Box Office: Katniss Reigns (Softly) While Spotlight Gains

[Whistles Katniss theme]

As expected Katniss and her unmerry band of rebels dominated the weekend box office as The Hunger Games franchise finally wrapped up. Though this is the softest opening yet for the franchise it's not soft enough to end Hollywood's love of splitting final chapters into two for no good narrative reason so the trend will obviously continue for now. (sigh). I personally have no real ill will for this franchise  (it's okay but I bowed out after the second film -- just too dull for my personal tastes) but The Film Experience does have official stance ill will for franchise decisions that no reasonable trustworthy person could ever claim were based on anything other than milking more money from fans. "Event" showbiz is fun but the first priority really should be to the generous fan bases of serial cinema -- Hollywood owes fans good storytelling, not padding to take more of their paycheck once you've hooked them. You're not drug dealers, movie studios, you're showmen! Putting on a great show needs to be your priority. Hopefully the upcoming slate of finale splitting franchises fail in much more embarrassing / decisive ways so -- Hollywood deserves the wrist-slapping.

BOX OFFICE
(Nov 20th-22nd)
01 Hunger Games 4 (4,175 screens) $101 new Hunger Games & Oscar
02 Spectre (3,659 screens) $14.6 (cum. $153.7) Review
03 Peanuts Movie (3,671 screens) $12.8 (cum. $98.9)
04 The Night Before (2,960 screens) $10.1 new
05 Secret in Their Eyes (2,392 screens) $6.6 new
06 Love the Coopers (2,603 screens) $3.9 (cum. $14.8) 
07 The Martian (2,086 screens) $3.7 (cum. $213) Podcast
08 Spotlight (598 screens) $3.6 (cum. 5.8) First Impression
09 The 33 (2,452 screens) $2.2 (cum. $9.9)
10 Bridge of Spies (1,532 screens) $1.9 (cum. $65.1) Review, Tom Hanks
11 Goosebumps (1,787 screens) $1.7 (cum. $76) First Impression
12 Brooklyn (113 screens) $1.1 (cum. $2.1) Review, Saoirse & Best Actress
13 Hotel Transylvania 2 (828 screens) $.7 (cum. $166.4) on director Genndy Tartakovsky
14 Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (283 screens) $.6 (cum. $3.9)
15 Suffragette (517 screens) $.5 (cum. $3.5) Carey's Performance, Review

Among the limited releases Spotlight and Brooklyn had the strongest per screen totals. Hopefully they'll stay strong in wider release since at heart they're quite accessible entertainments and it's infinitely depressing that anything non-genre that aims for adult audiences and quality these days is automatically viewed as "specialized" in its appeal. Room, a much trickier sell than either of those premise-wise is having a tougher time expanding but if the A24 Best Picture hopeful can hold out until top ten lists and awards noms give it some extra juice it should do well. It's already gathered a reasonable $2.8 million in its first month or so in release.

In extremely miniscule release Todd Haynes's latest masterpiece Carol earned a robust quarter million on just 4 screens... though in rather frustrating news it seems to be sticking to its originally aborted release date (opposite Star Wars) in terms of when it will show up in a lot of sizeable markets and won't be in some other smaller markets until Christmas day and beyond. In short: we're not sure when to schedule our proposed Carol week since it's going to take forever for many of you to see it. We feel your pain; you don't deserve the torturous wait.

What did you see this weekend? 
I had a homebody weekend looking at screeners for Black Mass (for the first time), Truth (again), and the first half of Jessica Jones (Netflix).

London Adventures: "Gypsy" & "Photograph 51"

In the crazed travelling of Oscar rev-up season it occurs to me that I never wrote about my London theater-going in that blessed October weekend. While I was in that great great city, I saw two favorite actresses in plays centered around their gifts: one was a revelation, the other a canny reminder.

Imelda & Nicole triumph after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Are you watching Jessica Jones?

Netflix knows when you're watching. Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is watching everyone suspiciously. Killgrave is watching Jessica Jones and tracking how closing she's watching for him. Everyone is watching everyone being watched! 

Happy paranoid Thanskgiving!

Curiously I haven't been able to decide if I like Marvel's latest attempt to pummel us all into pop cultural submission with their All Marvel All The Time multiverse agenda but after the dull way too sober first two episodes (sorry, if i want self-important dourness alone we already have Warner Bros DC for that!) the show does pick up and becomes more compulsively watchable in direct relationship to how many characters we've met.

And Marvel Studios finally has a good villain in Killgrave. Loki excepted it only took them dozens of projects to come up with one.

