ADG Nominees

by Nathaniel R

The Art Directors Guild have named their film nominees in four categories (Period, Fantasy, Contemporay, and Animated). While the nominations are of note themselves, of course, they are also key tells in the tale of the year's Oscar race as the Best Production Design ogenerally come from a combo of three of those four categories; Sadly Oscar's branch members have never honored an animated film in the category, even a stop motion film which of course built actual sets with set decoration, just like live-action movies do...

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Weekend Box Office: M3GAN is Another Slasher Hit

By Ben Miller

As Smile and The Black Phone proved in 2022, no genre gets more bang for their buck than horror.  Avatar: The Way of Water was the top draw at theaters this weekend, but it's the murderous robot M3GAN that made the biggest splash.  Budgeted at a mere $12 million, Gerard Jonstone's film grossed a shocking $30 million to go along with jubiliant critical praise (93% on Rotten Tomatoes!).  After all, she is our new horror princess.  The Way of Water managed just a 33% drop in its fourth week with $45 million as it barrells it's way towards $2 billion worldwide.  Despite only being in theaters for four weeks, it's the seventh highest grossing movie of all-time.  James Cameron cannot miss (at least financially).

Weekend Box Office (actuals) Jan 6th-8th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
M3GAN	A MAN CALLED OTTO
1 ★ AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER $45.8 (cum. $517.6) 4340 screens	1 🔺   A MAN CALLED OTTO $4.2 (cum. $4.2) 637 screens
2 🔺 ★ M3GAN $30.4 *NEW* 3509 screens	2 🔺 ★ CORSAGE $251k (cum. $342k) 317 screens

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Drag Race RuCap: “One Night Only”

So many queens! Too many?

CLÁUDIO ALVES: The most popular drag contest on television (sorry Dragula) may not be called RuPaul's Best Friends Race, but writing for The Film Experience sometimes feels like it. I've met fantastic people over the few years I've been writing for the site, and some have become close pals. Indeed, it's rare that a day goes by without me chatting the house down with the fabulously-haired Nick Taylor. But, of course, when Drag Race's on the air, those conversations devolve into jokey recaps (rucaps!), so it seemed fitting to fuel that enthusiasm back into the site that made us friends in the first place. Though our usual TFE write-ups may lean serious-minded and long-winded, we can be fun and tight. That said, please don't hold us to that promise – we'll try, and that's good enough…right, Nathaniel?

Without further ado, let's dive into the supersized Season 15 premiere...

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Team Experience Predictions Chart - Round 4 - Post Holidays, Pre Awards Shows

We're polling the Team Film Experience on where the Oscar race stands. This week Best Picture, Director, and the Acting and Writing categories.

It has been over a month since we’ve checked in on the directing, acting and writing categories. Since then, Avatar has soared at the box office, Babylon has flopped and both the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards have announced their nominations. Some categories look completely different than they did at the end of November. Others, funny enough, remain the same. One category has a contender who is unanimously on the top of everyone’s predictions… and it’s not the one you think. 

Check out our predictions after the jump…

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Chaotic SAG Predictions. You ready?

by Nathaniel R

BABYLON

Beyond the Golden Globes, the most unpredictable of the major awards historically, in terms of nominations, has been the Screen Actors Guild. Their nominations will be announced on January 11th which is just a few days away. The nominating committee rotates each year so it's never the same group of people doing the judging. Sometimes they'll spring for a performance no one (at all) saw coming ("Naomi Watts in St Vincent" / "Sarah Silverman in I Smile Back") and sometimes they'll stump for a major star and give us false hopes that their delicious work won't be too outré for Oscar voters (hello, "Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy"). Sometimes they seem a month or two behind the general Oscar buzz or contrarian and other times they fall right in line like they've been studying prediction charts from pundits. In short, which kind of year will it be for them?

You won't want to hear this but our crystal ball keeps saying "Babylon" despite its harsh reviews and tepid box office. Is this thing broken? Anyway, ON TO THE PREDICTIONS...

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