After the flood of Oscar-approved movies at the end of the year, the first couple months of each year are notoriously slow for movies. But now that we’re a third of the way through 2011, there have been some pretty interesting releases. Yes, January and February were filled with the usual mainstream dreck, but also a couple of indies that got lost in the shuffle. And through March and April, we saw a mix of a few quality blockbusters and unique smaller films. As always, there have been box office flops and surprise hits. First, here’s a look at the 10 highest grossing films of the year so far (ranked by U.S. box office results):
- Rango – $120m
- Hop – $105.6m
- Rio – $102.8m
- Just Go With It – $102.8m
- The Green Hornet – $98.8m
- Gnomeo and Juliet – $98.8m
- Fast Five – $98.6m
- Battle: Los Angeles – $82.8m
- Limitless – $76.3m
- Justin Bieber: Never Say Never – $73m
Now, the big player there aside from cartoons is the new release Fast Five, which made almost as much in its first weekend as The Green Hornet did during its entire run. Meanwhile other more “cerebral” wide releases, such as The Adjustment Bureau and Source Code turned in solid but not spectacular box office results.
Here’s a look (in poster form!) at what seem like the most interesting offerings of 2011, so far. I’ve seen a couple of them, and the rest are all on my to-watch list.
Times Like Those 