Box Office: The Accountant and Certain Women

Though awards season has started outside of movie theaters it definitely hasn't started within them (a flaw of the system as we continuously bemoan) and The Birth of a Nation took another campaign hit this weekend dropping a rough 61% in its second weekend while its competition last weekend dimmed by only 38 to 50% in round two. This week was a battle between two films from reliably bankable stars without awards gold on their mind -- Kevin Hart's Kevin Hart: What Now? and Ben Affleck in the thriller The Accountant. The latter surprised by slightly outperforming the successful opening weekends of both Argo and The Town despite having nothing like their enthusiastic reviews. 

TOP TEN WIDE
01 The Accountant $24.7 NEW 
02 Kevin Hart: What Now? $11.9 NEW
03 The Girl on the Train $11.9 (cum. $46.5) Review
04 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children $8.9 (cum. $65.8)
05 Deepwater Horizon $6.3 (cum. $49.3) 
06 Storks $5.6 (cum. $59.1)
07 The Magnificent Seven $5.2 (cum. $84.8) Review
08 Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life $4.2 (cum. $13.7)
09 Sully $2.7 (cum. $118.3) Review
10 Birth of a Nation $2.7 (cum. $12.2) More

TOP TEN LIMITED
01 Priceless $703K NEW 
02 Desierto $450K NEW Mexico's Oscar Submission
03 Denial $398K (cum. $839K) Review
04 A Man Called Ove $205K (cum. $436K) Sweden's Oscar Submission
05 The Dressmaker $171K (cum. $1.3) 
06 American Honey $142K (cum. $362K) Review
07 The Beatles: Eight Days a Week $123K (cum. $2.5) Review
08 No Manches Frida $110K (cum. $11.3)
09 M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story $80K (cum. $1.7)
10 Certain Women $65K NEW Review

In limited release Certain Women, just off of its NYFF festival bow, posted the strongest per screen average (albeit only on 5 screens) with the animated feature Miss Hokusai (part of a very competitive Best Animated Feature race this year) not far behind on just two screens.

What did you see this weekend?

A Conversation About "Westworld" - Part 2

A conversation between Lynn Lee and Kieran Scarlett. At the end of Part 1 of the discussion, Lynn left us to wonder just how long "Westworld" can keep this story going. We pick up where we left off.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Kieran:  That’s an excellent point about Marsden and Wood’s performances that I hadn’t considered. I did think Wood was much more compelling in the second episode than she was in the pilot. I found myself adjusting to the tonal rhythms of her performance, which are quite specific. I appreciate that there isn’t a rigid uniformity to how the actors portray AIs. Each has their own texture and we’re not just watching actors play mindless automatons, which would have been so boring. That we get insight into their creators and programmers based on how each AI behaves is also an intriguing facet to the performances that I suspect will be explored more fully as the series progresses.

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Instagram Battles: Jon, Hil, or Jess?

Would you rather

...go rug shopping with Jon Kortajarena
...workout with Hilary Swank
...or watch a rugby game with Jess & pup 

I felt in love and I bought it.. you like it? #lovingMorocco

A photo posted by Jon Kortajarena (@kortajarenajon) on Oct 15, 2016 at 12:40pm PDT

Pull-ups!! #FitnessFriday #MakeAChoice #MakeItHappen #TheseAreRough 😳

A video posted by Hilary Swank (@hilaryswank) on Oct 14, 2016 at 6:12pm PDT

The face you make #whenwatchingrugby

A video posted by Jessica Chastain (@jessicachastain) on Oct 15, 2016 at 1:51pm PDT

 

RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars E8 - Finale

by Chris Feil

Can you believe that this season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars was only eight episodes? It feels like we have been gagging over the seemingly endless stream of drama and twists for much longer, but now the season must come to a close. After last week, the internet was vocal about Alaska's tantrum and even I took some flak for considering her run otherwise unsatisfying - but Alaska did play it smart with the fallout.

For the queens final challenge, they put on a supersized showgirl musical number with original raps written around their personas. Before the performance, the girls also visited Ru and Michelle Visage for a mini segment of their podcast "What's The Tee?", narrowly avoiding the podcast's shucking for SquareSpace ("you know it really is so easy") and Casper mattresses in a tweaked version of the old Tic Tac lunches...

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"This wig weighs a ton"

Editor's Note: We're celebrating Marie Antoinette at the movies each afternoon for a week

Gee this wig weighs a ton.

Singin' in the Rain is, of course, a beloved movie about our beloved movies. There's lots of broad goofing on Hollywood history for movie buff amusement. But sometimes the gentle ribbing is actually pointed jabs. When Lina Lamont enters the shot above to shoot The Dueling Cavaliers the joke is bigger than her constant whining...

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