25 Films to Compete For "Best Animated Feature" Oscar Noms

WELL WELL WELL

Just last night we were speculating about what might be on Oscar's eligiblity list for Animated Feature and today, two weeks ahead of schedule (according to when they usually announce that is),  the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has gone and revealed the list. Perhaps we should have bought a lottery ticket?

Five of the 25 titles listed after the jump will go on to Oscar nominations in January...

Click to read more ...

C O N S I D E R - Best of the First Half of the Film Year

by Nathaniel R

For our halfway mark party we've covered biggest hits of multiple kinds, favorite actresses, and favorite actors. To be eligible for these "best ofs / favorites" whatever you'd like to call them lists, a film must have been released from January 1st through June 30th in 2018. Oscar holdovers like Loveless (Russia's nominee) don't count because the Oscar nomination permanently marks them as a 2017 film even though they weren't released until 2018. To conclude our halfway mark year in review party, here are seven favs from each category we hope Oscar will at least think about once the onslaught of fall prestige films happen. So, ready? Here we go...

Click to read more ...

April Foolish Predictions: 4 Questions About Best Animated Feature

Last year's Best Animated Feature field was remarkably empty and 2018, at first glance, also doesn't look that promising. You can probably take it to the bank that Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs will be squaring off against the sequels to Wreck it Ralph and The Incredibles. And it shouldn't be THAT easy to know what's going to happen a full year in advance, should it?

Of course we don't know everything yet. It's tough to foresee which foreign entries will qualify, for example. 2018 seems bereft of an obvious non-American competitor (last year it was easy to see The Breadwinner coming, which is why we predicted it a year in advance). [Four questions and ways to improve the category after the jump...]

Click to read more ...

Isle of Dogs Goes Wide.

What did you see this weekend? We'll skip the charts this week but let it be known that The Rock had another #1 opening weekend ($34 million for Rampage), horror hit A Quiet Place closed in on $100 million, and Isle of Dogs went wide in its 4th weekend and has a cumulative gross of $18 million. That means it's going to be about as succcessful as Fantastic Mr Fox and The Life Aquatic (i.e. his second tier successes) with his tier 1 biggest hits by a large margin being Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Moonrise Kingdom. 

I've been a bit sad that the inventive delights and storytelling nuances of Isle of Dogs aren't being discussed as thoroughly as the film's take on Japan...

Click to read more ...

Box Office: Ready Player Dogs

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (March 23rd-25th)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1.🔺Ready Player One $41.2 (cum. $53.2) NEW REVIEW	1. 🔺 Isle of Dogs $2.8 on 165 screens (cum. $5.9) CAPSULE | HOMAGE OR APPROPRIATION
2. 🔺Tyler Perry's Acrimony  $17.1 NEW	2. 🔺 The Death of Stalin $1.4 on 484 screens (cum. $3.9) REVIEW
3. Black Panther $ 11.2 (cum. $650.6) PODCAST	3. 🔺 Baaghi 2 $580k on 123 screens NEW
4. I Can Only Imagine $10.7 (cum. $55.5) NEW	4. 🔺 The Leisure Seeker $248k on 38 screens (cum. $1)
5. Pacific Rim Uprising $9.2 (cum. $45.6) REVIEW	5. 🔺 Finding Your Feet  $61k on 14 screens NEW

Spielberg had his biggest opening in years with Ready Player One, though a lot of people (including our own Chris Feil) don't love the film. Black Panther just won't quit, now nearing the domestic totals of Titanic  (unadjusted) and Jurassic World  and only just starting to lose theaters in its 7th weekend. Meanwhile...

Click to read more ...