2011 officially ends in just 3 days and this year saw lots of lows and just a few highs where the movie box office was concerned.   Movies like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,  Cowboys & Aliens and Happy Feet Two were all expected to be big earners but turned out to be dead on arrival.

Harry Potter was the big winner for 2011 as the franchise came to end with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II taking in $381 million.  Coming in a close second was Transformers: Dark of the Moon with $352.3 million.  Third place goes to Edward and Bella, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I has so far racked up $271.9 million in just 6 weeks.  It is safe to say that even though the film is still showing in theaters, #3 is as high as the movie will go on the list.  Forth place belongs to The Hangover Part II, critics might not have liked it and fans were 50/50, but the film still brought in $254.4 million dollars.  Rounding out the top 5 in the 2011 top films is Johnny Depp and company in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the forth installment of the POC series brought in $241 million.

2011 Top 10:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – $381,011,219
2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon – $352,390,543
3. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 – $271,934,000
4. The Hangover Part II – $254,464,305
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – $241,071,802
6. Fast Five – $209,837,675
7. Cars 2 – $191,452,396
8. Thor – $181,030,624
9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes – $176,711,822
10. Captain America: The First Avenger - $176,654,505

See everyone in 2012 for another year at the movies.