Post Nominations Box Office Bump?

by Nathaniel R

With all but one (Dunkirk) of the Best Picture nominees still in or back in theaters (Get Out returned for the weekend at 468 screens after its blockbuster run nearly a full year ago) and most* of them wise enough to expand slightly to exploit any possible Best Picture bump, let's look at the top 30 movies and see how well they did and in what context...

Weekend Box Office (Jan 26th-28th)
TOP THIRTY
1. 🔺 Maze Runner: The Death Cure $23.5 NEW	6. 12 Strong $8.6 (cum. $29.7)
2.  Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle $16.4 (cum. $338)	7. Den of Thieves $8.3 (cum. $28.5)
3. 🔺 Hostiles $10  (cum. $12)	8.🔺 The Shape of Water ... $5.7 (cum. $37.6)  CAPSULE | PODCAST | SCREENPLAY
4  The Greatest Showman $9.5 (cum. $126) REVIEW | ANOTHER HIT MUSICAL	9. Paddington 2 $5.5  (cum. $32) REVIEW
5. The Post $8.8 (cum. $58.5) REVIEW | OSCAR KICK-OFF	10.🔺 Padmaavat $4.2 NEW

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Does 2017 = 2005 in Best Actor?

by Ben Miller

Film blogger Jordan Ruimy posited an observation a month ago on Twitter: 

In 2002 Gary Oldman would have been a cinch to win Best Actor, in 2017 he's a major question mark. The Oscars have changed.

While the awards season definitely shifted thereafter, his tweet remains at least partially true. Look at the history of the Best Actor Oscar.  From 1990 to 1997, every winner had a specific ailment (criminal insanity, alcoholism, AIDS), while 1998 to 2001 had a run of death scenes.  Of the past 16 years, starting with Adrien Brody in 2002, 10 winners have been for portrayals of real people (Casey Affleck's win last year broke a four-year run of biopic winners). There are always patterns to Oscar behavior.

This year’s slate of Best Actor nominees has an interesting parallel with the Best Actor race of 2005.  Let’s take a look back at the lineup...

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100 years ago, the first filmed Tarzan hit.

by Nathaniel R

On this weekend in 1918 the first filmed version of Tarzan of the Apes movie appeared. You may recall that I have a bit of an...um... problem with Tarzan that stems from childhood. I'd never seen the first Tarzan but it is streaming on YouTube and is only 60 minutes long. It has all the typical Tarzan controversial flashpoints (whitewashed pro-coloniaism history and in-the-now-whenever-that-happened-to-be gender politics) plus the origin story and even the yodelling (you can't actually hear it, mind you, but he does beat his chest while wailing so you know that's what's happening. 

Despite the worst Tarzan wig that ever existed and the lack of jungle animals (it was shot in Louisiana) it's significant for having launched a now 100 year old franchise...

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RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars: S3E1 - Queens with Variety

by Chris Feil

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars is back! Wheels are apparently in this season (thank you, Trixie Mattel and Aja), so I’m rolling into the workroom on my Rascal scooter to once again go deeper into Drag Race than Sasha Velour goes into a gay history lesson.

This season some of our All Stars have had mega success after their season, like Milk’s ad campaigns and Shangela and Trixie’s growing television careers. There’s also favorites who were denied a top 3 spot like Kennedy Davenport, Chi Chi DeVayne, and BenDeLaCreme. Throw in Brooklyn goofballs Thorgy Thor and Aja and respected S2 pro Morgan McMichaels. Oh yeah, and one more significant addition.

Since we got the queens’ first workroom looks out of the way, we’ll skip right onto the big news of the mysterious 10th queen in the competition...

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FYC: Allison Janney in "I,Tonya"

by Seán McGovern

First things first: Lady Bird hasn't been released over here in the UK yet.
Secondly: Are you really going to begrudge Allison Janney an Oscar?
Then this FYC, by all accounts, is an unbiased endorsement of Allison Janney for Best Supporting Actress.

Allison Janney, as Tonya Harding's mother, in any other year, would have Film Twitter and Gay Twitter right behind her, and yet we hesitate. Janney is razor-sharp as LaVona Golden, whose love is more brutal than merely just tough. But as we have determined, this year there's a problem, and it's the problem of parallels..

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