Weekend Box Office Actuals

Oops. sorry these are so late. What did you see over this past weekend? 

Weekend Box Office February 28th-March 1st (ACTUALS) 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE (800+ screens)	PLATFORM TITLES
1 🔺 INVISIBLE MAN  $28.2 *new* REVIEW	1 🔺  EMMA $1.1 (cum. $1.4)  EMMAS OF YORE

2 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG $16.2 (cum. $128.5	2 🔺 PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE $748k (cum. $2.4) TOP TEN LIST ★

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Poll: "Lady in the Cage" it is

We started a little biweekly 'streaming reader's choice film club' last month with Voyage of the Damned, and this time you've selected the Olivia de Havilland thriller Lady in a Cage (1964) for group discussion. So watch it over the weekend on Hulu, and we'll write it up and discuss on Monday night.

 Which is not to say that we'll never discuss the other films (we will have pieces on Ali Fears Eats the Soul and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne as other members of Team Experience sometimes volunteer to write things up)  For the record the votes yesterday and this morning went like so:

1. Lady in the Cage (24%)
2. Cactus Flower (23%)
3. Ali Fear Eats the Soul / Fight Club (15% each)
4. Splash / Natural Born Killers (9% each)
5. The Slender Thread (3%)
6. Take Me Out to the Ball Game (2%)

Almost There: Bette Davis in "Of Human Bondage"

by Cláudio Alves

Nowadays, Oscar snubs generate justifiable fire on social media and occassionally even get primetime attention. However, they're not huge stories that threaten the existence and validity of the Academy itself. It wasn't always like this. Back in the early days of the Oscars, some snubs were so outrageous they made fear blossom in the hearts of Academy members, threatening to invalidate the entire (new) institution in the eyes of the general public. So much so, that new rules were put in place to avoid similar outcomes, write-in votes were allowed and apologies were handed out in the shape of what we now call a career Oscar.

Such was the case in the mid-30s when Bette Davis made Of Human Bondage, defied Hollywood's expectations, became a sudden star and still failed to get the Academy Award nomination most thought she deserved…

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Streaming Roulette: Mister Tibbs, Maria Braun, Alfred Kinsey

by Nathaniel R

If you're new to the site this is how we share new streaming offerings for the month. We select a handful (or two) of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating. Sadly despite the so-called "streaming wars" there just isn't much out there to suggest that any of the channels (barring the must-have Criterion Channel) want any viewers who are obsessed with anything other than decent to lame movies made between 2002-2019. Even the 1990s are getting fairly uncommon to see on streaming services. Ready? Let's play...

I think we should go very soon... like... RIGHT NOW."

Outbreak (1995) on Netflix
What better time to watch this oldie but right now in the midst of another massive global health scare. (In truth I barely remember this picture other than finding it ridiculous at the time. But then, I was younger and it's a truth that young people dont scare as easily as older people when it comes to their mortality.)

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Cesar Winners: "Les Misérables" is tops... but now we're curious about "La Belle Epoque"

Yes yes, we were supposed to be taking the weekend off. But we forgot about the Césars held yeseterday in France. So...

Cast & Crew of "Les Miserables" at the Cesars

While Roman Polanski's "J'Accuse!" led the César nominations in the end it lost "Best Film" to France's Oscar nominated Les Misérables. Both films won multiple prizes. Curiously considering two prizes for Polanski himself, two films which center on the sexual abuse of kids (By the Grace of God and "M") also won Césars. The dramedy La Belle Epoque, starring longtime gallic icons Daniel Auteuil and Fanny Ardant, also made a strong showing with 3 wins. A complete list of winners, some stats, and the trailer to La Belle Epoque are after the jump...

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