6:30 We’ve arrived at that strangest phenomenon of awards season, the night when we collectively grant the 88 nonentities of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (none of them filmmakers, many of them not even critics, and some of them of dubious principle) meaningful sway over the Academy Awards.  That will be even more true this […]

> Watch It At Home:  Much sadness, little insight. BEAUTIFUL BOY is less interesting than you’d think it would be.  The premise is certainly arresting:  Shawn Ku’s first film (written with Michael Armbruster) tells the story of the aftermath of a school massacre, from the viewpoint of the parents of the teen who shot down […]

  FOOTLOOSE:  Watch It At Home – Faithfully Reproduces the Original For Good and Bad   1980s week at the multiplex continues with a remake of FOOTLOOSE, a trip back to the territory of Herbert Ross’s 1984 hit.  (Financially, by the way, there was no contest between the 1980s versions of this weekend’s entries:  the […]

    MY WEEK WITH MARILYN:  Worth A Ticket – Michelle Williams is Spectacular, Movie Is Fine   Harvey Weinstein has two movies on the way in the next couple of months featuring actresses who are presumptively in line for Oscar consideration: The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, and MY WEEK WITH […]

      SILENT HOUSE:  Watch It At Home – A Curiosity   SILENT HOUSE isn’t the first feature-length film to provide the illusion that it’s all been shot in a single continuous take.  The most famous was Hitchcock’s Rope, but in his era, it was technologically impossible to actually shoot for 90 minutes straight, […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is now +3% above last year and now +4% above the average for this point the past four years ($6.388 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $16.7 billion worldwide when […]

UPDATE: We have revised the numbers for Marvel’s The Avengers to reflect Disney’s outlook for the film based on Friday’s opening, which puts the film on track for the biggest opening weekend of all time. The 18th weekend of 2012 is looking like an outstanding $228 million for the Top 12 films, up 47% from […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Updated look at 2016 by studio.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2016 to date is now +6% above last year and still +9% above the average for this point the past four years ($2.745 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed over $7.8 billion […]