The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
Did you see The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part this weekend? It's actually the fourth animated LEGO feature, the first becoming an unexpected blockbuster five years ago... But returns have been diminishing so perhaps they've overestimated the demand with their intense supply?
Weekend Box Office Estimates February 8th-10th (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = New or Expanded Theater Count / ★= Recommended
W I D E 800+ screens
PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
Lego Movie Part 2
Oscar Shorts Program
1 🔺The LEGO Movie Part 2 $34.4 *NEW*
1🔺 Oscar Nominated Short Films$912k *NEW* Oscar Chart ★
The animated comedy Smallfoot opens today. It has a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, so a mixed response from critics but we expect audiences will like it since they're not always so picky about animated films. Plus the concept is cute and there are lots of big stars to promote it.
Let's take a quick visual perusal of Warner Brothers theatrical animated films. Warner Brothers is such a massive corporation that their subsidiaries are legion and "Warner Animation" as it is now is not exactly like "Warner Bros Animation" of the 1990s or what not but you catch the drift. The various animated subsidiaries of Warner Bros tend to have specialized in TV animation and direct-to-dvd titles which is one of three key reasons that the company has yet to land an Oscar nomination in the Best Animated Feature Film category. The second reason is quality. And the final reason is just bad luck. Surely their best film The Iron Giant would have been nominated had the category existed in 1999. And the snub of exceedingly clever blockbuster The Lego Movie ...well everything was NOT awesome when that happened, don't you agree?
How many of their 12 theatrically released animated features have you seen? The posters are after the jump...
The Film Stage Kate Winslet will lead Woody Allen's next film which supposedly involves Coney Island W Magazine gets Tom Hiddleston stripped down (not an unusual triumph of late: see High-Rise) i09 even though Sterling Archer may or may not be dead (cliffhangers. argh) Archer has been renewed for 3 more seasons. Yay! Playbill Kristin Chenoweth is joining TV's next live musical, Hairspray in the Velma Von Tussle role (yup, the Debbie Harry / Michelle Pfeiffer part)
Gothamist the Bryant Park outdoor movie series begins. If you watch this footage this is why I never go! I've been once and omg the claustrophia and noise and inability to enjoy the movie (full disclaimer: I also hate summer which might have contributed to my distaste for outdoor summer events) Kickstarter Here's an oddity. Apparently Todd Haynes and Christine Vachon who have brought us so much eventful art cinema in the past 25 years made short films before the films we know and they're trying to find them and restore them Guardian Sarah Polley will adapt Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace for a Netflix series AV Club John Boyega joins Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit riots movie Boy Culture does his annual review of Broadway Bares - so cool that Daniel Dae Kim did his bit for the cause! PajibaThe Lego Movie predicted Donald Trump's current villany Antagony & Ecstasy looooves Piper, the new Pixar short. It's true -- it's better than the feature that follows it.
Superheroics and Hijinx Tracking Board glorious ginger viking Kristover Hivju, who devoted Film Experience readers know as a former nominee here for his perfect supporting work in Sweden's Force Majeure but who most of the world knows from Game of Thrones has joined the cast of Justice League /Film a very long set visit report from Justice League. I know WB is trying to send the message that this will be fun but this sounds like a mess to me. Especially the part about Mother Boxes. I mean after Horcruxes and Infinity Stones who isn't sick of "collect these objects before the villain and win!" plots. SO DULL MNPP why did Zach Snyder make this cut from the Batman & Lois bath scene? Comics Alliance I wasn't aware that Tank Girl, a comic that once became a Lori Petty movie in the 90s, has been revived but it has. Tank Girl was always so cool looking. Still is Coming Soon Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter, is joining the Supergirl TV show. Alas not as Wonder Woman but as POTUS. After all the fictional female presidents we've had over the years we better get a real one soon
Look. It's the Looking movie trailer. Now I have to sob gay tears all over again that these beautiful characters will soon ascend to showbiz heaven never to be seen again. *sniffle*
This time of year you'd expect to hear Mariah Carey's name because of people like me starting their Christmas music early. Today, Christmas comes early and we got the news that she is lending her voice to The LEGO Batman Movie.
Wait... what??
How delightfully bonkers! This is the kind of news Glitter enthusiasts have been waiting 15 years to hear: the opportunity for Mariah to once again give us full camp. Originally reported to be playing Commissioner Gordon (because that would be too insane for our tender hearts), she is instead voicing the mayor of Gotham. This isn't the Mariah Carey political comedy we deserve, but the one we need.
Jokes aside, Mariah delightfully exceeded our low expectations in Precious with a performance as honest as any in that lively ensemble. She proved there that given the chance to try something different, she's still an engaging performer, so why not welcome another cinematic left turn. Oddball, unexpected casting such as this also promises that even without the original's directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller the follow-up will still preserve the original's madcap wit. Rosario Dawson is also playing Batgirl, so this is a win for us all.
Remember us? It's been a month. How did that happen? Nathaniel, Nick, Katey and Joe are finally reunited. We had intended to talk Oscar nominations but we're so far past Nomination Morning that the conversation has a mind of its own and just goes where it may. Nathaniel keeps trying to bring up Nightcrawler and Ben Affleck, Amy Adams, Magic Mike and Djimon Hounsou's agent work there way into the conversation, too.
[42 Minutes] 00:01 We're back. DGA Awards & Birdman 10:54 Eddie Redmayne vs Michael Keaton vs Bradley Cooper 19:30 Original Song: Selma, The LEGO Movie 23:11 Beyond the Lights & Gugu Mbatha-Raw 27:20 Seventh Son & Jupiter Ascending
Sunday, February 10, 2019 at 10:00PM 
Lego Movie Part 2
Oscar Shorts Program
