Box Office: Solo Flies Low, Binoche Charms, and Book Club Holds.

by Nathaniel R

Holiday Weekend Box Office Estimates (May 25th-27th)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
Solo: A Star Wars Story	Disobedience
1.🔺Solo $83 *NEW* REVIEW, BEHIND THE SCENES	1. 🔺 RBG $1.1 on 415 screens (cum. $5.6)  REVIEW
2. Deadpool 2 $42.7 (cum. $207.4)	2. Disobedience $368k on 224 screens (cum. $2.5) REVIEW
3. Avengers Infinity War $16.4 (cum. $621.6) REVIEW	3. 🔺 Pope Francis - A Man of His Word $290k on 385 screens (cum. $1)
4. Book Club  $9.4 (cum. $31.8) REVIEW	4. 🔺 First Reformed $282k on 29 screens (cum. $425k) REVIEW
5. Life of the Party $5.1 (cum. $39.1)	5. 🔺 How Long Will I Love U $210k on  23 screens *NEW*

These numbers will go up given that this weekend is extra long and there's still Memorial Day monday in which families are free to see movies if they'd like. But the numbers won't go high enough for Disney's taste. Now, $83 million in one weekend is nothing to scoff at but for a film within the Star Wars saga it's surprisingly low. Lots more on multiple films after the jump...

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I Have Altered The Auteur, Pray I Do Not Alter It Further

by Salim Garami

What's good? This is opening weekend for Solo: A Star Wars Story, a Disney/Lucasfilm production that saw a bit of behind-the-scenes drama. It's hardly the first production of the space opera franchise to be so contentious: Rogue One had Tony Gilroy take over post-production in lieu of director Gareth Edwards and the still in-production Star Wars Episode IX interrupted its development when Colin Trevorrow stepped down as director to J.J. Abrams, returning from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

After the jump, more on Solo and five films that had survived such a director change to a decent reception after the jump...

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99¢ Deals: Lady Bird, Body Heat, Farewell My Queen, etc...

It's a Public Service Announcement.

← It's also False Advertising. Lady Bird as "Movie of the Week"? Try "Movie of the Year"! Lady Bird is currently 99¢ on iTunes. And we thought you should know in case by some mad and totally embarrassing chance you have not yet seen 2017's best movie.

We should probably check in on iTunes deals more often. They're better quality images than Amazon or Netflix after all. The "movie of the week" changes...uh... weekly (you might have deduced that) but we're not sure how short the deal period is on their other 99¢ deals and there's quite a lot of goodies right now if you want to program your own mini-fest. Here are a few things that caught my eye from their rental bargain bin...

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Burning Question: Most egregious Weinstein-backed Oscar Nods?

Upon seeing Harvey Weinstein in handcuffs yesterday our friend Rob asked a very timely question on Twitter which we though we'd share here for rabid discussion purposes. 

In the spirit of the day: Which ridiculous Oscar nomination that Harvey Weinstein facilitated was the most infuriatingly egregious?

My personal vote goes to Chocolat's 5 nominations (including Best Picture!!!) in 2000. The fluffy disposable film was nominated over obviously well-liked films like Billy Elliott, Wonder Boys, and Almost Famous... and great but divisive films like Dancer in the Dark and. 

And though Juliette Binoche is one of the all time great screen actors, there was simply no excuse for that Best Actress nod when Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) and Björk (Dancer in the Dark) were both RIGHT THERE, totally inspired, and more than worthy of nominations. Even further outside the race there were still other leading ladies who were running circles around one of Binoche's least impressive performances including Michelle Pfeiffer's genre transcending in What Lies Beneath, Renée Zellweger's comic skill in Nurse Betty, and Gillian Anderson, all tragic and ravishing in The House of Mirth! 

But what's your answer to the question? And if you are 2000 focused, please let us know you're ideal Best Picture/Best Actress lineup that year.

RPDR: Social Media Kings/Queens

by Nathaniel R  

Let us begin by bowing down to the writers on RuPaul's Drag Race for so many new and witty mini-challenges for Season 10. They knew this season was important and they're clearly reinvigorated. In a tenth season when most writers rooms have given up. This week's "Rough Trade" opener was truly funny as the six remaining queens had to summon their inner neanderthal in straight drag. Naturally Kameron with her muscle body and ripped tee most looked the party but Eureka won with her outlandishly butch slob "BJ" (Being a Jokester). Asia, Aquaria, and Miz Cracker couldn't really leave the femme behind and Monét memorably struggled to stop the swivel in her hips.

On to the maxi-challenge, drag makeovers for "Social Media Kings" all of whom I was personally unfamiliar with save Tyler Oakley and Frankie Grande. Hmmm, I might be gay and not in my *cough* twenties? Shut up!

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