The Top 10 Lists

10. The Blind Side

A 2009 American drama sports film written and directed by John Lee Hancock, and based on the 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis. The storyline features Michael Oher, an offensive lineman who plays for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL. The film follows Oher from his impoverished upbringings, through his years at Wingate Christian School (a fictional representation of Briarcrest Christian School), his adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, and on to his position as one of the most highly coveted prospects in college football.

The film stars Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher, Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy, Oher's adoptive parents, and Kathy Bates as Miss Sue, Oher's tutor. The movie also features appearances by several current and former National Collegiate Athletic Association coaches, including Houston Nutt, Ed Orgeron, Phillip Fulmer, Nick Saban, Lou Holtz and Tommy Tuberville, and recruiting analyst Tom Lemming.

9. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Also known as Ice Age 3, is a 2009 3-D computer animated film. It is the third installment of the Ice Age series, produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. A sneak preview was shown in selected theaters on Father's Day in the United States. The film features the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, and Chris Wedge. The story has Sid being taken by a female Tyrannosaurus rex after stealing her eggs, leading the rest of the protagonists to rescue him in a tropical lost world inhabited by dinosaurs beneath the ice. Despite mixed reviews by critics, Dawn of the Dinosaurs became the second highest grossing animated film of all time with $869.1 million worldwide. There is an attraction based on the film at Chessington World of Adventures. It is a small walkthrough involving a few interactive activities. It was available to June 18 to August 31.

8. Monsters Vs. Alien

A 2009 American computer-animated 3-D feature film from DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures. The movie was the first computer animated movie to be directly produced in a stereoscopic 3-D format instead of being converted into 3-D after completion, which added $15 million to the film's budget.

The film was scheduled for a May 2009 release, but the release date was moved to March 27, 2009, to prevent competition with James Cameron's Avatar, which has since moved its release to December 2009. It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray September 29, 2009 in North America. Monsters vs. Aliens features the voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, and Paul Rudd.

7. Avatar

A 2009 American science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. The film is set in the year 2154 on Pandora, a fictional Earth-like moon in a distant planetary system. Humans are engaged in mining Pandora's reserves of a precious mineral, while the Na'vi — the sapient and sentient race of humanoids indigenous to the moon — resist the colonists' expansion, which threatens the continued existence of the Na'vi and the Pandoran ecosystem. The film's title refers to the remotely controlled, genetically engineered human-Na'vi bodies used by the film's human characters to interact with the natives.

Avatar had been in development since 1994 by Cameron, who wrote a 114-page scriptment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Titanic, and the film would have been released in 1999, but according to Cameron, "technology needed to catch up" with his vision of the film. In early 2006, Cameron developed the script, the language, and the culture of Pandora. He has stated that if Avatar is successful, two sequels to the film are planned.

The film was released in traditional 2-D and 3-D formats, along with an IMAX 3D release in selected theaters. Avatar is officially budgeted at $237 million; other estimates put the cost at $280 – $310 million to produce and an estimated $150 million for marketing. The film is being touted as a breakthrough in terms of filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production. Opening to critical and commercial success, it grossed an estimated $27 million on its opening day and made $77,025,481 in the United States and Canada on its opening weekend. Worldwide, the film grossed an estimated $232,180,000 on its opening weekend, the ninth-largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film.

6. Star Trek

A 2009 science fiction film directed by J. J. Abrams, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the eleventh film based on the Star Trek franchise and features the main characters of the original Star Trek television series, who are portrayed by a new cast. The film follows James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) before they unite aboard the USS Enterprise to combat Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan from their future who threatens the United Federation of Planets. The story establishes an alternate reality through time-travel by both Nero and the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy), freeing the film and the franchise from established continuity constraints.

Development of the film began in 2005. The production's aim was to be faithful to the Star Trek canon, modifying continuity with the time-travel storyline, and modernizing the production design of the original show. Filming took place from November 2007 to March 2008 under intense secrecy. Midway through the shoot, Paramount chose to delay the release date from December 25, 2008 to May 2009, believing the film could reach a wider audience.

