After a record-setting Christmas, Hollywood wraps up the year with more than $9 billion in the till -- the second-biggest box office total in its history. Film reviewer Bob Mondello says a large part of that money was well-earned: some of 2003's most popular movies were also among the year's best. He offers a list of the year's top films, in no particular order:
Top 10 Films of 2003
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, directed by Peter Jackson
Finding Nemo, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
The Barbarian Invasions, directed by Denys Arcand
Capturing the Friedmans, directed by Andrew Jarecki
City of God, directed by Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles
House of Sand and Fog, directed by Vadim Perelman
Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola
21 Grams, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
American Splendor, directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols (HBO)
Other Notable Films
In America, directed by Jim Sheridan
Girl with a Pearl Earring, directed by Peter Webber
Monster, directed by Patty Jenkins
Shattered Glass, directed by Billy Ray
Spellbound, directed by Jeffrey Blitz
My Architect: A Son's Journey, directed by Nathaniel Kahn
The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, directed by Errol Morris
Spider, directed by David Cronenberg
Holes, directed by Andrew Davis
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
