1/4 of the year in... have you seen anything good?

[eatbrie]

Attendance is down 20% from last year at the same time.  No movie has emerged as a true boxoffice hit, with the exception of Rango (106m), Gnomeo and Juliet (96m), Justin Bieber and maybe No Strings Attached and Limitless.  And a lot of movies that could have been hits sunk like monoliths at the bottom of the ocean.  The biggest bomb so far, Sucker Punch, which had a 70% drop off this weekend, one of the biggest drops in recent memory.  Mars Needs Moms, Hall Pass, Drive Angry, I Am Number Four, Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, The Eagle, The Rite, The Mechanic, Red Riding Hood, Take Me Home Tonight, Beastly, The Adjustment Bureau, The Dilemma, Season of the Witch, flops, flops, flops...  The Green Hornet, The Roommate, Just Go With It, Battle Los Angeles, forgettable middle of the road fare.

Last year at the same time saw 2 gigantic hits: Alice in Wonderland (334m) and How to Train Your Dragon (217m), one solid hit with Shutter Island (128m), and a bunch of profitable movies like Valentine's Day, The Book of Eli, Dear John and The Last Song.  The only true flop was Wolfman.  Plus, there was that little movie named Avatar which continued to make remarkable money throughout the first 1/4 of the year.

Distributors agree that it has been a poor year in terms of quality.

What about you guys?

T

[Disheveledamethyst]

Honestly? I haven't seen a good movie since January when I caught up on all the Oscar movies. Well, except for Lincoln Lawyer I guess. It was actually a good watch, with a lot of good actors that they never tried to sell. But I don't think I'd ever watch it again.

Edit: Oh, and Rango was fantastic. I can't believe I forgot Rango.

Edit: Wow, I just checked my movie log. I've watched 35 movies this year and only 4 have been 2011 movies.

[Dr Hackenbush]

True Grit is about it for me, and that was last year

[Juli]

Only saw a couple movies this year so far - Paul and Unknown. I really liked both of them with Paul being the one I liked most.

~ Juli

[wonka]

Great topic.

I went from seeing movies in the theater all the damn time to now only a few times a year.  Just don't have the time or opportunity.  This will change as our daughter grows older.  Took her to Toy Story 3 last summer, her first movie theater experience. Next up is the new Pooh movie, which actually looks pretty damn good (I will say it, sue me).

Regardless, I rarely see things on a first theatrical run basis.  I am playing catch up which works out because by the time I get to see something I wanted to see, it is on Netflix streaming...ha.

Saw King's Speech last, but that was in December.  Nothing this year though.  I plan on seeing Super 8, hope that is good.

With Hollywood, its the quality vs. quantity thing...but as each year comes and goes, the deck gets increasingly stacked in the 'quantity' favor.  Movies suck, pains me to say...but its true.

[CSM]

The Mechanic was ok...

[ddilts399]

I think you will see quite a recovery by the end of summer and I will go as far as to say by 8/31, 2011 will be ahead of 2010 grosses  

[Disheveledamethyst]

I just watched Duncan Jones' "Source Code" the other night - I thought it was fantastic. I've read over and over that it "falls apart at the end" but I don't agree. There might be a slightly extraneous epilogue, but it doesn't hamper the movie in any way. It just doesn't improve it either.

Anyway, it's a really good SciFi thriller that manages to make sense the entire time. Even a few days a way from it I can only find one "problem" with the SciFi elements and it's not even to do with the technology. It reminded me a lot of "Primer", if anybody has seen it, in regards to how technology is discovered and tested. It touches on a lot of themes including the ethics of changing technology, the definition of death, obligations to the work place, and the stress of an impending terrorist attack. I don't want to overstate it, but the movie is slightly miss-sold in the trailer. I'd encourage anybody to see it, even if you opt to wait for a rental.