Star Trek has earned high critical praise, gaining a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is the eleventh-highest-grossing film of 2009 — sixth-highest within North America — and has become the highest-grossing film in the Star Trek series and is credited by the media as a reboot of the series.

5. The Hangover

The Hangover is a 2009 American screwball comedy film directed by Todd Phillips, co-written by Jon Lucas and produced by Phillips and Daniel Goldberg. The film was produced by Legendary Pictures for Warner Bros. Pictures. It stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, and Heather Graham.

The plot follows four friends who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, only to wake up the next morning not remembering a thing and missing the groom, whose wedding is scheduled to occur the next day. The film was inspired by the filmmakers' real life misadventures, and was released in North America on June 5, 2009, to critical praise and box office success.

4. The Twilight Sage: New Moon

A 2009 American romantic fantasy film based on Stephenie Meyer's 2006 novel New Moon. It is the second film in The Twilight Saga film series and is the sequel to 2008's Twilight, which is also based on Meyer's previous novel. Summit Entertainment greenlit the sequel in late November 2008, following the early success of Twilight. Directed by Chris Weitz, the film stars Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively.

Melissa Rosenberg, who handed in a draft of the film script during the opening weekend of Twilight, returned as screenwriter for The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Filming began in Vancouver in late March 2009, and in Montepulciano, Italy in late May 2009.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon was released on November 20, 2009 in most countries, and set domestic box office records as the biggest midnight screening with $26.3 million. This led to the biggest single day domestic gross with $72.7 million. The film also opened with the third biggest domestic opening weekend ($142,839,137). The film was voted as the "Favorite Movie of 2009" on Moviefone and was was well received by fans, but critical reception was mixed.

3. Up

A 2009 American computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America and is the first animated film to open the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The film was released in the United Kingdom on October 9, 2009.

Up is director Pete Docter's second feature-length film after Monsters, Inc., and features the voices of Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, and Jordan Nagai. It is Pixar's tenth feature film and the studio's first to be presented in Disney Digital 3-D, and is accompanied in theaters by the short film Partly Cloudy. The film was also shown in Dolby 3D in selected theaters.

The film centers around an elderly widower named Carl Fredricksen and an overeager wilderness explorer named Russell who fly to South America in a floating house suspended from helium balloons. The film has received overwhelmingly positive reviews with a rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, and grossed over $683 million worldwide, making it Pixar's second most commercially successful film, after Finding Nemo.

2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Released on 16 July 2005, is the sixth of seven novels from British author J. K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series. Set during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, the novel explores Lord Voldemort's past, and Harry's preparations for the final battle amidst emerging romantic relationships and the emotional confusions and conflict resolutions characteristic of mid-adolescence.

The book sold three million copies in the first 16 hours after its release, a record at the time which was eventually broken by its sequel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

A 2009 American science fiction action film, directed by Michael Bay and produced by Steven Spielberg. It is the sequel to Transformers (2007) and the second film in the live action Transformers series. The plot revolves around Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), the human caught in the war between Autobots and Decepticons, having visions of Cybertronian symbols, and getting hunted by the Decepticons under the orders of their long-trapped leader, The Fallen, who seeks to get revenge on Earth by finding and activating a machine that would provide the Decepticons with an energon source, destroying all life on the planet in the process.
With deadlines jeopardized by possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild, Bay managed to finish the production on time with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger. Shooting took place from May to November 2008.

Although Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen received mixed to negative reviews from film critics it was a box office success, achieving the highest Wednesday opening gross in history, bringing in $62 million in North America and close to $100 million worldwide; this is also the second-highest opening day gross of all time, behind only The Dark Knight's $67.8 million. It is currently the third highest-grossing film of 2009 worldwide (behind Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) and the highest-grossing film of 2009 in the United States. In less than a month, the film surpassed the all-time earnings of its predecessor. It was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in USA on October 20, 2009 and on the 30th November 2009 in the UK.

Source: Wiki