It's not all bad. Our nation's economy is in shambles, and a once-measly 200,000 albums sold can now send a recording artist to the top of Billboard's Hot 100, but, somehow, Hollywood is still cranking out $200-million-plus blockbusters. The explanation seems obvious, really. In uncertain times, people love to say goodbye to reality, and films are a great form of escapism. That being said, there's no accounting for taste. Uptight film experts flipped their lids last year when that lifeless Transformers sequel made 25 times more than The Hurt Locker, which was equally accessible and critically preferred, but that's just how it goes.
2010 was no different; for example, Let Me In, one of our favorite films of the year, made a puny $12 million, while M. Night Shyamalan's comically bad The Last Airbender pulled in $132 mil. What can we say—shit, just like unfair box office intakes, happens. Interestingly enough, the year's 10 highest grossing films are as diverse in genre as they are in quality. Pop culture cynics that we are, we decided to break down the box office to see how many of the top 10 moneymaking movies of 2010 sucked.
#1: TOY STORY 3
Budget: $200 million
Box office gross: $415 million
Complex analysis: Any film that can make us weep like Detroit Lions fans on any given Sunday deserves endless praise. Quite funny and undeniably touching, Toy Story 3 actually bested its already-superlative predecessors, reminding audiences that Pixar still runs the animated cinema game. Where the misfired sequel Shrek Forever After simply went through the motions, our third time with toys-come-to-life Woody and Buzz Lightyear ups the stakes with an exciting prison-break-like plot and an emotional ending that'll send anyone who's ever hugged a teddy bear into a handkerchief-wetting sob fit. We've yet to abandon our old Cabbage Patch doll since Toy Story 3's opening weekend this past June. Got a problem with that, tough guy?
Did it suck? No
RELATED: The 25 Best Movies of 2010 (According To Us!)
