We're 'Deathly' serious about the top box office movies of 2011

Posted Friday, January 14, 2011 at 4:40 PM Central

by John Couture

Last year, we we predicted that Iron Man 2 would be the top movie at the box office in 2010. And while we didn't too shabby with our overall list, we certainly underestimated the impact of animated movies and the 3D trend superficially pumping up the box office of certain films.

Well, this year, we've learned from our past mistakes, sort of. We still refuse to put an animated movie in the top slot (at least I do) and we think that 3D won't mess with the top 20 films as much as it did last year.

Normally, Tim and I compile our own list of top 20 films for the year and marry the two lists for one comprehensive listing of the top 15 movies of the year. This year, Tim and I had such differing opinions that it became clear that while we would still compile our annual comprehensive list, we should include both of our preliminary lists for comparison.

As you can clearly see, Tim is a huge animated/Pixar movie fan with his faith in Cars 2. I'm not as convinced that Cars 2 is this year's Toy Story 3. I took a flier on Cowboys & Aliens to lead this year's offerings.

Together, we both agree that the final Harry Potter film will set megaplexes afire in July. Tim thinks that 2011 will break the four year streak of at least one film surpassing $400 million at the box office, while I think that at least one film will break that barrier.

All in all, we both like sequels to rule the day yet again, while Tim thinks that the comic book movie still hasn't reached its saturation point. I, on the other hand, think that Thor will bomb miserably and that J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg will hit a home run with Super 8.

Whose list do you agree with more? Which film do you think will take home top honors in 2011?