• PGA president Marshall Herskovitz says the 10 Best Picture nominees thing is working. We’ll see. [Variety]
• “Avatar” vs. “Gone With the Wind”: Reflections on James Cameron’s plantation in the sky. [Speakeasy]
• Guy discusses gender matters in Hollywood with a handful of colleagues. [Showbiz Sandbox]
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.
Blah blah blah blah “Avatar” blah blah number one blah blah blah $36 million. Second biggest sixth weekend ever, behind “Titanic.” $550 million+ in the bank, passing “The Dark Knight” and entering the top 10 highest grossing films of the modern era (1980 onward). The drop was only 16% from last weekend, which was a Holiday remember, and James Cameron’s fart will go on and on and on.
“Legion” took the runner up spot with $18.2 million, and as I said on Friday, anything over $16 million would be a huge win. Sony just can’t lose with this kind of product and it will join “Vantage Point,” “21” and “Lakeview Terrace” as successful films that nobody will remember in two years. But anything that keeps Paul Bettany employed can’t be all bad.
“The Book of Eli” drops 48% to third place and $17 million, which is pretty solid. With last Sunday’s figures inflated by the holiday and word-of-mouth not expected to be great, things could have been a lot worse for Denzel and the Hughes Brothers.
“Tooth Fairy” failed to get off the ground, taking fourth place with $14.5 million and represents the second straight seemingly can’t-miss family film to drop the ball. I’d say that maybe kids and parents are raising their standards but “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” passed the $200 million mark on Saturday so…
Just to recap: Denzel Washington films to make $200 million = zero. Singing chipmunk films to make $200 million = two.
What a shocker, right? In the nominations for France’s premier film awards, Jacques Audiard’s Oscar contender leads the field with a massive 13 bids. (Look out for my interview with Audiard, coming soon.)
It’s nice to finally see some love for Niels Arestrup’s astonishing work in the film, but when a contemporary prison drama can nail down a nomination for Best Costume Design, a sweep is afoot.
That said, the Césars don’t always go to plan: last year saw heavyweights like “The Class” and “I’ve Loved You So Long” upset by “Séraphine,” the film that went on to take Best Actress awards from two of America’s most prestigious critics’ circles. It’s always worth keeping an eye on titles that do well here.
I’m surprised that Alain Resnais’s “Wild Grass” didn’t do better here: the New Wave veteran’s critically beloved new effort scored a Best Film nomination, but little else, with Resnais himself snubbed in the Best Director race.
• “Avatar” and “The Hangover” took top honors at a very populist Golden Globes ceremony — Off the Carpet reported from the party circuit.
• The Academy revealed the nine films shortlisted for Best Foreign Language Film; we sized up the race.
• BAFTA announced their nominations, with “An Education,” “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar” topping the list.
• The Long Shot, meanwhile, pondered the identity crisis of this particular awards institution.
For the first time I can ever remember, the Motion Picture Sound Editors have announced their list of nominees BEFORE the Academy has announced the Oscar nominees. Because these always came a few days after the big announcement, I have to say, I have never bothered to see how often they match up with the Best Sound Editing category.
These are the two specific fields to keep an eye on:
Best Sound Editing: Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film
“(500) Days of Summer”
“A Serious Man”
“Avatar”
“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglorious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“The Stoning of Soraya M.”
Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film
“2012”
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglorious Basterds”
“Push”
“Star Trek”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
“Watchmen”
(More, including the full list of nominees, after the jump.)
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.
Here we go again. There’s very little reason to think that “Avatar” won’t spend a sixth consecutive weekend at the top of the box office. No film has done that since “Titanic” and only three have done it since 1988. It’s just not possible these days. But here we stand.
While the Golden Globes did little to make me think James Cameron wasn’t a total prick, it did help “Avatar” gain even more momentum during awards season and another $30 million+ weekend should be in store, taking the film past “The Dark Knight” on the all-time chart. Since that was one of the few blockbusters I could stomach, I’m sad to see it usurped so quickly.
Second place will be a battle between two grown men with wings. One is playing it for laughs and the other is playing it for badass religious action. Did you catch the word that is box office poison in the last sentence? Actually, “Legion” has garnered a fair amount of decent buzz and Sony is better than anyone at turning these types of genre films into hits so that might balance out the R-word. I think a $16 million debut would be impressive and anything higher would be huge.
