2018 Awards Season: Oscars: And the Winner is... Green Book for Best Picture

February 24th, 2019

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. More...

2018 Awards Season: Oscars Nominations: Final Look

February 24th, 2019

It’s Oscar Day, and we will be live blogging the show. Before that, let’s take a last look at the nominations with a few annotations. 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 would be happy with half of the Best Picture nominees winning. More...

2018 - Awards Season: Independent Spirit Awards - Winners

February 23rd, 2019

The Independent Spirit Awards nominations kicked off the 2018 Awards Season and the winners are announced just before the end. If Beale Street Could Talk only had three nominations, but it won all three awards. This could be a good Omen for tomorrow’s Oscar ceremony. More...

2018 Awards Season: Oscar Highlight: Best Leading Actress

February 14th, 2019

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. This week we look at the four acting categories, ending with Best Lead Actress. In this category, there is an overwhelming favorite without an obvious runner up. More...

Home Market Releases for January 29th, 2019

January 30th, 2019

We are still stuck in the dead zone on the home market, as it is too late for summer blockbusters, but too early for the major fall hits. The biggest first-run release of the week is The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, which says a lot. The best is The Wife, which earns our Pick of the Week. However, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl was a close competitor. More...

2018 Awards Season: Oscar Nominations

January 23rd, 2019

The Oscar nominations were announced yesterday starting at just after 5 am Pacific time. They do this every year for reasons no one has been able to adequately explain to me. Because it was the day after a long weekend, it took a bit of time to get all the normal work done and digest the results. And there were some interesting results to digest. No one film led the way with total nominations, as two films, The Favourite and Roma tied with 10 nominations each. More...

2018 - Awards Season: BAFTA - Nominations

January 12th, 2019

The BAFTA nominations were announced and The Favorite led the way with 12 nominations. Sometimes the BAFTAs are a really good indicator for who will do well on Oscar night. Other times their bias to British films is too much. I think this year will be an example of the latter and I don't think The Favourite is suddenly an Oscar favorite. That said, there’s still some things you can learn here. More...

2018 - Awards Season: Golden Globes - Winners

January 7th, 2019

The Golden Globes were the first major Awards Season ceremony this year handing out the hardware on Sunday night. Are last night’s events a strong indicator for the Oscars? I hope not! Certainly not in all categories, as there were some puzzling results last night. More...

The Wife Trailer

January 7th, 2019

Drama starring Golden Globe-winner Glenn Close will be released on video on January 29 ... Full Movie Details.

Joan Castleman is a highly intelligent and still-striking beauty—the perfect devoted wife. Forty years spent sacrificing her own talent, dreams and ambitions to fan the flames of her charismatic husband Joe and his skyrocketing literary career. Ignoring his infidelities and excuses because of his “art” with grace and humor. Their fateful pact has built a marriage upon uneven compromises and Joan’s reached her breaking point. On the eve of Joe's Nobel Prize for Literature, the crown jewel in a spectacular body of work, Joan’s coup de grace is to confront the biggest sacrifice of her life and secret of his career. More...

2018 - Awards Season: SAG - Nominations

December 12th, 2018

The Screen Actors Guild were the third group to announce their nominations for this awards season. There’s not a lot of surprises on this week’s list. A Star is Born led the way with four nominations, while The Favourite was right behind with three. More...

2018 - Awards Season: Golden Globes - Nominations

December 6th, 2018

The Golden Globes nominations are the second major Awards Season set to come out. It is still very early in the year and the predictive value of the Golden Globes is a little suspect, but there are still some things to learn here. For example Vice led the way with six nominations, so its Oscar chances have gone up, but don’t expect it to lead the way when the Oscars nominations are announced. More...

2018 - Awards Season: Independent Spirit Awards - Nominations

November 17th, 2018

The Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced on Friday and thus the 2018 Awards Season begins. We The Animals topped the list with five nominations, while A24 earned 12 as a studio. More...

Theater Averages: Suspiria Surprises with Yearly Best Average

October 31st, 2018

Suspiria led the theater average chart both over the weekend and for the year earning just over $180,000 in two theaters for an average of $92,019. This tops the previous average of $73,572 by Free Solo, although that movie was playing in four theaters. Up next was Can You Ever Forgive Me? with an average of $14,255 in 25 theaters during its second weekend of release. A couple of foreign-language films were next with Burning earning an average of $13,066 in two theaters and Border earning an average of $10,529 in seven. More...

