Box Office: Jennifer Lawrence Generates Her Own Light in the Shadow of Star Wars.

Jennifer Lawrence's Joy starpower couldn't match the double-teaming bankability from Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg for the comedy Daddy's Home but she's still got nothing to worry about as Hollywood's current most popular actress pulling in 17.5 million in Joy's opening weekend despite middling reviews, a glut of new wide releases, and two hot button limited bows, all hoping for those same Christmas dollars.

Meanwhile every movie in theaters is trying to stay visible under the galactic-sized shadows of The Force Awakens which has already topped half a billion in the US box office in record time and should leapfrog Jurassic World's once unthinkable $652 domestic gross pretty soon at this rate.  We'll also know fairly soon if the Star Wars saga's sheer cultural size affects the Oscar race. The question is not fully restricted to whether it will be nominated for this or that or a wholla lotta that like the '77 starter-kit, but whether it will drown out conversations about the newer or the more struggling Oscar campaigns and we end up with less movement in the Oscar race from where we were in say, October, because people are thinking of little else than Star Wars right now.

BOX OFFICE WIDE
(Christmas Weekend)
01 Star Wars: The Force Awakens $153.5 (cum. $544.5) Review, parody fun Emo Kyle Ren
02 Daddy's Home $38.8 *new* 
03 Joy $17.5 *new*
04 Sisters $13.8 (cum $37.1) Review 
05 Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip  $12.7 (cum. $39.3)
06 Concussion  $11 *new* Review
07 The Big Short $10.5 (cum. $16) Review & SAG Ensemble 
08 Point Break $10.2 *new* 
09 The Hunger Games Finale $5.3 (cum. $264.6)  Hunger Games & Oscar 
10 Creed $4.6 (cum. $96.3) Review

Christmas proved to be a death wish for many awards hopefuls since behemoths like STAR WARS and talking points like HATEFUL EIGHT & THE REVENANT sucked all the oxygen out of the room for other films

BOX OFFICE LIMITED
Excluding previously wides
01 The Hateful Eight $4.5 100 screens *new* Twitter Review, Worst of Year
02 The Danish Girl $1.5 440 screens (cum. $3.2) Eddie Redmayne
03 Carol $1.0 180 screens (cum $2.8) Reviewish, Podcast, Its Genius
04 The Revenant  $.4 4 screens  *new* parody fun Revenant Bear
05 Youth  $.3 149 screens (cum. $1) Review, Podcast, Jane Fonda
06 Mr Six  $.2 30 screens *new*
07 Trumbo  $.2 30 screens *new* Podcast, SAG Ensemble 
08 Room $.08 100 screens (cum. $4.7) Premiere, FYC Production Design
09 45 Years $.06 3 screens *new* Charlotte Rampling
10 Macbeth $.04 30 screens (cum. $.8) Review, Podcast

WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND?

Best of '15: Red Carpet Beauty

Jose reporting for red carpet duty. One of the most significant things that happened in fashion in 2015, was the end of Raf Simons' short reign at Dior. With that we saw what I like to think was the "theme of the year", a return to form for starlets, and Best Actress Oscar winners, who seemed constrained under the requirements of their contracts. Not that they were crying about getting paid millions to dress in expensive couture, and sell perfumes mind you. Still, it was refreshing to see people like J.Law go back to the All-American goodness she first embodied in that red Calvin Klein dress at the Oscars.

We also saw perennial favorites find new ways to astound us (Cate, Nicole and Diane are indeed the holy trinity for fashion lovers), and usually lackluster people finally find their unique sartorial voice, thanks to the work of magician stylists (thank you for existing, Petra Flannery). I hope you're surprised by some of the inclusions in the list, but overall I hope they manage to put some beauty into your day (even when the dresses in question aren't necessarily "pretty"...)

The 15 Best Looks of '15
continues after the jump 

Click to read more ...

Link Roundup and a "Trumbo" Shout-out on the Hill

David Poland on why certain films overperform or underperform come Oscar time. Much of this is both true and frustrating. Why couldn't Warner Bros see what they had in Creed for example?  
Comics Alliance on the fan campaign to make Iron Fist an Asian hero in the new tv eries. So far Marvel/Netflix has rejected the idea which is just maddening since the origin story is pretty racist in modern context.
The Envelope interviews Julianne Nicholson who was so so good in Black Mass
Word and Film An interview with actress Ileanna Douglas (we've missed her) about her new memoir "I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories From a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies"

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw picks his favorite films in multiple categories
Variety Guy Lodge's top ten list. It won't surprise you to hear that it's a good read. And Joy and Magic Mike XXL are on it keeping things provocative.
Pajiba John Krasinski is on his way to a Chris Pratt like reinvention. Trying to keep up with wife Emily Blunt perhaps?
Variety Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette reprised their famous roles at Jason Reitman's live reading of True Romance. How fun.
The Playlist says Jennifer Lawrence is going to play Robert De Niro's dad in the next David O. Russell film. Now they're just purposefully antagonizing us now, right? 
Awards Daily Spotlight takes the Las Vegas Film Critics prize for Best Picture
Daily Herald Mad Max Fury Road takes Best Picture from the Chicago Film Critics Association 
AV Club Sean Penn to play Andrew Jackson in an HBO miniseries. Sadly it is not a remake of the Broadway musical "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" but we'd rather see that! ...albeit with its original Jackson, Benjamin Walker in the lead role

