Aquaman is now DCEU's Biggest Film

While the box office charts we share each week are domestic money only, Aquaman has already become the biggest DC movie since their "expanded universe" began overseas. It will be the first of those films to cross the billion dollar mark globally. That said stateside it's still $150 million behind Wonder Woman  though it should easily topple Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman by the the end of its run since it's still going strong.

More box office news after the jump...

Weekend Box Office (Estimates) (January 4th-6th)
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
1 Aquaman  $30.7 on 4184 screens (cum. $259.7) Review, Podcast	1 🔺 If Beale Street Could Talk $1.8 on 335 screens (cum. $4.4) Review, Podcast  ❤️

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Producers Guild Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The PGA have announced their nominations for 2018. True to form they've leaned into big hits and crowd pleasers rather than pure critical acclaim. It's important to note straightaway that in the modern era of the expanded Best Picture list the PGA list has never exactly matched the Oscar list though it has ONCE included all the nominees (plus an additional film since PGA has 10 where Oscar is on a 5-10 system that's so far only delivered 8 or 9 nominees each year). Last year the two lists were markedly different, though, with 4 of the 10 titles dropping off when the Oscar list was announced, and two different titles popping up in their place.

After the jump all of the PGA nominees this year (in multiple film and television categories) and to show you how important box office success is to the PGA, the number in parenthesis is where that film ranks (currently) on the list of 2018 box office grosses. We'll also discuss what this all means in terms of what could happen with Oscar...

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Podcast: On the Basis of Sex and Destroyer

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl and Chris Feil talk new films

We recorded this one just before Christmas so apologize on the delay at delivering it to you! 

Index (57 minutes)
00:01 Felicity Jones underwhelming RBG in On the Basis of Sex
06:50 Mixed takes on Karyn Kusama's Destroyer with Nicole Kidman
12:52 "Festive" Christmas movies like Vice, Shoplifters, Destroyer, Capernaum, Beale Street... so many depressing films scheduled for the holidays
18:30 Oscar shortlists for Score, Visual Effects, and Makeup
28:00 The Documentary Finals and the short films
35:00 Will Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite) be nominated for Best Director? Will Green Book controversies derail its expected screenplay nomination?
46:22 Leave No Trace and A Quiet Place might be peaking at the right time for big nominations
56:00 The Wrap Up

Further Reading / References
• Oscar Chart: Screenplay Charts
• Oscar Chart: Visual FX & Makeup
• Oscar Chart: Original Score
• Documentary Finalists
• Nathaniel's Destroyer Review
• Shadow & Act's Green Book Article

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? 

Destroyer, On the Basis of Sex, Oscar Discussions

Podcast: Aquaman Into the Poppins-Verse

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl and Chris Feil talk new films

Index (51 minutes)
00:01 Mary Poppins Returns, the songs, the costumes, the Blunt
20:17 James Wan bonkers vision of Aquaman, shirtlessness and the lack thereof, and the kick-ass fun Nicole Kidman is having as Aquamom
30:08 Returning to the Poppins-Verse for a moment 
33:20 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and comic book style
40:40 Split opinions on Cold War but we all love the cinematography, music, and the performance of its leading actress Joanna Kulig
46:47 Murtada makes us talk about Beale Street... again.
49:45 Wrap-up

Further Reading / References
• Pawel Pawlikowski on KCRW's "The Business"
• Chris's review of Aquaman
• Yahya Abdul-Mateen underneath the "Black Manta" suit 
• Jason's review of Cold War
• Tim's review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

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? 

Into the Poppins-Verse

"Avengers: Endgame" Teases

by Nathaniel R

Avengers 4 (or 5 if you count Captain America: Civil War, which you probably should) finally has a title: Avengers Endgame. Yay, superhero movies are ending! (Just kidding in two ways. They're obviously not over and I like 'em even while I wish they weren't the dominant moviegoing culture.) 

But anyway, you know what would be truly truly thrilling? If Marvel Studios and Disney were brave enough to not release ANY more footage from Avengers: Endgame beyond this teaser. Why waste all the money on advertising and spoil the visual reveals when everyone is already going to see the movie? Avengers: Infinity War grossed 2 billion worldwide making it the highest-grossing movie of 2018. There's no reason to believe that Endgame couldn't do the same even without the hardsell. 

The teaser is after the jump...

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