2016 - Awards Season - And the Oscar Goes to... La La Land Moonlight!

February 26th, 2017

It’s Oscar night and we were live blogging the show. Read on the the highlights of what turned out to be a crazy night. More...

2016 - Awards Season: Oscars - Nominations - Final Look

February 26th, 2017

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. More...

2016 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Feature-Length Documentary

February 9th, 2017

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. Like last year, this category has an overwhelming favorite, despite it not being a Feature-Length Documentary. More...

2016 Awards Season: Oscar Nominations

January 24th, 2017

The Oscar nominations were announced starting at 5:18 am Pacific time. Nothing is good that early in the morning. Worse still, it’s a boring year for nominations with very few surprises worth talking about, especially in the biggest categories. Leading the way was La La Land with 14 nominations, tying the record. More...

2016 - Awards Season: DGA - Nominations

January 12th, 2017

The last of the Directors Guild of America nominations were announced and the Oscars are really shaping up to be a one-movie show. That movie is Deadpool. I’m joking of course, but it did get yet another nomination. At this point, it could earn a Best Picture Oscar nomination and I wouldn’t be surprised. The film that is dominating Awards Season is La La Land and frankly I’ve lost count of the number of nominations it has received. More...

2016 - Awards Season: PGA - Nominations

January 11th, 2017

The Producers Guild of America finally finished announcing their nominations. (They spread out their announcements for reasons I’ve never quite understood.) Most of the films on this list have already earned more than a few previous nominations. We appear to be settling into a predictable Awards Season. More...

Home Market Releases for October 11th, 2016

October 11th, 2016

Ghostbusters is the biggest release of the week and the best first run release. Combined with its fully-loaded Blu-ray (extended edition), it is a Pick of the Week contender. There’s not much competition. The main competition is a new Collector's Edition Blu-ray for The Thing, but this is at least a double-dip, which hurts its value. There are a couple of smaller releases as well. In the end it was a literal coin toss to decide the Pick of the Week and Ghostbusters won. More...

Home Market Releases for September 20th, 2016

September 20th, 2016

It is not a great week on the home market, as the biggest release is Beauty and the Beast: 25th Anniversary. I’m still waiting for the screener, but I fear there will be less extras this time around. Modern Family: Season Seven was also a contender for Pick of the Week, but the light extras prevents it from earning that title. That leaves Labyrinth: 30th Anniversary Edition as the best of the week. More...

Theater Averages: Purge Produces at the Box Office, Earning Average of $11,271

July 6th, 2016

The Purge: The Election Year earned top spot on the theater average chart, at least among those films we don’t have doubts about their box office numbers. It pulled in an average of $11,271, putting it just ahead of The Legend of Tarzan, which earned an average of $10,819. The only other film in the $10,000 club was The Innocents at $10,500 in three theaters. More...

Limited and VOD Releases: Loyal and True

July 1st, 2016

It is a slow week for limited releases, with only five earning enough reviews to talk about. Of these, Our Kind of Traitor is earning the loudest buzz, but its reviews are only good and not great. There are three films that are earning great reviews, but two of them are foreign-language films and the other is a documentary. None of them are expected to be hits in theaters. More...