Wide releases: An animated bunch

Perhaps the typical film critic is really a child at heart. Three and a half of the four best-reviewed wide release films from the past year were animated (the unique Avatar blends CGI with live action), including the top-ranked film of the year: Pixar's Up. The films could not be more different from one another, however. While Up blends computer animation with a storyline that appeals as much to adults as children, the second-ranked Ponyo utilizes Hayao Miyazaki's masterful hand-drawn animation. And the Roald Dahl adaptation Fantastic Mr. Fox uses old-fashioned stop-motion animation to create a movie that is more Wes Anderson comedy than children's film.

In all, eight wide releases exceeded our cutoff to be considered as having "universal acclaim" from critics (with a Metascore of 81 or higher), including two science-fiction films (Star Trek and District 9) and a horror film (Drag Me to Hell). The only drama-like movie to fall in that group was the George Clooney dramedy Up in the Air.

However, while there were 38 wide releases receiving positive reviews from critics (with a Metascore of 61 or higher), 75% of wide releases received middling to poor reviews. Here is the full distribution of scores, for the year, by season, and by month:

Metascore Distribution for Wide Releases, 2009

	Median	Low / High Scores	Score Distribution
All 2009 Wide Releases	47.5	7 / 88	7,36.25,47.5,60.75,88
Winter Wide Releases (1/1 - 3/5)	43	17 / 80	17,35,43,50,80
Spring Wide Releases (3/6 - 4/30)	52	7 / 76	7,41.5,52,61,76
Summer Wide Releases (5/1 - 9/7)	48	17 / 88	17,36,48,62.5,88
Fall Wide Releases (9/8 - 11/5)	46	23 / 73	23,33,46,64.75,73
Holiday Wide Releases (11/6 - 12/31)	51.5	8 / 84	8,43.25,51.5,60.5,84

In the score distribution charts, half of all scores (from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile) fall within the shaded box, with the vertical line in the middle of the box representing the median.

Wide Releases by Month, 2009

In the chart above, Green represents the number of positively-reviewed movies (Metascore of 61 or higher). Yellow represents movies receiving mixed or average reviews (40-60). Red represents negatively-reviewed movies (0-39).

Next, let's see which movies received the most acclaim from critics during the past year.

The Best Wide Releases of 2009

	Title	Netflix	Genre(s)	Metascore	Users
1	Up		Animated, Family	88	9.0
2	Ponyo		Animated, Family	86	7.6
3	Avatar		Sci-Fi, Action-Adventure	84	8.4
4	Fantastic Mr. Fox		Animated, Comedy	83	8.3
5	Star Trek		Sci-Fi	83	7.9
6	Drag Me to Hell		Horror	83	6.1
7	Up in the Air		Comedy/Drama	83	6.3
8	District 9		Sci-Fi	81	7.9
9	Coraline		Animated, Family	80	7.8
10	Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire		Drama	79	8.3
11	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince		Fantasy, Family	78	6.6
12	Adventureland		Comedy	76	6.5
13	(500) Days of Summer		Comedy, Romance	76	7.6
14	Invictus		Drama	74	7.2
15	Princess & the Frog, The		Animated, Family	73	8.4
16	Zombieland		Horror, Comedy	73	8.1
17	Hangover, The		Comedy	73	7.3
18	Earth [2009]		Documentary, Family	72	5.4
19	Where the Wild Things Are		Family, Fantasy	71	6.6
20	I Love You, Man		Comedy	70	7.6
21	Public Enemies		Drama	70	6.3
22	Inglourious Basterds		Drama	69	7.4
23	Duplicity		Drama, Thriller	69	4.6
24	Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The		Fantasy	68	6.4
25	Paranormal Activity		Horror	68	5.2

Only movies with seven or more reviews released between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009 were considered. Re-releases are excluded. A wide release film is one that screens at more than 600 theaters. The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). Although scores have been rounded to the nearest whole number, movies are ranked prior to rounding. User scores represent an average of scores assigned by Metacritic.com site visitors on a scale from 0 (bad) to 10 (good).

On the other end of the spectrum, the worst wide releases of 2009 tend to fall in the comedy genre -- make that the "comedy" genre. Out of all of these terrible films, only Couples Retreat generated over $100 million in box office revenue, although Bride Wars and Obsessed performed well relative to their budgets.

The Worst Wide Releases of 2009

	Title	Netflix	Genre(s)	Metascore	Users
1	Miss March		Comedy	7	3.9
2	Transylmania		Horror, Comedy	8	3.1
3	All About Steve		Comedy	17	3.6
4	Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li		Action-Adventure	17	2.7
5	Old Dogs		Comedy	19	4.0
6	Couples Retreat		Comedy	23	5.7
7	Bride Wars		Comedy	24	3.5
8	Sorority Row		Horror	24	6.1
9	Obsessed		Thriller	25	5.1
10	I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell		Comedy	26	4.8

On the next page, we examine the best and worst limited release films of the past year.