The box office is open again. What did you see this week?

Been back to the movie theaters yet? We're so thrilled to be able to post a full top ten weekend box office report again. It's been ages since there were enough theaters open and movies in play. We've just barely gotten there of course. But the box office results to date (especially overseas) with the world starting to turn again suggest that Disney and Warner Bros have left a lot of money on the table by making things available to stream simultaneously or ONLY; they're betting their entire futures on streaming. Which might be wise but some decisions still feel foolhardy especially the decision to not release Pixar's Luca in theaters, given that it's already winning raves and might have been a perfect summertime bet in airconditioned theaters since it's a summertime tale and Pixar movies generally make hundreds of millions in movie theaters. Strange decision especially since they gave Raya the traditional release! When viewed in broader context of what gets a theatrical release versus what doesn't it's like pissing directly on Pixar when something like Dreamworks Spirit Untamed gets a theatrical release and Luca doesn't. Ugh.

Anyway. Here is the chart. What did you see this past week/weekend?

Weekend Box Office June 4th-6th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE	PLATFORM TITLES
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It	Undine

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Cruella's best looks: A "complete" ranking

by Cláudio Alves

If there were any doubts that Jenny Beavan is a costume design goddess, Disney's latest live-action remake/villain origin story proves it beyond any reasonable doubt. Unencumbered by the financial restraints inherent to independent cinema, Beavan serves up an orgiastic ecstasy of excess and punk rock fashion pastiche. According to interviews, she conceived 47 different costumes for Emma Stone's redeemed villainess, making Cruella the most-dressed movie of the year. It's also a good contender for the title of best-dressed. It's fair to say that an Oscar nomination is all but guaranteed. However, since the 94th Academy Awards are still nearly ten months away, let's focus on other matters.

Specifically, let's delve deep into the matter of Emma Stone's outlandish outfits and decide which are her grandest, most devilishly glamorous looks…

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Gay Best Friend: Artie in "Cruella" (2021) and All The Other 'First Gay Disney Characters'

a series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope

How many Arties are we going to see at Halloween this year?The “Gay Best Friend” in romantic comedies used to be the de facto example of empty virtue signaling. However, like most things in the film world, Disney has decided to do it bigger and... better? This weekend, Craig Gillespie’s Cruella has touted that it features “Disney’s first openly gay character.” All gays stand on the shoulders of their forefathers, and Artie (played by John McCrea) is no exception. In fact, his claim to the title is laughable not just because of how sanitized his character is, but also because Disney has declared having their “first openly gay character” more times than the boy who cried wolf.

So how does Artie compare to the other “first openly gay characters” in the Disney universe?

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Tweetweeks

I've been spending less time on Twitter since it's often a toxic landscape of people righteously calling each other garbage and complaining about literally anything. BUT. It's still such a great platform for bite size takes on various showbiz things. Here are some tweets we enjoyed these past couple of weeks for your amusement...

Between “Watchmen,” “Hacks” and “Mare of Easttown” I think HBO needs a new slogan:

It’s not TV. It’s Jean fucking Smart.

— Matt Brennan (@thefilmgoer) May 28, 2021

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Animated Features of 2021... and first Oscar Predictions!

by Nathaniel R

This past year wasn't a particularly great one for animation but hope springs eternal and maybe we'll have a more competitive Oscar race next February? This will be the 21st year of the Best Animated Feature Oscar race. With 20 years of statistics we know what Oscar voters go for in this category and what they don't. They generally turn their noses up at sequels (unless they absolutely adored the first one). They will always honor at least one international title (but usually two) with a nomination, but they won't give them the win unless they absolutely have to. The animation studios Cartoon Saloon, Laika, and Aardman are widely respected by animators and will always be nominated if they're eligible... but it usually stops there as the wider voting body on the "win" defaults to big American studio animation and 70% of the time (literally) the wins go to the Mouse House for either Disney or Pixar titles. When it comes to animated titles from overseas they're a bit like they are with the Best International Feature category (even though it's different voters) in that they generally ignore Asian animation (with the exception of Studio Ghibli) and prefer European titles. 

With the recent announcement of the competitive line-up for the 2021 Annecy festival (one of the four most important animation events each year) we have a better sense of which international titles might crop up this year in the circles that love animated films. Surely at least some of these will submit to the Oscar race as well. So here's as many animated features as we could find that might delight animation-loving cinephiles this year

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