You might not have thought about it, but the month of May has played host to some of the biggest movie releases of all-time. Not generally considered to be a month of much importance - well, compared to those later summer months, anyway - there's far more to May than meets the eye when it comes to the filmic calender - so much so, in fact, that it happens to be the month in which a famous bearded filmmaker decided to kick off a certain prequel trilogy that had everyone on the planet giddy going wild; the third highest-grossing film of all time was also released in May. Join us, then, as we take a look back at the 10 highest-grossing movies to have landed in May since the year 1982 (the point where box office numbers tend to get a little fuzzy - according to those listed on BoxOfficeMojo.com, anyway), ranking them from the very best to the very worst. What's interesting about the following 10 films, despite varying degrees of quality, is that none of them are truly terrible. Sure, some were met with mixed or middling reviews upon first release, but - generally speaking - they're an interesting and innovative bunch of films. That said, here are the 10 highest-grossing May release movies ranked from worst to best (according to their domestic gross, as listed on BoxOfficeMojo.com)...
10. Shrek The Third
Domestic Gross: $322,719,944 After the success of Dreamworks' brilliant and still infamously popular Shrek, a sequel was put into production, what with all the money it made. What could have been a mere reprise of the original, however, emerged as an arguably superior filmic experience. There was no sense that the filmmakers were making another movie just for the sake of it, or that they were running out of ideas (more on that later). Unfortunately for Shrek The Third, however, lightning didn't strike thrice; for what's it worth, Shrek The Third is okay, but that's about it, really. Sadly, then, the sequel to Shrek 2 takes it place as the last movie to be ranked on our list - it's not a bad movie per se, and there are inspired sequences, but the whole thing feels thrown together in a way that suggests the filmmakers weren't really sure of which direction to take the story or characters in. Which is another way of saying that Shrek The Third clings to a middling plot, relies too heavily on pop cultural references (many of them not funny) and feels crafted entirely for the purposes of making money; the sense of artistry is all but absent.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