Oscar Updates: Doc, Shorts, and Animation Charts

The Academy branches have been furiously screening all sort of less heralded fare of late. Tim already talked us through the animated shorts and I'm most intrigued by the Chilean allegory about a bear ripped from his circus life and a film about Russian astronauts. But there's more to uncover!

Heads up that we've updated that shorts, animation, and documentary section of our famed Oscar Charts. Click over and read up on the fascinating competitions.

As with all things Oscar, the shorts categories do get more attention than they once did many moons ago -- particularly with that mini theatrical tour of the nominated films each year --  but it's still not much.

Live Action Shorts
This year we've got barbers shaving cartel leaders, interpreters delivering babies, nuns interrupted, little boys in big wars, father and daughter visits gone awry, and much more in the Live Action shorts category. There's even a title with Q'Orianka Kilcher from The New World (!!!) and Vincent Kartheiser from Mad Men in the mix called Winter Light that bills itself as a "revisionist Western thriller". The ten finalists are quite a mix of types with thrillers, comedies, dramas, war films, and westerns accounted for.

Documentary Shorts
This tends to be the category most likely to trigger massive depressive episodes and this year is no exception: war, ebola, war, honor killings, war, The Holocaust, rape, and did I mention war? I personally can't even deal. Not this particular season.

Animated Features
This category continues to feel sewn up for Inside Out but the real drama is "how many nominees will we get?" since there's less films eligible than usual. If they still go with five, do you think Peanuts can surprise?

Documentary Features
I've been grilling members of the documentary branch over cocktails and light h'ors doeuvres at various parties of late. One charming older gentleman even pulled out a handwritten list of his favorites to read from only to pocket it again as if to torture me from suspense. High profile competitors (Amy, Going Clear, The Look of Silence, Best of Enemies) definitely have fans. Not that that means anything as this branch often surprises with both their finalist list and what gets shut out so nothing can be called "safe". But if something is safe maybe it's Cartel Land which has been name-checked with great frequency. Random shoutouts abound including Iris, Winter's on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, Where to Invade Next, and Meru. Sadly I haven't heard one mention of friskier / weirder critical darlings like The Wolfpack or Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog.

See the charts

"CAROL" IS HERE !

This weekend is an important one for a myriad of reasons: Quality Best Picture candidates Brooklyn and Spotlight are expanding; The Hunger Games is wrapping up; two foreign Oscar submissions are arriving (Lithuania's lesbian romance Summer of Sangaille and France's must-see Mustang); the all star remake of the Oscar-winning Argentinian film The Secret in Their Eyes is upon us; People are prepping their Thanksgiving festivities. But all of those reasons pale in comparison to the big news:

Todd Haynes' exquisite 50s romantic drama Carol starring Cate Blanchett & Rooney Mara is now in theaters!

Sadly Carol is only on 4 screens which means many readers will have something of a wait to experience its glory. We'll hold off on going Carol-mad just yet though we're planning a whole Carol week (for real, DATES TBA) but we'll wait until more of you have seen it so we can get detailed.

But for now a little silly stanning to celebrate. You see, whilst I was in Los Angeles I was able to interview five key members of Carol's mega-talented team. As something of a goof about my own obsession but a goof that spiralled out of control and into actual reality I started each Carol interview with the same question and here are the actual answers...

NATHANIEL R: WHY ARE YOU SUCH A GENIUS?

Affonso Gonçalves, Editor: Sure. Let's start with that. [Laughter] I don't get called that - I'm going to tell my mom.

Judy Becker, Production Designer: Well, the question is 'why is Todd such a genius?' Todd is a genius.

Phyllis Nagy, Screenwriter: Practice. [Laughter]

Carter Burwell, Composer: Um... [long silence]

And we conclude with Sandy Powell the much lauded costume giant who has three Oscars to show for it... but curiously none from her Todd Haynes' collaborations.

NathanielR: I started this as a joke about my Carol obsession this morning but I've literally asked everyone why they're a genius today. So...

Sandy Powell: [Interrupting] You've asked every single person?

Nathaniel: Yes.

Sandy: Has anyone admitted to being a genius?

Nathaniel R: Phyllis.

Sandy: [LAUGHTER] I can say why everyone else is a genius but I don't think I can say why I am!

Full Carol interviews are coming. Stay tuned...

This is my fav outfit Cate wears as CAROL and also Sandy Powell’s favorite. (Our interview soon!) pic.twitter.com/BYm9HU7vYV

— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) November 19, 2015