Wide releases: One for the books
| Good (Metascore ≥ 61) | 41 films |
| Mixed (40-60) | 64 films |
| Bad (≤ 39) | 37 films |
| Average Metascore | 50.9 |
Just three films among the year's 10 highest-scoring wide releases are original stories: Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris 81, the hit R-rated comedy Bridesmaids 75, and the animated Rango 75. Six of the others were based on books, while The Muppets 75 was based on an existing film/TV franchise.
Five of 2011's wide releases qualified as having "universal acclaim" from critics (with a Metascore of 81 or higher), a slight improvement over 2010's total of four such films. In all, just under 29% of all wide releases last year earned positive reviews (with a 61 or higher) from critics. While that may seem like a low percentage, it's actually an improvement over both 2010 (26%) and 2009 (25%). Unsurprisingly, nearly half (19 of 41, or 46%) of the year's positively reviewed wide releases were released after Labor Day, so if it seemed like there were suddenly a lot of good movies to choose from this fall, you weren't imagining things.
Below, we rank the highest-scoring wide release films of the past year. Note that as of press time, the spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is still a limited release. But if it opens wide later this month as currently planned, and maintains its 85 score, you can place it in the number 3 position.
| Title | Genre(s) | Netflix | Metascore | Users | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 | Fantasy | + Queue | 87 | 7.9 |
| 2 | Moneyball | Drama | + Queue | 87 | 7.9 |
| 3 | The Descendants | Drama | + Queue | 84 | 7.6 |
| 4 | Hugo | Family | + Queue | 83 | 7.4 |
| 5 | Midnight in Paris | Comedy | + Queue | 81 | 7.8 |
| 6 | Drive | Drama | + Queue | 79 | 7.4 |
| 7 | Rango | Animation/Family | + Queue | 75 | 7.3 |
| 8 | Bridesmaids | Comedy | + Queue | 75 | 7.1 |
| 9 | The Muppets | Family/Comedy/Musical | + Queue | 75 | 7.9 |
| 10 | Winnie the Pooh | Animation/Family | + Queue | 74 | 7.4 |
| 11 | Source Code | Sci-Fi/Thriller | + Queue | 74 | 7.5 |
| 12 | Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol | Action | + Queue | 73 | 7.7 |
| 13 | 50/50 | Comedy/Drama | + Queue | 72 | 8.1 |
| 14 | Super 8 | Sci-Fi | + Queue | 72 | 7.3 |
| 15 | War Horse | Drama | + Queue | 72 | 6.1 |
| 16 | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | Thriller | + Queue | 71 | 7.8 |
| 17 | Young Adult | Comedy/Drama | + Queue | 71 | 6.6 |
| 18 | Warrior | Action/Drama | + Queue | 71 | 8.3 |
| 19 | Contagion | Thriller | + Queue | 70 | 6.2 |
| 20 | Arthur Christmas | Animation/Family | + Queue | 69 | 8.0 |
| 21 | Crazy, Stupid, Love. | Romantic Comedy | + Queue | 68 | 7.3 |
| 22 | The Adventures of Tintin | Animation/Family | + Queue | 68 | 7.9 |
| 23 | Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Sci-Fi/Action | + Queue | 68 | 7.9 |
| 24 | Kung Fu Panda 2 | Animation/Family | + Queue | 67 | 7.8 |
| 25 | The Ides of March | Drama | + Queue | 67 | 7.3 |
Adam Sandler is only responsible for two of the year's worst movies, though one of them—the Sandler-produced and co-written Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star 9, starring Nick Swardson—is the lowest-scoring movie since 2009's Miss March 7. Two other Sandler-related releases (Zookeeper 30 and Just Go With It 33) somehow managed to avoid our bottom 10 list, so there's that.
| Title | Genre(s) | Metascore | Users | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star | Comedy | 9 | 1.7 |
| 2 | The Darkest Hour | Action/Sci-Fi | 16 | 4.4 |
| 3 | Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil | Animation/Family | 20 | 3.9 |
| 4 | Shark Night 3D | Horror/Thriller | 22 | 4.5 |
| 5 | New Year's Eve | Romantic Comedy | 22 | 4.7 |
| 6 | Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son | Comedy | 22 | 4.1 |
| 7 | The Roommate | Thriller | 23 | 3.4 |
| 8 | Jack and Jill | Comedy | 23 | 2.6 |
| 9 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked | Animation/Family | 24 | 4.5 |
| 10 | Apollo 18 | Horror/Sci-Fi | 24 | 4.8 |
Limited releases
On the next page, we examine the best and worst limited release films of the past year.
