September Films Set the Bar High for Fall Movie Season

The fall and winter are generally expected to have big months for movie fans as Oscar season starts. But September is generally expected to be a wasteland for movies, as it falls after the end of the summer and just before the fall/winter blockbusters and Oscar films come out. This is usually when summer leftovers and many more poor films come out before things get serious again - but not this year.

In fact, September 2011 could turn out to be an even better month for movies than November and December. At the least, it has set the bar pretty high with a slew of critically acclaimed films that could be Oscar factors in some way.

There have been the usual bad September films, such as "Bucky Larson" and "Abduction" which combined for a 3 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. There have been some critical disappointments such as "Straw Dogs" "Killer Elite" and "I Don't Know How She Does It." But by and large, this past month has otherwise had one quality film released after another.

It started off on Sept. 8 with the star-studded "Contagion" as Steven Soderbergh freaked audiences and critics out with his take on the collapse of society. On the same weekend, "Warrior" got big buzz and was hyped up as one of the best sports movies in recent years, but its awards hopes took a big hit with disappointing box office. Nevertheless, it did win raves, further cemented Tom Hardy's rise to stardom and got Nick Nolte taken seriously again.

On Sept. 15, critics were fired up even more as they fell over themselves to praise "Drive." For once, they hailed an action movie as one of the best, most inventive films of the year, as Ryan Gosling continued his gigantic 2011 and Albert Brooks of all people was declared to be a scary villain. But like "Warrior" "Drive" didn't translate its rave reviews to big box office, as it may have been too offbeat for mainstream audiences.

Things turned out better for the next highly acclaimed movie, as "Moneyball" both got 90+ percent ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and a $20+ million opening weekend. It narrowly beat out another well liked film in "Dolphin Tale" and narrowly lost to the 3D re-release of "The Lion King." That three-way race between two critically approved movies, and one old classic that can still rake in money, made for quite a good weekend for Hollywood - even with "Abduction" also being released against them.

The final weekend of September brought yet another movie that has early rave reviews and awards/box office potential in "50/50." It has garnered big buzz for handling cancer with both sentiment and comedy, and is the third mainstream movie in as many weeks with a 90+ percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Those kind of results would be rare for a crowded month like June, July, November and December, let alone in September where bad movies are supposed to reign.

"Contagion" "Warrior" "Drive" "Moneyball" and "50/50" along with the holdover success of "The Help" have made this past month a goldmine for most moviegoers. In fact, this might be too high of a bar for the next three months to climb over, even though those months are supposed to set the bar for fall.

This kind of thing happened at the start of summer as well, when "Thor" "Bridesmaids" "Kung Fu Panda 2" "Midnight in Paris" "X-Men First Class" and "Super 8" got that season to a soaring start before the summer bombs and disappointments took over. Will fall be unable to build on the momentum of its opening month as well? If it doesn't, it might be because the big prestige movies of the year were a letdown - or it might also be because there was too much quality in September to live up to.