well enough I suppose but still, it’s a pretty vacuous list of escapist crap.
It should be noted that 2011 represented the lowest box office performance in the US since 1995.
Your expertise here is far greater than mine-but I have to agree. US films seem to lack any originality anymore, they just re-make good films from the 70′s and the 80′s badly these days.
One moving I did enjoy was the Martin Sheen movie about the pilgrimage of El Camino.
I have not seen any of this movies & I have big doubts that I really missed “something important” !
I would tend to agree. I have nothing against sequels prequels or reboots but on that front only Planet of Apes really offered anything interesting to me.
What I did find interesting was the lack of work from any of the/my top directors. No Speilberg, although Tin Tin, which I liked came out late in 2011. Nothing from Lynch, Scorsese, the Coens, Cronenberg, Tarantino, Ridley Scott, Sam Rami, Peter Jackson, or Clint Eastwood. I also see that Tree of Life from Malik doesn’t appear, but maybe that was a 2010 release.
Maybe it was a year off for the big guys
Scorsese, Cronenberg and Eastwood had 2011 films. Tree of Life was a 2011 release. Those just weren’t top grossers for the year.
What a frightening list of those that I have seen the only one I rated highly was Rise of The Planet Of The Apes which I thought was really good. I am hoping that there will be a sequel!
Spike.
Thanks for the comment. You are technically right! haha. Eastwoods release was J Edgar which has not released until November (Feb 2012 in Hong Kong) and thus didnt make the list. Scorsese had a documentary, and Cronenbergs study on Freud was so niche that it has a niche within a niche.
Dude. Scorsese. Hugo. Oscar contender. Box office dud.