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Okay, It's past time to bring back the Q&A column. Now might be a good time. You know what to do in the comments and I'll choose a handful or two to answer on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Hidden Figures and La La Land both crossed the $100 million mark this weekend.
This weekend saw three Best Picture nominees re-expanding (Moonlight, Fences, Arrival) to capitalize on their Oscar nominations each adding a million plus to their already successful grosses. Arrival is so close to $100 million now ($97.3) but it will be still be a stretch to hit that milestone with its Blu-Ray release just two weeks away. In fact every Best Picture nominee that's still in theaters experienced a boost at the box office this weekend except Hidden Figures (which was already roaring) but that drama's neglible 11% drop continues to suggest a very long run to come.
The shadow side of this equation? That's what's happening to the prestige pictures that weren't nominated...
La La Land may officially be unbeatable, 28 days from now when the envelopes are opened on Hollywood's High Holy Night. It's currently the top grossing Best Picture nominee this year (though Hidden Figures is right on its tail) and last night it took the Producers Guild prize for feature film. That award doesn't always correlate to the Best Picture prize but it does more often than not. The musical also won the ACE Eddie Award. The momentum is there for La La Land to at least do a mini-sweep of the Oscars. The question is "how many trophies can it win?"
Full list of prizes from the Editors and Producers Guild as well as pretty gowns from the attending actresses after the jump...
Today's number is 28. I trust you know that Gloria Swanson was ALWAYS ready for her close-up.
She's best remembered for Sunset Blvd (1950) but that movie couldn't have existed, at least not in the perfect form it does, were it not for her earlier silent screen stardom. Her first Oscar nomination came for Sadie Thompson (1928) in the very first year of the Oscars. The movie was also nominated for Best Cinematography but both the DP and Swanson lost the Oscars to Janet Gaynor and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, respectively. Swanson wasn't the only female superstar to play Sadie...
One great thing to watch right now: PERSEPOLIS. It's vital that we make the stories of immigrants feel specific and real and human to us. pic.twitter.com/92ySv37Emp
— BrightWall/DarkRoom (@BWDR) January 28, 2017
Thought about what would happen if Isabelle Huppert had to reveal a hidden talent for a mag's video content, laughed, and then shuddered.
— Jackson McHenry (@McHenryJD) January 27, 2017
After the jump a gorgeous mini-review of 20th Century Women, a valid question about Barbarella, a fantasy about female auteurs, and more amusements...