We’ve been publishing reviews in our blog since February, 2011.  We thought it would be interesting to look back to see how our reviews compare with box office gross receipts.   So, here goes.  The table below shows the top 15 movies (by gross box office review through July 9^th).  We saw and reviewed 13 of those movies.  Interestingly, none of these movies got our top rating (Go at Full Price) yet all pulled in over $100mm in gross receipts.  We’re discriminating!   It’s not easy to get a “Go at Full Price” rating from us.  Interestingly, two movies were given that rating:  King’s Speech ($138.8 mm from 2010) and, Win Win (interestingly, only pulled in $10.1mm and ranked 65^th on the list of this year’s top 100 grossing films).

See at Reduced Rate (not quite; but almost), basically, our second highest rating was bestowed on three of the top 15 grossing films:  Transformers, Fast Five, and Thor.  However, equally interesting is that we gave that same rating to films that pulled in much less, most notably:  Midnight in Paris ($39.6 mm; ranked 37^th), Cedar Rapids ($6.8 mm, ranked 71^st) and Potiche ($1.6mm, ranked 86^th).

Gross receipts are probably a reasonably good indicator of how popular a film is – positive buzz aka great word of mouth probably contributed to its box office success.  A great story, superior acting, and a highly entertaining experience are what we seek from the movies!  Movies don’t have to put up big numbers to win our higher level ratings and, often the decision to go see a new movie isn’t remotely impact by professional reviewers!   Conclusion: gross receipts don’t sway us!