BoxOfficeMojo released their list of 2011’s highest-grossing movies today (based on domestic box office), so if you’re a studio exec, these are the best films of the year. You may also notice that none of the top 15 are movies released in the last two weeks of the year during the awards season window when studios release all the movies aimed at actual adults at the same time. Weird how that works out, isn’t it? You’d almost think that’s a dumb strategy.
| Rank | Movie Title |
Studio | Total Gross / Theaters | Opening / Theaters | Open | Close | ||
| 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | WB | $381,011,219 | 4,375 | $169,189,427 | 4,375 | 7/15 | 11/24 |
| 2 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | P/DW | $352,390,543 | 4,088 | $97,852,865 | 4,088 | 6/29 | 10/13 |
| 3 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 | Sum. | $276,095,000 | 4,066 | $138,122,261 | 4,061 | 11/18 | – |
| 4 | The Hangover Part II | WB | $254,464,305 | 3,675 | $85,946,294 | 3,615 | 5/26 | 9/15 |
| 5 | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides | BV | $241,071,802 | 4,164 | $90,151,958 | 4,155 | 5/20 | 9/29 |
| 6 | Fast Five | Uni. | $209,837,675 | 3,793 | $86,198,765 | 3,644 | 4/29 | 8/11 |
| 7 | Cars 2 | BV | $191,452,396 | 4,115 | $66,135,507 | 4,115 | 6/24 | 12/15 |
| 8 | Thor | Par. | $181,030,624 | 3,963 | $65,723,338 | 3,955 | 5/6 | 8/25 |
| 9 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Fox | $176,711,822 | 3,691 | $54,806,191 | 3,648 | 8/5 | – |
| 10 | Captain America: The First Avenger | Par. | $176,654,505 | 3,715 | $65,058,524 | 3,715 | 7/22 | 11/10 |
Numbers 11 through 20 below.
| 11 | The Help | BV | $169,499,000 | 3,014 | $26,044,590 | 2,534 | 8/10 | – |
| 12 | Bridesmaids | Uni. | $169,106,725 | 2,958 | $26,247,410 | 2,918 | 5/13 | 9/29 |
| 13 | Kung Fu Panda 2 | P/DW | $165,249,063 | 3,952 | $47,656,302 | 3,925 | 5/26 | 9/29 |
| 14 | X-Men: First Class | Fox | $146,408,305 | 3,692 | $55,101,604 | 3,641 | 6/3 | 9/29 |
| 15 | Puss in Boots | P/DW | $145,527,000 | 3,963 | $34,077,439 | 3,952 | 10/28 | – |
| 16 | Rio | Fox | $143,619,809 | 3,842 | $39,225,962 | 3,826 | 4/15 | 9/8 |
| 17 | The Smurfs | Sony | $142,614,158 | 3,427 | $35,611,637 | 3,395 | 7/29 | 12/15 |
| 18 | Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol | Par. | $141,214,000 | 3,455 | $12,785,204 | 425 | 12/16 | – |
| 19 | Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows | WB | $136,514,000 | 3,703 | $39,637,079 | 3,703 | 12/16 | – |
| 20 | Super 8 | Par. | $127,004,179 | 3,424 | $35,451,168 | 3,379 | 6/10 | 9/29 |
It’s often said that we have no one to blame but ourselves when it comes to the crap movies Hollywood makes, you vote with your pocketbook and all of that. Which is partially true, and it’s certainly depressing that seven out of the top ten are sequels. But it’s also the same reason that the top-rated shows on TV are all on network TV. For the most part, the highest-grossing movies are just the movies that had the most visibility and that the most people had a chance to see. That said, New Year’s Eve had more visibility than anything and it still bombed, which is ironclad proof that it was terrible and everyone involved in making it should be in prison.