Theater Averages: Free Doesn’t Go Solo

October 3rd, 2018

Free Solo didn’t quite live up to weekend estimates, but it still overtook Eighth Grade for the best theater average of the year with $72,551. It also surpassed An Inconvenient Truth as the documentary with the best theater average of all time. The Old Man and the Gun was in a distant second place with an average of $28,426 in five theaters, while Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. was close behind with an average of $21,787 in two. The only holdover in the $10,000 club was Colette with an average of $10,172 in 38 theaters. It will continue to expand. More...

Theater Averages: Collette Collects First Place with $40,295

September 25th, 2018

Colette earned first place on the theater average chart with an average of $40,295 in four theaters. The Sisters Brothers was in second place with an average of $28,894, also in four theaters. Nothing Like a Dame was very strong for a documentary with $14,777 in its lone theater. One could argue Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable belongs in the $10,000 club, as it earned $9,538 in one theater over the weekend and $13,782 from Wednesday through Sunday. More...

Theater Averages: Museum Sneaks away with First Place

September 20th, 2018

It was a crowded week on the theater average chart with five films in the $10,000 club. This includes Museum, which led the way with $16,554 in its lone theater. Hal actually jumped into the $10,000 club with $12,150 in one theater during its second weekend of release. Lizzie was the widest release in the $10,000 club with an average of $11,895 in four theaters. Science Fair was next with $11,231 in one theater. Another documentary, The Dawn Wall, was next with an average of $10,829 in two theaters. More...

Theater Averages: Puppies Rescue the PTA Chart

September 6th, 2018

No film reached the $10,000 club over the three-day weekend, but Pick of the Litter came close with an average of $9,539 in two theaters. More...

Theater Averages: Searching Found an Audience in Limited Release

August 29th, 2018

Searching had one of the ten best theater averages for a limited release so far this year, earning an average of $43,197 in nine theaters. The film is scheduled to expand wide this Friday and this start combined with its reviews is a good omen for its box office chances. The Bookshop was well back in second place with an average of $12,000 in 4 theaters. Meanwhile the only holdover was The Wife, which held on well with an average of $11,819 while playing in 18 theaters. The film should earn some measure of mainstream success, but I’m not sure it will last in theaters long enough to earn any real Awards Season buzz. Finally, John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection wasn’t able to reach the $10,000 club over the three-day weekend, as it earned $7,878 in its lone theater. However, it was a Wednesday release and it earned $11,733 during its five-day debut. More...

Theater Averages: Wife has a Blazing Hot Start

August 22nd, 2018

The Wife topped the theater average chart over the weekend with an average of $27,071 in four theaters. The film’s reviews are amazing and Glenn Close is earning some Oscar buzz, so perhaps it will stick around for a while. We the Animals was next with an average of $21,119 in three theaters. Blaze was also playing in three theaters earning an average of $14,750. More...

Weekend Estimates: Crazy Getting Richer over the Weekend

August 19th, 2018

Crazy Rich Asians beat expectations and easily came out on top of the box office over the weekend. The film earned $25.24 million between Friday and Sunday, for a five-day opening of $34.00 million, which is amazing for a film that cost $30 million to make. It not only beat our original prediction, but its weekend estimates have grown since it debuted on Wednesday, which is a very good sign that the word-of-mouth is helping ticket sales. Its 92% positive reviews and its A-rating from CinemaScore back up that explanation. With this opening, the film would have to have terrible legs and completely bomb internationally to not break even. Having terrible legs seems unlikely, but we will know more about that next weekend. As for its international numbers, the film hasn’t opened in any major international markets, so it is too soon to tell. It does debut in Australia before the end of the month, so that will be the film’s first big test. More...

Limited and VOD Releases: Dark Days for Limited Releases

August 17th, 2018

It’s a short week for limited releases, as it is an awkward time of year to release a film. It’s too late to take advantage of the summer holidays, while it is far too soon for Awards Season buzz. That doesn’t mean there are no films earning amazing reviews. In fact, there are several: Blaze, Minding the Gap, We The Animals, The Wife, and The Wild Boys. Hopefully at least one of them will find an audience in theaters. More...