United States cinema saw many firsts and broke dozens of records in 2010, making it a year to remember for the film industry. Critics and movie-goers alike are anticipating a unique award season in spring 2011.
One such outstanding film was Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 3, which was the highest-grossing film of 2010 both in the U.S. and worldwide. Not only did it break the record for the biggest opening day profit in North America, previously held by Shrek the Third, but its release also marked the highest grossing-opening weekend for a Pixar film.
In addition, Toy Story 3 is the highest grossing animated film ever, worldwide, and the first animated film to gross $1 billion.
But it received more than public acclaim. Online movie review aggregator Metacritic, which normalizes professional film reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film a score of 92 out of 100. Rotten Tomatoes, a similar online aggregator, reports that 99 percent of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 246 reviews.
Disney Studios also struck gold this year with Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, the second-highest grossing film in the United States and worldwide. Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland both made more than $1 billion at the box office, making them the fifth- and sixth-highest grossing films in the world.
2010 marks the first time in history that two films grossed more than $1 billion at the box office in the same year, a statistic that is even more impressive considering that both films were released by the same studio.
Critical response, however, did not necessarily reflect Alice’s extraordinary box office success. Only 51 percent of critics gave the film positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritc gave it a score of 53.
Nevertheless, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it three out of four stars, explaining that the story “plays better as an adult hallucination, which is how Burton rather brilliantly interprets it.”
Inception, Shrek Forever After and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse round out the top five highest-grossing films of the year, each of which are also impressively among the fifty highest-grossing films of all time.
Hogwarts fans will be happy to know that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 also made the list at number seven.
This is also the first time that four animated films have been present in the Top 10 highest-grossing films of the year, these being Toy Story 3, Shrek Forever After, Despicable Me at number eight and How to Train Your Dragon at number ten.
Oscars talk has already begun, even though nominations will not be announced until Jan. 25. The National Board of Review (NBR), a a non-profit organization whose annual awards for excellence in cinema frequently forecast the Academy Award winners, recently released their 2010 winners, prompting critics to begin making predictions.
NBR’s picks include The Social Network for best film, Jessie Eisenberg for best actor appearing in The Social Network and Lesley Manville in Another Year for best actress.
Christian Bale was recognized as the best supporting actor of the year for his work in The Fighter, and Jacki Weaver was awarded best supporting actress for Animal Kingdom.
The Social Network was also recognized for its production excellence, winning NBR’s awards for best director (David Fincher) and best adapted screenplay (Aaron Sorkin).
Toy Story 3 was the only film from the highest-grossing list to be recognized by the NBR, receiving an award for best animated feature.
In two out of the past three years, the NBR’s pick for best picture has gone on to win the Oscar, but audiences will have to wait until the ceremony airs on Feb. 27 to find out whether or not this trend will continue.