Ironically, Warner Bros.’ run of $40-million-plus openings for non-sequel movies will end with a film that industry insiders and critics are lauding as an awards-season front-runner. One Battle After Another will have the distinction of giving Paul Thomas Anderson his best weekend ever, besting the $4.9 million earned by There Will Be Blood during its run back in January 2008, but the new film will need exceptional legs to justify its higher production budget ($140 million vs. $25 million for There Will Be Blood), and marketing costs. Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie will likewise need great word-of-mouth to become a hit.
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Despite being one of the most respected and award-winning directors in Hollywood, Paul Thomas Anderson has somehow contrived never to have one of his films earn more than $5 million over the course of a weekend. The closest he’s come is There Will Be Blood, which picked up $4.87 million on its fifth weekend in release, back in January 2008 (and landed in 9th on a chart led by, believe it or not, Meet the Spartans). That record will be beaten easily this weekend as One Battle After Another will mark the start of awards season with an opening that looks set to exceed $20 million. That will ensure not only a best weekend for Anderson, but also his first chart-topper.
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Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Infinity Castle dominated the box office for another weekend, pulling in $17.3 million and soaring past the $100 million mark by Sunday. The anime juggernaut held off newcomer Him, which opened with a solid $13.3 million debut. This weekend sees a wave of fresh releases hitting theaters, with two of them emerging as the widest openings, both aiming to dethrone Demon Slayer from its box office reign.
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The first Thanksgiving with a full slate of new releases during the pandemic was full of uncertainty for theater owners. Family audiences have been returning to theaters but remain at about half their usual level, while the older crowd is mostly on the sidelines and at around 30% of its pre-pandemic size. A holiday weekend dominated by family fair like Encanto and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, with a side dish of the older-skewing House of Gucci is a welcome sight, but the big question was who would show. As it turns out, we’re looking at a modest weekend, with audiences hovering around their long term trend rather than rushing back to theaters.
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It’s Oscar night and we will be live blogging the show. We will announce the winners and have our reactions as they happen, while keeping track of how our readers did in predicting the outcomes.
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It’s Oscar night and we will be live blogging the show. Before that, let’s take a last look at the nominations with a few annotations. Nominees in Italics are those that have received the most votes from our readers so far in our Oscar contest (which is open to new entries until noon, Pacific, today—enter now!). Bold films are those films I think will win. Meanwhile, those that are Underlined are those I want to win. Not all categories have underlined nominees, because not all categories have someone I’m cheering for, or because there are two nominees I couldn’t pick between. For example, I will be happy no matter who wins Best Supporting Actress. One last note: The contest is still going and the leading for Best Picture Switched from The Shape of Water to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to tied over the time I was writing this story. This is the closest I’ve ever seen it. Guessing the best picture correctly will go a long way to winning.
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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 who should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Director, which I think is a more competitive category than most people think it will be.
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The Oscar nominations were announced starting at just after 5 am Pacific time. They do this every year and no one has been able to adequately explain why to me. At least there were some interesting results this year. The Shape of Water led the way with 13 nominations, which is one below the current record and nearly as many as the next two films combined. Overall, there were seventeen films that earned two or more nominations.
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Set in the glamour of 1950’s post-war London, renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock and his sister Cyril are at the center of British fashion, dressing royalty, movie stars, heiresses, socialites, debutants and dames with the distinct style of The House of Woodcock. Women come and go through Woodcock’s life, providing the confirmed bachelor with inspiration and companionship, until he comes across a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover. Once controlled and planned, he finds his carefully tailored life disrupted by love.
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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 the two writing categories, ending with Best Adapted Screenplay. This is also a two-horse race, but one of the horses has a significant, but not insurmountable lead.
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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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2014 is over and for the most part, December was a soft ending to a weak year. This is bad news for two reasons. Firstly, it means the overall box office is still soft and it is unlikely that January will start strong. Secondly, last January was a great month, thanks in part to Frozen and other holdovers. The slump can't last forever and Taken 3 should help 2015 get off to a reasonably fast start and it even has a shot at $100 million. American Sniper got off to a really fast start in limited release, so it too could be a hit when it expands wide. By comparison, last January was led by Ride Along, but there were only two other films that didn't completely bomb. I want to say 2015 will start out on a winning note, but given the box office losing streak, it will likely pay to be pessimistic.
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Surprises seems to be the word of the day, as the WGA nominations included a number of them. Granted, Zero Dark Thirty and a lot of the other films that have earned Awards Season success thus far were here, but there were almost as many surprises as there were obvious choices.
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