February 3rd, 2015
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Feature-Length Documentary. This category had a lot of surprises throughout the nomination process; however, now that we have our five Oscar nominees, it seems like one of them has really settled into first place, while one of the other four might make it a two-horse race. On a side note, there are five major awards that we track that have a Documentary category. Of those, only one has announced its winners and none of the Oscar-nominated films won.
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January 17th, 2015
The Oscar nominations were announced early in the morning, when all sensible people were asleep. There were some surprises, as well as some results that would have been surprises had it not been for the previous Awards Season nominations. Seventeen films earned two or more nods, led by Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel, both of which picked up nine nominations, while The Imitation Game was right behind with eight.
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January 15th, 2015
The Directors Guild of America were the last major Awards Season group to hand out their nominations and did so over two days this week. Not surprisingly, for the most part, the same group of films appear on this list as have appeared on the rest of the Awards Season nominations. Birdman, Boyhood, and The Imitation Game all make appearances,
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January 11th, 2015
The BAFTA nominations were announced yesterday and unlike most other Awards Season voters, the BAFTA voters gave us some real surprises. For instance, Birdman didn't lead the way. In fact, it was a comedy, The Grand Budapest Hotel, that earned the most nominations at 11. Granted, Birdman and The Theory of Everything were tied for second place with ten each, but it is still strange to see a comedy leading the way.
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January 10th, 2015
The Writers Guild of America nominations were latest to be announced, but were there any real surprises? Yes. Birdman didn't get a nomination, but Guardians of the Galaxy did. More on that later. Besides those two films, there are not a lot of surprises here and the usual contenders are present, including Boyhood and The Imitation Game, but there are also some other notable films missing.
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July 28th, 2014
I is not a bad week on the home market, as we do have a $100 million hit coming out on DVD and Blu-ray. Unfortunately, this $100 million hit is Noah, which is a good movie, but not a Pick of the Week contender. Worse still, it is a very shallow week and on the first page of Amazon.com's new releases list, there are releases that on a normal week would be filler. There are a trio of Pick of the Week contenders: Finding Vivian Maier - Buy from Amazon; It Felt Like Love - Buy from Amazon; and Marty - Blu-ray Buy from Amazon. All three are worth picking up, but in the end I went with Marty as Pick of the Week.
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May 14th, 2014
It was a good week on the per theater chart with five films in the $10,000 club, led by Chef with an average of $34,160 in six theaters, which is the third best opening average of the year so far. Palo Alto was well back, but was still strong earning an average of $15,865 in four theaters. The overall box office leader, Neighbors, was next with an average of $14,954. There were also a couple of holdovers in the $10,000 club, which is impressive. Ida held on strong earning an average of $12,223 in seven theaters, with room to keep growing. Belle expanded from 4 theaters to 45 theaters, but still managed an average of $10,825. By this time next week, it will have reached its first major milestone, with more to come.
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April 1st, 2014
It was a close race, but The Raid 2 took top spot on the per theater chart with an average of $23,613 in seven theaters. Finding Vivian Maier was right behind with an average of $21,200 in three theaters. The overall number one film, Noah, was the only other film in the $10,000 club, earning an average of $12,257.
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March 28th, 2014
It's quite a good week for limited releases, as there are several that are earning overwhelmingly positive reviews. Finding Vivian Maier, Hide Your Smiling Faces, and Mistaken for Strangers are all earning excellent reviews. The Raid 2 is also earning excellent reviews, but it also possesses the buzz needed to thrive in limited release.
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