In the hot summer months, everyone’s looking for a way to cool down. This summer, movie audiences decided one of the best places to beat the heat was in the barren, 47-degrees-below-zero but otherwise splendid climate of Antarctica. The runaway (or waddle-away, as the case may be) limited release success of the summer, "March of the Penguins," melted the critics’ hearts as well, notching a big 94 percent on the Tomatometer.
However, the summer’s biggest critical (if not commercial) limited release was "Murderball," a tough-as-nails documentary about quadriplegic athletes that scored a 97 percent on the Tomatometer. Other smaller films also reaped big critical praise. "Saraband," the final film by Ingmar Bergman, arguably the world’s greatest living director, garnered a 93 percent on the Tomatometer. Werner Herzog‘s "Grizzly Man," one of the strangest nature documentaries ever, netted 92 percent. Rounding out the top five is "My Summer of Love," a poignant tale of first love, at 90 percent.
Here’s the list of the summer’s "Freshest" limited releases, along with their performance at the box office:
97% — Murderball ($1.3M)
94% — March of the Penguins ($72.8M)
93% — Saraband ($0.5M)
92% — Grizzly Man ($2.5M)
90% — My Summer of Love ($0.9M)
88% — Saving Face ($1M)
88% — Broken Flowers ($12.9M)
87% — Brothers ($0.25M)
87% — Junebug ($2M)
85% — Tell Them Who You Are (n/a)
84% — Howl’s Moving Castle ($4.5M)
83% — Rize ($3.3M)
83% — 2046 ($1.2M)
83% — The Beat That My Heart Skipped ($0.8M)
82% — Me and You and Everyone We Know ($3.7M)
82% — The Memory of a Killer (n/a)
81% — Rock School (n/a)
81% — Mysterious Skin ($0.5M)
81% — Mad Hot Ballroom ($7.9M)
79% — The Aristocrats ($5.9M)
Check out the rest of our coverage:
– Summer Tomatometer Wrap-up: Box Office Down, Tomatometer Up
– Summer Tomatometer Wrap-up #2: The Best of the Wide Releases
