Surprises of 2011:


Fast Five
  • I think they knew that it was going to be big, but they never expected to make $500 million. Probably the biggest surprise is that the critics like this one, with a 78% RT rating.



Bridesmaids
  • Another where I'm sure they knew they had something good, but never expected to make $250 million. Again, a huge surprise that the critics loved this one, and it got 90% RT score.



Super 8
  • Shouldn't be too surprised with Abrams, but with only a $50 million budget they profited $200 million and got an 82% from the critics.



Bad Teacher
This one isn't on here because of it's critical acclaim (44% RT), but with a $20 million budget, it almost made $200 million.


Horrible Bosses
  • I heard this one was very funny, and with a small $37 million budget it had over $200 in revenue and an above average 69% RT score.



Source Code
  • 92% from the critics, and over $130 in revenues for a small budget movie that I'm guessing they didn't expect to end up being one of the years' best.



Moneyball
  • Who knew that a movie about a different way for ownership to assemble a baseball team would end up doing so well? The third highest rating of the year, 95%, made $50 million and will probably end up with a ton of nominations. Will it win?



Sucker Punch
  • This one is on here for all the wrong reasons. The surprise here is that it was so bad. A horrible 23% from the critics and it barely made back it's $82 million budget. For a movie that was supposed to be incredible, it was surprise failure of 2011.



Drive
  • A $13 million budget, made over $50 million and ended up with a ridiculous 93% RT score.



A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
  • Didn't make a ton of money, but how did the critics give this one a 70% score!?!