Weekend Box Office: The Waiting of Water

By Ben Miller

Remember a month ago when no film wanted to release ahead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever?  The box office is on the second verse, same as the first with the anticipation of Avatar: The Way of Water debuting next weekend.  Wakanda was tops for the fifth straight week of putrid box office.  The weekend total was just $35.5 million, which is the second worst of the year after the last weekend in January!  Thank goodness we have the Na'vi to save the box office.  God forbid studios try to release counterprogramming.  Apparently, the National Association of Theater Owners agree but Hollywood isn't cooperating...

Weekend Box Office (actuals) Dec 9th-11th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
VIOLENT NIGHT	THE WHALE
1 BLACK PANTHER WAKANDA FOREVER $11.2 (cum. $409.9)	1  🔺 SPOILER ALERT  $680k (cum. $782k) 783 screens
2 VIOLENT NIGHT $8.7 (cum. $26.7)	2 🔺 THE WHALE $360k *NEW* 6 screens

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White Lotus Season 2 - Mike White Sticks The Landing

By: Christopher James

Season two of HBO’s Emmy winning anthology series The White Lotus ended with a bang on Sunday night. This season brought a new cast of characters to the Sicily location of the White Lotus hotel chain, save for Jennifer Coolidge reprising her role as Tanya, a depressed heiress, from season one. Much like season one, the season begins with a dead body. This time discovered by the deliciously flighty Daphne, played by season MVP Meghann Fahy. While season one was a rumination on class, season two was more of an Aperol Spritz - it was a delectable piece of sexy fun dramatizing the ways sex is used for social and economic currency. The season finale wrapped up all of the storylines, including that mysterious death, in an episode packed with sex, intrigue and its own fair bit of filler. 

Major Spoilers Ahead. Don’t read further if you have not seen the final episode.

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TÁR dominates Indiewire's Critics Survey

by Cláudio Alves

© Focus Features

Despite their name, one shouldn't consider the Critics Choice Awards as an accurate reflection of critical consensus. More often than not, that organization seems singularly fixated on predicting the Oscars to the point it's hard to denote any idiosyncrasies of taste. To get a better grasp of what the critics think, one should regard such surveys as the one Indiewire did with 165 critics and journalists, among them our own Nathaniel Rogers. Though various titles are mentioned across nine lists, one picture stands tall above all the others, signaling a clear favorite from the season. TÁR obliterates the competition, damning them all to hell like the maestro herself, raving like a lunatic with an accordion in hand.

The survey results, plus some commentary, after the jump…

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Three more critics groups go wild for "Everything Everywhere..."

Ke Huy Quan continues his Best Supporting Actor dominance with two more prizes for "EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE"In today's critics awards news, Las Vegas Film Critics Society (LVFCS), the Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA), and Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) announced their wins. All three groups chose the multiverse hopping chaos of  Everything Everywhere All At Once as the year's best film...

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Golden Globe Nominations! "Banshees" and "Abbott" lead

The nominations for the 80th annual Golden Globes have been announced with Banshees of Inisherin leading the pack (with an incredible 8 nominations - that's a lot for the Globes!) and Abbott Elementary leading for television (5 nominations). The Globes will return to NBC (and Peacock) on January 10th. The HFPA's (Hollywood Foreign Press Association) show was off the air for a year while doing internal reforms included adding 124 members in various capacities (including US journalists working for non-US outlets) and making their voting pool 52% female and 51.5% racially or ethnically diverse, and also becoming a for-profit institution under new ownership. The January event will be hosted by comedian Jerrod Carmichael who has had an amazing 2022, hosting Saturday Night Live in April and winning the Emmy for his brilliant special "Rothaniel" in September. Full list of nominations (comments in progress - refresh your screen periodically) after the jump...

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