President Cinephile

It's hard not to miss President Obama on a public daily basis these past few years given the current hellscape but it's especially hard to not miss him on a personal level when he reminds us that he is genuinely into cinema. I mean how many US Presidents would even see movies that don't even crack a million at the box office like Transit and Diane, and movies from other countries and all genres. And the rest of his list: Atlantics, Parasite, Booksmart... The good taste!

Next up are my favorite movies and TV shows of 2019. Of course, there’s also American Factory, a film from our own production company, Higher Ground, that was recently shortlisted for an Oscar. Here’s the full list: pic.twitter.com/PEcgwotcxm

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 29, 2019

We also had to draw attention to a few official responses from those included...

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Podcast: Loving "Little Women"

In this hour long conversation Nathaniel and Murtada welcome special guest Kim Rogers (no relation to Nathaniel) from Head Over Feels to discuss Greta Gerwig's reworking of the classic oft-adapted Little Women starring Saorsie Ronan. Compare and contrast conversations to the 1994 version can't be helped but our opinions differ here and there on the 2019 film's sucess in various areas. We discuss the ambiguous ending, Eliza Scanlan versus Claire Danes, Florence Pugh playing Amy the whole way through and more. Spoilers, obviously, for this 151 year-old story. 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Little Women

Year in Review: Special Interest Box Office, 7 Categories

Our year in review party continues. Different lists each day. Here's Nathaniel R

We intended to kick off this list of "niche" box office categories with a list of the top grossers that were made for very little money but budget figures are hard to come by (consistently that is) and often difficult to parse. Is publicity and adveristing included? Back when I first started becoming interested in movies I was reading somewhere that a movie needed to make about 2.5 times its budget to break even. Who knows if that general rule is still accurate these days when the finances of the movie industry have shifted so dramatically and films often use their theatrical run as more of a commercial for their other runs (streaming, bluray, tv rights, etcetera). 

But let it suffice to say that some movies made on the cheap made their investors very happy this year. Parasite, so far as we can gather, was made for about $11 million and its worldwide tally is at $161 million and still rising. It's already the 8th highest grossing Palme d'Or winner ever. That's a major success by any metric.

Elsewhere in crazy return on investment horror movies continue to be a safe investment, even the ambitious ones...

Now, on to 7 more concrete box office lists. What follows are top hits in interesting subcategories like "female director, "lgbtq films" and more. We tried our best to collect accurate data but we apologize in advance for any unintentional stumbles in these underrecorded/underdiscussed areas of moviemaking. It's also worth noting that for reasons we aren't quite sure about almost all US box office sites include Canadian figures (without any differentiation). We know for example that Xavier Dolan's latest didn't open in the US but it's included in all box office reports so we're including it here. This is also presumably why Bollywood films always report higher grosses than we expect, given their total lack of media coverage in the States, since Canadian figures are included.

(Figures below are as of March 12th, 2020) 

TOP GROSSING FILMS THAT NEVER WENT INTO WIDE RELEASE IN THE US
We count 800 theaters as "wide" though some sites draw that line at 600 screens. 

Last Black Man in San Francisco

01 No Manches Frida 2 (Pantelion, March 15th) $9.2 March 15th (472 screens)
02 Apollo 11 (Neon, March 1st) $9.0 (588 screens)
03 The Dead Don't Die (Focus) $6.5 (690 screens)
04 The Wandering Earth (CMC. Feb 5th) $5.8 (129 screens)
05 Gully Boy (Viva Pictures, Feb 14th) $5.5  (270 screens)
06 The Mustang (Focus. March 15th) $5.0 (527screens)...

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Most Memorable 2019 Houses

Previously on 'Year in Review'

by Lynn Lee

Domestic spaces in movies can say a lot about the characters who live in them – class, income level, personal history, not to mention personality, tastes, even relationship dynamics (or lack thereof).  But how often does a home take on so much significance it effectively becomes a character in its own right?  2019 was a banner year for that kind of transmutation, as it turns out. 

Here are five homes (or in the first case, an anti-home) that particularly stood out:

5. Charlie’s L.A. apartment in Marriage Story
The nondescript flat Charlie Barber (Adam Driver) reluctantly rents in Los Angeles starts out as almost literally a blank space and quickly becomes remarkable for what it’s not: a home...

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Bette Davis: Prognosis Brilliant

by Murtada Elfadl

For no reason at all lets celebrate Bette Davis, one of the shiniest stars ever to grace the silver screen. Our love for her knows no bounds. Who else can make a movie about wearing a red dress instead of a virginal white one as riveting as did Jezebel (1938)? Can you imagine loving movies, actresses and movies about actresses without also loving Bette in All About Eve (1950)...

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