Summer Movies

Memorial Day is almost upon us. The door to warmer weather, family vacations and the summer movie blockbuster is just around the bend. I've been thinking about how these summer movies of 2011 will be remembered, not long after the pools are covered and the first frost of fall sets in.

I went to the AMC (American Movie Classics) website and found a list of the all-time top 100 box office films. I was specifically interested in the top grossing U.S. films, adjusted for inflation (movie tickets prices today can't be compared to those in decades past). As I pursued the list, I was surprised at what was present and what was missing. Below are the top 10 of the 100 I found:

1. Gone With the Wind (1939)
2. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
3. The Sound of Music (1965)
4. E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
5. The Ten Commandments (1956)
6. Titanic (1997)
7. Jaws (1975)
8. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
9. The Exorcist (1973)
10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Now, I'll have to agree that all 10 are great movies. In fact, I own 7 of these movies on DVD or Blu-ray. I was surprised to see that Alfred Hitchcock only had one movie on the complete top 100 list, the great Rear Window. I didn't see Sunset Boulevard, The Wizard of Oz or It's a Wonderful Life. But I did see The Towering Inferno, and The Poseidon Adventure (very hyped movies at the time that started a craze in action-packed destruction movies).

2010's top movie box office titles are not surprising--probably because they are still fresh in our memories. I do agree that Toy Story 3 is an all-time classic...but we'll have to wait and see; future generations will make their judgements with an objective perspective, far from the present-day cultural bias that may influence our choices. Below are the top box office movies of 2010:

1. Toy Story 3
2. Alice in Wonderland
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
4. Inception
5. Shrek Forever After
6. Eclipse
7. Iron Man 2
8. Tangled
9. Despicable Me

Summer 2011 is in for some big movies. Among them are: The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, The Hangover 2, Cowboys and Aliens, Super 8, Thor, Kung Fu Panda 2, and the much awaited Cars 2 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Will any of these movies make it on the top 100 lists of the future? Certainly some will. But the coveted list of the most beloved movies of all time is reserved for those films that, despite the hype and the big box office returns, speak deep into our human hearts with truth, beauty and timelessness--and of course, through great entertainment.