Off Cinema
Rolling Stone Readers Poll of the 10 best songs of the year: Adele, Madonna, Drake and more 
Boing Boing Matt Haughey is a genius -- he started photoshopping dildos where guns were in photos of GOP candidates and it's both funny and satirically pointed 
The Daily Beast best TV shows of 2015: UnReal, The Knick, Empire and more...

Star Wars ♫  give me more Star Wars...Nothing but Star Wars ♬  don't let them end...
Thrillist unearths a time capsule of photos from the premiere of The Phantom Menace (1999). Dakota Johnson is just a baby!
Pajiba "a serious discussion of which original trilogy Star Wars character is best in bed" Hilarious. The gif game is strong with this one. (I agree with the rankings pretty much but I'd still do Luke.)
Screen Crush on the diversity of casting in The Force Awakens 

Today's Watch
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) honored Kirk Douglas on the floor for his 99th birthday! It's always shocking when someone in Congress does something cool but apparently this Cohen fellow is a good guy with a strong civil rights record so there you go. But mentioning a screening of Trumbo in DC? That movie's reach has been such a surprise this month.

ICYMI we sang the praises of New Zealand actor Dean O'Gorman who plays Kirk Douglas in the movie here. 

tweet 16

Jennifer Lawrence and David O. Russell walk past a 45 Years poster. "That should've been you," he whispers.

— Matthew Eng (@Eng_Matthew) December 3, 2015

It's funny because it's true! ftr JLaw is really good in Joy but toward the end of the movie she does kind of have to play hardened wiser 40something and... sigh... I wish this didn't bother me but I can never make that leap with her.

Anyway... a collection of recent tweets of note or amusement or truth starring Jennifer Lawrence (again), Tom Hardy, Melanie Lynskey, Carol and more presented without further ado after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Jose Gives Thanks

Jose here. As a non-American, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite US holiday because it's the time of the year when it's socially acceptable for people to put marshmallows and cranberries on everything. A practice which I refuse to stop during the other 364 days of the year, but which for 24 hours helps me bond with the people I love, as I argue about why movies with subtitles are as nourishing as turkey and gravy.

Other than complex carbs, I'm also thankful for

...J.Law away from Dior's gold and diamond shackles. She has rarely looked better than in the black Ralph Lauren she wore to one of the Mockingjay: Part 2 premieres.

...Charlotte Rampling's skinny jeans in 45 Years.

...3D movies that challenge everything I thought about the medium (thank you Gaspar Noe and Wim Wenders)

...for world cinema, and for the opportunity I've had to talk to so many international filmmakers this year. It was my personal mission to interview as many directors with Foreign Language Oscar submissions as possible, and I'm appreciative of the warm response you've all given to the interviews (there are more to come...)

...Finally learning how to pronounce Saoirse Ronan's name (sear + sha ♥) so I can tell everyone how much I adored her work in Brooklyn. (Also, kudos to that movie for getting what it's like to leave your home behind to start anew abroad. It's one of the best films about immigration since Elia Kazan's America America.)

... Michael B. Jordan running around in grey sweatpants in Creed.

...The fuzzy feeling, and donut craving, every time I watch Tangerine. 

...theatre people popping up in movies (Lillias White in Nasty Baby! Brian d'Arcy James in Spotlight! Audra McDonald in Ricki and the Flash! Nikki M. James in Lucky Stiff! Patina Miller in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 2) not to mention the beauty that was The Last Five Years.

...Rooney Mara and Kristen Stewart proving they are brilliant actresses and winning awards for their work in France.

...Marion Cotillard's "spot" monologue from Macbeth. 

...Nina Hoss in Phoenix. Greta Gerwig in Mistress America. Rose Byrne in Spy. Laia Costa in Victoria and the girls from The Wonders and Fort Tilden.

...the movie gods granting me an audience with Winona Ryder.

Finally, I'm thankful for  "Oscar Winner Julianne Moore" (and don't you forget it!)

You can read more about our contributors at the about page and click here for all of Jose's work

Jose & Murtada at the Fox Searchlight Holiday PartyJose Solís (Fashion / News / Interviews)
Jose Solís wanted to write about film since he was a child which is why he followed the yellow brick road and moved to Oz (ahem NYC) to make his dream come true. He has been writing about film since 2003 and regularly contributes to The Film Experience and PopMatters. He is also having a torrid affair with Broadway and theatAH and writes about those at StageBuddy.com. He is a member of the Online Film Critics Society. 
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