So there we have it. Our final Top 10 of 2021 were nearly all movies that would have made the cut in any given year, as the collective summer box office surpassed $1.5B. Very promising for 2022! Here are the final results:
1) Black Widow – 181.5M
2) F9: The Fast Saga – 172.7M
3) A Quiet Place Part II – 160.0M
4) Jungle Cruise – 100.1M
5) Cruella – 86M
6) Free Guy – 78.9M
7) Space Jam: A New Legacy – 69.2M
8) The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It – 68.6M
9) The Boss Baby: Family Business – 56.8M
10) The Suicide Squad – 52.8M
In this list were 6 movies that competed against day-and-date streaming, and nearly all 10 were either sequels or prequels. Only Free Guy could be considered an original property, and given a couple more weeks it would have finished #4 on the list.
I personally saw a total of 13 movies at the theater since May 1, and these were my Top 5 favorites based purely on entertainment value (I won’t list the Dolby Atmos re-releases of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World or Top Gun despite enjoying the hell out of both.):
1) Free Guy – incredibly funny, and casting Ryan Reynolds in the world of GTA was genius.
2) Jungle Cruise – basically another Pirates movie… and I love Pirates movies!
3) Cruella – I liked this far more than I expected thanks to both leads’ rivaled performances.
4) Black Widow – aside from the butchered storyline of Taskmaster (awful) I liked me some more MCU.
5) The Suicide Squad – there are elements in 2 better than 1, but also elements in 1 better than 2. James Gunn certainly gave us a better ending in this one.
Dead last was Snake Eyes. Oof what a bust! And my only regret was not taking the time to see The Green Knight like I planned. Still itching to see it.
For those of you who casually paid attention to my weekly updates, I hope you enjoyed my attempt at keeping this thing alive in another shut-down year. I fully expect the SMP to return in 2022 so that we can together enjoy these tentpole releases: Thor: Love and Thunder, Top Gun: Maverick (AGAIN), John Wick: Chapter 4, Jurassic World: Dominion, Lightyear, Minions: The Rise of Gru (AGAIN), Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Fantastic Beasts 3, Black Adam, and Indiana Jones 5. Thats 11 huge releases already… and we know there are others that will step up and make the cut.
See you all next summer!
– SB