Aquaman still tops. Mary Poppins also floats

We haven't done a full weekend box office post in some time since we've been sharing the 'top grossing of the year' lists which are all updated if you missed them and you can see the hits in 11 different categories including docs, foreign films, female directors, gay directors, films with female leads, etcetera...

But as for what people were seeing Christmas week and this past weekend, here are the nation's top dozen+ movies chart for both wide releases and limited/expanding titles. Which titles were you catching up with?

Weekend Box Office (Actuals) (December 28th-30th)
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
1 Aquaman  $52.1 on 4125 screens (cum. $189.3) Review, Podcast	1 🔺 Simmba $1.7 on 300 screens *NEW*

2 Mary Poppins Returns $28.3 on 4090 screens (cum. $99.2) Podcast ❤️	2 🔺 If Beale Street Could Talk $766k on 65 screens (cum. $1.9) Review, Podcast ❤️

Click to read more ...

December - It's a wrap!

BE SAFE OUT THERE TONIGHT. PARTY RESPONSIBLY! New Year's Eve is legit your host's least favourite holiday so I'm just going to curl up with screeners and comfort food and call it a month... er, year! Of course the film year, for our specific purposes, still rages on until the Oscars are handed out. Here are some highlights from the month that was here at the site ...

• Fav Line Readings "I am your MOTHER" "Oh no... he died." etcetera
• A Star is Born Hits $200 Million appropriate ways to celebrate
• What's Eating Gilbert Grape aging well 25 years on
• While You Were Sleeping yes, it should be a holiday perennial
• An Unfortunate Julia Roberts Headline... though she'd probably laugh
• Boy Erased unfortunately quite relatable
• Chris Feil's Top 20 List with a video montage!
• Toni Collette loves Roma also talks about her bold acting choices
• Into the Spider-Verse  the best Spidey movie in ages
• Best 2018 Dance Sequences Suspiria, Mary Poppins Returns, more...
• Months of Meryl: The Post - the last regular episode of this year long journey!

Most Discussed
• Our chat with Glenn Close she's very honored by the tributes
• Best Actress winners in bad movies an opinionated list
• "Worst" of the Year Ready Player One, Beautiful Boy, and more...
• SAG Nominations / Ensemble Expose what a strange year for SAG
• Globe Nominations 

COMING IN JANUARY: Anne Hathaway in Serenity, M Night Shyamalan's double-sequel Glass, lots of Golden Globe partying, the Sundance Film Festival, the 75th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, more celebrity interviews, and of course the Oscar Nominations themselves.

Sir Ben Kingsley is 75

by Nathaniel R

A happy ¾th century mark to Sir Ben Kingsley today. Born Krishna Pandit Bhanji he came to global fame in 1982 for his starring role in Gandhi (Oscar, Globe, BAFTA, NYFCC, LAFCA, NBR wins). Before that breakthrough he'd appeared in several British TV shows and television movies. Other key triumphs from his filmography include: Bugsy (Oscar & Globe noms), Schindler's List (BAFTA nom), Sexy Beast (Oscar, Globe, & SAG noms, EFA & Critics Choice Awards), House of Sand and Fog (Oscar, Globe, Spirit & SAG noms), Hugo, Shutter Island, and Iron Man 3 as well as very fine voice work in The Boxtrolls (Annie Award), The Jungle Book, and Noah. 

What's your fav performance from Sir Ben? I think I love him most in Sexy Beast, Gandhi, and the underappreciated Elegy.

Would you rather?

Our silly celebrity-gawking weekly poll. Would you rather...

...hit the opening of new hot spot "Best Friend" in Vegas with Marisa Tomei?
...wait for a train with Henry Golding?
...take a swim with Salma Hayek?
...get a new trendy facial with Audra McDonald?
...spend some quality time at the piano with Mindy Kaling?
...do yoga with Rossy dePalma?
...take up a retro hobby with Alex Borstein?
...geek out over Angela Lansbury cast recordings with cabaret star Molly Pope?
... build a snowman with Milla Jovovich?
... makeout with seals with Ben Platt?
     ... OR harmonize in the hot tub with Ben Platt?

The pictures are after the jump to help you decide.

Click to read more ...

Links: Letitia, Lists, Lady Gaga, and 'Live-Action' Remakes

• Slate a rant about Vice's insulting post-credits sequence. A *lot* of people really hate Vice. Will that stop the Academy from voting for it? The studio controlled the conversation for a long time with the embargo and it built up real awards steam. We shall see.
• Cartoon Brew looks into Disney's weird stance about their Lion King remake. They keep saying "it's not animated" but we all know it is!
• /Film the live action remake of Japanese hit Your Name will be 'Americanized'

• Deadline Dame June Whitfield of Absolutely Fabulous fame has died at 93
• Into the Spider-Verse the screenplay is online if you're interested
• Vulture a survey and exploration of what Asian-American art meant this past year featuring Burning, Crazy Rich Asians, Searching and more...
• The Atlantic has a series of articles called "And Scene" that's worth checking out zeroing in on great scenes from the year
• Coming Soon supposedly Bird Box had the best first week of all time for views on Netflix but the company is still totally cagey about stats and numbers so it's hard to trust. We don't even know what counts as a view really - did you have to finish watching it for example?
• The Root Letitia Wright crowned box office queen of 2018 (it helps to be in the top two grossers of course)
• Vulture "horror is not defined by what scares you"
• MovieWeb More news on what Disney+ streaming service is planning (i.e. tons and tons of Marvel shows)

List-Mania
• IndieWire 52 directors choose their favorite films of the year. This is a good read and the variety of titles cited is noteworthy, reminding you more than critics lists have how different each person's experience of cinema in a particular year can be.
• Cinemablographer chooses 20 best performances of the year and Nicole Kidman makes the list twice! Some unusual picks here but thankfully no category fraud!
• Furious Cinema top 20 of the year, in no particular order featuring Suspiria, Spider-Verse, and more
• Jesse Knight best movie taglines of 2018 beginning with... Dog Days (lol!)
• Vulture 10 best podcasts of 2018
• The Guardian Mark Kermode's top 10 list with BlacKkKlansman, Leave No Trace...
• Vulture 10 best film scores of 2018

Exit Video
Lady Gaga performs inside a mecha-robot in her new Las Vegas residency show "Enigma"

I’m gonna be thinking about this for a few days... the POWER... #ENIGMA pic.twitter.com/4Yj9orazre

— LG Updates (@LadyGagaVegas) December 29, 2018