Box Office: Wolverine slays while Get Out stays...

I dont know where this photo is from but I love itDespite the R rating, or perhaps because of it, Logan opened much stronger than its 2013 predecessor The Wolverine (which eventually racked up $414 million globally). Logan will easily become the highest grossing Wolverine film by the end of its run thanks to what will surely be strong word of mouth... something this particular solo franchise has never experienced.

In other box office news: Jordan Peele's hot button horror film Get Out held spectacularly well, dropping only 21%; Best Foreign Language Film winner The Salesman expanded to over 100 theaters; and most importantly Best Picture winner Moonlight returned to wide release in theaters even as it was just released on DVD / BluRay adding another $2.5 million to its gross. This weekend it became A24's second biggest hit in the US by passing The Witch (still their biggest hit globally though). Moonlight will end its run as the lowest grosser among the 2016 Best Picture nominees but $25 million isn't too shabby at all for a serious black gay art film with no bankable stars. In fact it's kind of a miracle. It just needs $60,000 more in ticket sales this week to beat Ex Machina and become A24's biggest US hit.

TOP WIDE 
01 Logan $85.3 NEW Reviewed
02 Get Out $26.1 (cum. $75.9) Reviewed
03 The Shack $16.1 NEW 
04 The Lego Batman Movie $11.6 (cum. $148.6) 
05 Before I Fall $4.9 NEW

TOP LIMITED 
01 A United Kingdom $625K (cum. $1.8) 271 theaters
02 The Salesman $266K (cum. $1.8) Review, Interview 115 theaters
03 Kedi $234K (cum. $577K) Reviewed 13 theaters
04 Bitter Harvest $94K (cum. $392K) 75 theaters
05 Everybody Loves Somebody $65K (cum. $1.8) 60 theaters

Logan didn't have a post-credit scene due to the nature of its actual content but moviegoers were treated to this amusing Deadpool 2 teaser above with a cameo from Stan Lee and a full moon from game Ryan Reynolds, still loving his role as the merc with a mouth

Best Picture - How many and which ones?

Though the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes don't share voters, La La Land's sweep at the latter -- winning the most prizes, literally ever, at the Globes-- suggests the kind of overall crowd-pleasing and respectability strength that means the Best Picture Oscar is already won. The only suspense is how many other statues will be keeping it company on Hollywood's High Holy Night in February. But the race for nominations, which we've always maintained is the most exciting part each year anyway, is still relatively heated. So the Best Picture Oscar chart has been updated (more charts to follow over the next couple of days). But in short yours truly in punditry believe that the race currently breaks down like so

Tier 1 - The Locks... La La Land, Moonlight, and Manchester by the Sea
Tier 2 - If There Were Still Only 5.... Arrival and Hell or High Water?
Tier 3 - Probably Also In (So That Makes 8)... Lion, Hidden Figures, Hacksaw Ridge
Tier 4 - It Depends on How Many Nominees? Nocturnal Animals or Fences
Tier 4.5 - Unless I'm Wrong In Which Case Loving, Jackie, or Sully

Assuming La La Land, Manchester and Moonlight are competing for the win... how would you rank the other Best Pic hopefuls?

That's ten pictures right there which means I have less faith in the rest though there are other films making noise like Silence (albeit a quiet kind of 'Jesuit priests in Japan but its Scorsese' noise) and Deadpool. I know I know... the PGA nomination... but I frankly can't imagine the latter as a BP nominee and my reasoning is this: it's the kind of picture you'd vote for if you're like "burn this whole place down! Oscars are silly and too elitist" -- there are surely some voters like that but in a year with so many richly loved movies I can't imagine this feeling is the dominant one. Also if the high budget superhero universal acclaim of The Dark Knight and the High Budget but similar to Deadpool (In Snark and Success) Charm of Guardians of the Galaxy couldn't do it why would the comparatively lowbudget and lowbrow Ryan Reynolds comedy be able to? And if it were to be nominated wouldn't that be like spitting in Marvel Studios' face? (Yeah, yeah, we know you've worked hard at consistent quality for a decade with barely any nominations to show for it even in tech categories, but whatever)

YOUR TURN. How many nominees do you think we'll get this year and which film is in the so-close but it's not going to happen position?

PGA Nominations: The usual suspects plus "Deadpool"

Did Deadpool just shoot some Oscar dreams in the head?It's fitting that a year such as 2016, which gave us all the middle finger in such a crass broad strokes kind of way with T**** would also prove to be the year of Deadpool and his tiny baby hand gave the middle finger to superhero blockbusters (albeit a middle finger of love since it's gleefully being everything it's snarky about). I can't imagine Deadpool transferring from the Producers Guild Nomination to Oscar's Best Picture roster especially since they have yet to nominate 10 movies in their new rules of "5 to 10 nominees" in the years since that ruling but congratulations on making it this far!

While you're perusing the Producers Guild noms keep in mind that this is not necessarily the end of Best Picture dreams for a movie that missed and here's why...

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Podcast: Jackie, Hidden Figures, and More

Katey, Nick, Joe and Nathaniel gab about recent screenings on Golden Globe morning and we find out which actress Charlie (Katey's six month-old) is already a fan of...

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 Bright Lights w/ Carrie Fisher
01:15 Toni Erdmann & Globe Foreign Noms
02:45 Hacksaw Ridge Schizophrenia
05:50 Hidden Figures and Best Actress Movies Losing Oscar Heat
17:30 Joe's Movie Spelling Bee & Podcasting
19:50 Jackie - Nick's not convinced
27:40 Which Oscar movies need second looks?
36:00 Annoyed with Deadpool's Awards
39:00 Random Wrap-Up Chatter

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments. Next week we'll look at the Golden Globe aftermath.

Hidden Figures and Jackie

Tweetweek: Deadpool Revival, La La Land Triumph, and A Few Good Jokes

We'll start with two tweets to suit this morning's neurotic Tennessee Williams heroine mood. Continue on for La La Land and Deadpool divisiveness (with jokes), and more... 

sexuality: that thing jessica lange does with her hands when she's acting her hardest

— probably an android (@airportangel) December 29, 2016

I love Altoid smalls b/c you get to feel like a character from a Tennessee Williams' play taking one of their heart pills when you eat them.

— LoreenaMcKennittVEVO (@robertbalkovich) January 3, 2017

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