Box Office: Post Nomination Bump and Faulty Marketing Hooks

Ride Along 2, the umpteenth consecutive hit for the inarguably bankable Kevin Hart (and to a lesser extent Michael Bay's latest explosion filled thriller) serves as our monthly reminder --as if we needed one -- that the bulk of moviegoers would rather watch shoot-em-ups than Oscar nominated films. But congrats to Kevin Hart. He's on his fifth year of consistently big opening weekends now. If he's not one of the highest paid stars out there he needs to find new representation.

Meanwhile in alternate universe Oscar land: The Revenant showed amazing legs in its second wide release weekend, suggesting that Leonardo DiCaprio has yet another gargantuan hit on his hands. Leading the Oscar nominations surely didn't hurt. [More after the jump...] 

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Sutton Foster and "The Revenant... on Ice!"

NPR's funny "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me" podcast welcomed Sutton Foster as its special guest this week. She's on the promotional circuit for the second season of her TV Land sitcom "Younger" (which she is amazing on though that won't surprise anyone who has ever seen her in anything). They tease her about soddering tap shoes to her feet, her education (she quit school for shows... multiple times), and her "Triple Threat" status as someone who excels at singing, dancing and acting. 

Because Sutton has starred in so many Broadway musical adaptations of movies, they also ask her about the Oscar hopefuls. 

Host: They just named the Oscars. Do you think we're going to have musicals of Spotlight or The Revenant?

Sutton Foster: That would be interesting... "The Revenant: on Ice!"

Host: It's amazing what they can get a bear to do these days."

LOL.

You can listen to the episode of "Wait Wait..." here or on their site 

Mark Your Calendars

It's time for a calendar update. It's the remains of Oscar season comin' atcha. You may have noticed that this weekend many of the Oscar nominees expanded (Carol) added a few cities (Anomalisa, Son of Saul) or significantly reversed their theater declines (Spotlight, Brooklyn, Room) hoping to capitalize on the nominations. What's next?

JANUARY 2016

17th Critics Choice Awards (on A&E)
21st Sundance Film Festival begins
23rd PGA Gala
29th SAG ballots due
30th SAG AWARDS (on TNT/TBS)
31st Art Directors Guild Gala / Sundance ends. Gives awards

Also in January: You should also expect Nathaniel's annual Film Bitch Awards daily announcements since we're down to the wire. Wish me luck. Other January festivities will include a celebration of Sundance Festival classics, and the Team Experience Awards. 

FEBRUARY 2016

2nd Visual Effects Society Gala
6th DGA Gala - who will it be?
11th Berlinale begins - Amir will be covering the festival for us
12th Oscar ballots out to AMPAS
14th BAFTA AWARDS /  American Society of Cinematographer's Gala
17th Embrace of the Serpent opens (last Oscar nominee release of year - Foreign Film)
23rd Oscar voting ends
23rd Costume Designers Guild Gala
27th Film Independent Spirit Awards / Golden Reel (sound editing) Gala
28th OSCAR NIGHT! (aka Hollywood's High Holy Night aka The 88th Annual Academy Awards)

Also in February: Final looks at various achievements of 2015, looking forward to 2016 film year, and a 25th anniversary celebration of The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

MARCH & APRIL 2016

It all starts again for a new film year, you hear? Which means some of your favorite series return like Supporting Actress Smackdown, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, and more. Please don't be a fair weather reader. The cinephilia is even more rewarding when the crushing avalanche of Oscar news and happenings are over with. Many exciting things in store for 2016. 

Best Picture Chart Fun: Rankings, Nomination Formulas, Stats, Etc...

We love who what we love. And one of the things we love is Stats. And Charts! Oh god do we ever  ♥  charts. Why don't you marry them then? Okay. I will. Call city hall. I'll throw a veil over my laptop for the big day.

The new charts are now walking down their virtual aisles to you. First up Best Picture. If you smoosh them all together you have a 131 minute violent R rated drama in which a captive mother tells her son the fantastical story of a grizzly fur trapper and a lovely Irish lass who attempt to survive on a harsh inhospitable planet called Mars where a raving band of warboys pursues them relentlessly... but we never hear how the story ends because suddenly a  lawyer negtotiates the mom & son's release and a crack team of Boston journalists swoops in to investigate just what the hell happened and why no one knew about this story until now. 

But that's just a synopsis.

Click to the chart to see how these movies got nominated, how would we rank or compare them and trivia. It was fun working the angles on this charts so please take a look and consider your own rankings in the comments. 

Housekeeping Note: You'll notice the reader poll is no longer part of the Oscar charts. Since we lost our favorite poll site Twiigs... we have yet to find a suitable easy to access poll site that works well for embedding without interrupting the site in question or being ugly or forcing you to leave the site (you'll notice their fun absence on other former poll loving sites like Fug Girls - why is it so hard to find a good poll site?). But I'll keep an eye out and hope some new service emerges. 

Handwringing: The Ongoing, Important but Not Always Helpful #OscarsSoWhite Conversation

Have you been following the #OscarsSoWhite discussion? Or rather the shouting? Discussion happens after the fact so we waited 48 hours. There was a lot of knee jerk anger on the day of the Oscar Nominations and many bold statements. Some were totally understandable. Others had us wondering if we've been watching a different Oscars for the past quarter century than anyone else.

If you can't read another word about this we'll understand and hope you'll come back for the next article. But if you'd like to discuss and are willing to think about diversity as a wider and more important topic than a list of 20 names published this year and who or who isn't on it, than read on.

First, I need to get something off my chest...

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A24 Joins the Oscar Crowd

Chris here to celebrate our favorite indie distributor. A24 has been steadily been building their reputation since launching about 3 years ago, and yesterday they finally landed their first Oscar nominations. They've previously housed longshot candidates like Spring Breakers and A Most Violent Year, but this year saw three of their films break through: Room, Ex Machina, and Amy.

A24 started 2015 proving that they could compete with the larger indie outfits by delivering at the box office. Ex Machina was a surprise hit and became their highest grosser, with Amy and Noah Baumbach's While We're Young also breaking out. Room could pass all of them with the help of its four major nominations and The Witch looks primed to be late-winter mini-hit, as well.

The nominations feel richly earned, given that they've fostered worthy candidates like Under the Skin, The Spectacular Now, and A Most Violent Year that eluded the awards race. Their "Consider This Sh*t" campaign for James Franco's bonkers performance in Spring Breakers may not have paid off, but they are now firmly in the Oscar fray.

They've been playing their seven nominations very modestly, true to their understated form showcased in the David Ehrlich profile on them (essential reading if you haven't read already). Hopefully they're enjoying the Oscar news with a well-deserved Ex Machina dance party. Cheers!