September: Your Movie Month In Review
It's such a relief to have the fall finally here: What a dreadful movie summer it was. At last, September was here! Oscar season! Serious studio fare! Original concepts meant to inspire, provoke and entertain! And the top-grossing film of the month, by far, was "The Lion King 3-D." We love that movie and all, but sorry: Seventeen-year-old movies don't count in our rankings. Sorry. Though if you don't count "The Lion King" ... it sort of looks like every movie this month flopped. Alas. Anyway, it's time to do our monthly look back -- check the bottom of this post for the archive -- at the films of the past month, the ones we saw, the ones we loved, the ones we missed. Welcome to the wonkishness.
Top Ten Highest Grossing Movies Released This August, As Of September 30
1. "Contagion," $64.7 million
2. "Moneyball," $38.5 million
3. "Dolphin Tale," $37.5 million
4. "Drive," $27.1 million
5. "Abduction," $19.1 million
6. "Apollo 18," $17.5 million
7. "Killer Elite," $17.3 million
8. "Warrior," $13.1 million
9. "Straw Dogs," $9.8 million
10. "I Don't Know How She Does It," $9.2 million
September 2011 Movies We Saw
Leitch
"Abduction"
"Apollo 18"
"Burke & Hare"
"Contagion"
"Dolphin Tale"
"Dream House"
"Drive"
"50-50"
"A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy"
"Killer Elite"
"Love Crime"
"Moneyball"
"Pearl Jam Twenty"
"Puncture"
"Restless"
"Take Shelter"
"Tucker & Dale Versus Evil"
"Warrior"
"What's Your Number?"
Grierson
"Apollo 18"
"Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star"
"Bunraku"
"Dream House"
"Drive"
"50/50"
"A Good Old Fashioned Orgy"
"I'm Glad My Mother Is Alive"
"Machine Gun Preacher"
"Margaret"
"The Mill and the Cross"
"Moneyball"
"My Joy"
"Puncture"
"Sarah Palin: You Betcha!"
"Shark Night 3D"
"Stay Cool"
"Take Shelter"
"Thunder Soul"
"Warrior"
"Weekend"
"The Whale"
Best September 2011 Movie We Saw
Leitch: "Drive"
Grierson: "Take Shelter"
Worst August 2011 Movie We Saw
Leitch: "Abduction"
Grierson: "Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star"
Movie We Missed But Plan On Getting To
Leitch: "Margaret"
Grierson: "Contagion"
What We Learned This Month
Leitch: Other than maybe "Drive," the movie I was looking forward to most this month was one I didn't get to see: "Margaret." I love a big huge massive ambitious fiasco. There's still a part of me that thinks it'll be a masterpiece, all evidence to the contrary.
Grierson: No movie opened on more screens and made less money this year than "Bucky Larson." "Atlas Shrugged" made more. "Drive Angry" made more. Every other movie released by a major studio this year made more. It's a staggeringly bad comedy that audiences avoided like the plague. See, sometimes the system works.
We have such hope for October! See you then.
PREVIOUSLY
January 2011
February 2011
March 2011
April 2011
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
