Normally (and by normally, we mean during past five months), we'd use this post to recap all the major stories, trailers, posters and what not that hit the web over the course of the week. Since the studios have essentially taken the week off, it gives us an opportunity to recap the entire year of 2011. Scroll on down to the year that was…
The Top Five Most Pirated Movies as downloaded via BitTorrent: Fast Five (9.3 million downloads), The Hangover – Part II (8.8 million), Thor (8.3 million), Source Code (7.9 million), I Am Number Four (7.7 million). Calculating with the national average movie ticket price of $8 (I know city folk, what a bargain), that comes to $336 million.
The Top Five Highest Grossing Movies of 2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($381 million domestic, $1.33 billion worldwide), Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($352 million domestic, $1.1 billion worldwide), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ($241 million domestic, $1.04 billion worldwide), Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 ($271 million domestic, $652 million worldwide… and counting), Fast Five ($209 million domestic, $626 million worldwide).
The Five Highest Rated Wide Release Movies According to RottenTomatoes: The Muppets (97% fresh), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (96% fresh), Moneyball (95% fresh), Midnight in Paris, Drive, 50/50 and Mission: Impossible –Ghost Protocol (93% fresh).
Movies That Scored 100% Freshness Rating on RottenTomatoes: Nine. They are all limited release features – Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone, Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness, We Were Here, A Separation, Phil Ocha: There But For Fortune, Thunder Soul, Louder Than a Bomb, Hell and Back Again and Leap Year.
Conversely, the Twelve Most Rotten Movies of 2011: Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star (0%), Jack and Jill and The Roommate (4%), Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son (5%), New Year's Eve (7%), Season of the Witch (10%), Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, Red Riding Hood and There Be Dragons (11%), Seven Days in Utopia and Atlas Shrugged: Part I (12%) and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (13%).
The Top 10 User-Rated Movies of 2011 on IMDB: X-Men: First Class (7.9 stars/10), Moneyball (7.9/10), The Help (8.0/10), The Muppets (8.1/10), 50/50 (8.1/10), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (8.2/10), Drive (8.1/10). The top three include an emotionally powerful action drama, a brilliantly immersive love letter to cinema from a legendary director and a foreign drama opening in limited release today.
Top Ten Highest Paid Actors of 2011 (Compiled by Forbes. Earnings run from July 2010-July 2011. Management, agency, attorney and tax fess not deducted) – Leonardo DiCaprio ($77 million), Johnny Depp ($50 million), Adam Sandler ($40 million), Will Smith ($36 million), Tom Hanks ($35 million), Ben Stiller ($34 million), Robert Downey Jr. ($31 million), Mark Wahlberg ($28 million), Tim Allen ($22 million) and Tom Cruise ($22 million). Jim Carrey, Daniel Craig, Robert Pattinson and Brad Pitt all tie with $20 million with Matt Damon anchoring the list with $18 million.
Top Ten Highest Paid Actresses of 2011, compiled by Forbes pre-management, agency, attorney and tax fees: Angelina Jolie and Reese Witherspoon ($28 million), Julia Roberts and Kristen Stewart ($20 million), Katherine Heigl ($19 million), Cameron Diaz ($18 million), Sandra Bullock ($15 million) and Meryl Streep ($10 million).
Biggest Movie Flops of 2011 as compiled by The Hollywood Reporter: Mars Needs Moms (Budget: $150 million, Worldwide gross $39 million), Conan the Barbarian (Budget: $90 million, Worldwide gross: $48.8 million), The Thing (Budget: $38 million, Worldwide gross: $27.4 million), The Big Year (Budget: $41 million, Worldwide gross: $7.4 million), The Rum Diary (Budget: $45 million, Worldwide Gross: $21.6 million), Anonymous (Budget: $30 million, Worldwide gross: $14.8 million). See the rest of the list here.
Among the 25 movies selected by the Library of Congress to join the National Film Registry for preservation this year include, Forrest Gump, Norma Rae, Stand and Deliver, Disney's Bambi, The Silence of the Lambs, Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi, Charlie Chaplin's first full-length film The Kid. See the full list here.
Our list of people who passed away this year.
Movies.com's list of The 10 Most Overrated Films in 2011 includes The Muppets, Bridesmaids, X-Men: First Class and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. And since everyone has one, here's their Top 20 Movies of 2011.
Redbox's Most Rented Movies of 2011 List includes a bunch of really bad movies.
This week, The Avengers go Russian in yet another trailer.
Pics and Posters
Just a few new posters this week – Will Ferrell's Spanish film Casa de Mi Padre unveils their third poster, a new Underworld: Awakening poster plus the Academy Awards one-sheet. Also, Japanese posters for War Horse, My Week with Marilyn (or as the poster reads Marilyn's 7 Days of Love) and Coriolanus.
We got a couple of first looks at upcoming films. First, Channing Tatum (he'll be in five movies in 2012), Alex Pettyfer and, what else is new, a shirtless Matthew McConaughey, strike a pose in Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike. Click image for larger version.
Ben Affleck reads in this first look from Argo. Click image for larger version.
OK, so this one's not a first look, but just another shot of Andrew Garfield looking like something is amiss in The Amazing Spider-Man.
Batman and a large gun with a flashlight in the barrel. Click image for larger version.
Now the fun stuff. First, The Flash taking his cheetah out for a, um, walk? Which brings up an interesting questions: Who would win in a race – The Flash or Cheetara from Thundercats?
Dry, sarcastic British humor or foreshadowing?
Star Wars and pork product fans, meet Ham Solo.
Let's jump that pond known as the Pacific Ocean. First just your average, everyday One Piece pirate ship.
An alternate use for Pikachu
This gives the term lost in translation a whole new meaning…
A handmade Super Mario chess set. Click image for full picture.
Since there's no trailers or interviews this week (aside from the Russian Avengers one which you can see here or if you're too lazy to click the link watch below), we wish you a happy, healthy and safe New Year's!