• Nikki Finke says Oscarcast producers may be secretly considering a third host. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
• Julian Sancton talks to the brilliant (and all but forgotten this season) Anthony Mackie. [Little Gold Men]
• Davis Guggenheim’s education crisis documentary “Waiting for Superman” is Sundance’s first pick-up. [The Wrap]
Ironic that his release drops tonight just as I’m transcribing an interview with sound mixer Greg Russell for tomorrow’s Tech Support column.
The list of nominees for the Cinema Audio Society doesn’t exactly hold any surprises. The only film on the list that isn’t being predicted in the sidebar as of right now is “District 9” (I have “Inglourious Basterds” in there at the moment). Michael Minkler and his team could still slide in, but given the names involved, this really does feel like a safe batch of films to predict for all you office poolers.
The CAS doesn’t always match up with the Academy on winners, of course, because no one outside the sound branch of the Academy has a friggin’ clue what quality sound mixing is (or the difference between that and sound editing, for that matter). But regardless, I would expect “Avatar” to win both this time. The makings of a juggernaut, all of that.
Yesterday, while talking with one of my sane friends whose thoughts drift to film awards perhaps one day a year, the conversation turned to the BAFTAs, which announce the nominations for their 2009 film awards tomorrow.
“The BAFTAs, they’re like the Oscars for British films, right?” she asked.
“Not quite,” I replied. “They’re open to all films.”
“But the British films always win, right?”
“No, not always.” I stared into my pint. “Well, a lot of the time, yeah.”
“Why not just make them for British films, then?”
“Because they want to be like the Oscars.”
“So why do they keep rewarding the Brits?”
The conversation could have circled this way for some time, but fortunately, it was time for another round – and by the time I returned from the bar, the topic had shifted to Pat Robertson.
My friend’s innocent but pertinent questions only grazed the surface of the peculiar identity crisis suffered by the BAFTA Awards, a longstanding institution, kindly regarded by many, that only joined the pack of Oscar precursors nine years ago. Since they did so, it’s become increasingly difficult to ascertain who they are, what they stand for in awards season.
• Melena Ryzik chats with “The Last Station” star Helen Mirren. [The Carpetbagger]
• On the breakthrough performances of 2009. [The Playlist]
• Dave Karger tries to suss out the three slots that seem u[ for grabs at the bottom of Oscar’s 10. [Oscar Watch]
• Searching for meaning in Robert Downey Jr’s Stark-esque Globes beard. Perhaps too much meaning. [CHUD]
• Roger Ebert dives back into the enigma of Michael Haneke’s “Cache.” [Chicago Sun-Times]
• Stretching to compare “Avatar” to “Slumdog Millionaire” because of it’s “out of the blue” success. [24 Frames]
No surprises there. James Cameron’s film landed 11 separate mentions from the Visual Effects Society (some more specifically indicated than others). “2012” and “District 9” each landed three nominations, while “Sherlock Holmes” and “Star Trek” each landed two.
The nominees in the main field, “visual effects in a visual effects driven feature motion picture,” are:
“2012”
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“Star Trek”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
Check out the rest of the nominees (feature film categories only) at our somewhat more streamlined Circuit page.
As it turned out, the only celebration I made it to last night was Fox’s Globes after-party at Craft in Century City. Given that “Avatar” and “Crazy Heart” were two of three films to win more than one Globe (the other being Pixar’s “Up”), it kind of felt like the place to be.
The early part of the evening was dominated by the “Crazy Heart” crew. I came in with Ryan Bingham and Scott Cooper, the latter dumbfounded at how certain celebs were getting his number to send well-wishes and praise for his little film. Bingham, meanwhile, told me he was at the bar when the Best Original Song category was announced, which explains why T Bone Burnett accepted solo. “Sorry for partyin’,” Bingham told me. “Story of my life.”
Burnett, it turns out, will be producing Bingham’s next album.
Meanwhile, you could follow the bursts of applause to locate Jeff Bridges, who took down the Best Actor in a Drama trophy when many thought George Clooney would register with the, shall we say, star-friendly HFPA. Then again, whoever said Bridges wasn’t a star? And judging by the standing ovation, his second of the weekend (everyone was on their feet Friday, too), you can expect his steamroll through the season to continue next weekend at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and then, ultimately: the Oscar. Interesting to note his lawyer advised him not to take the part, I assume thinking it wasn’t high enough on a scale of exposure.
And yet here we are.
Last January, I wrote an especially effusive review of the previous night’s Golden Globe awards, commending the usually much-derided HFPA for looking beyond star power and box-office grosses. Instead, they assembled an international and rather indie-minded winners slate that included such titles as “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “The Wrestler,” “In Bruges,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and eventual Oscar-sweeper “Slumdog Millionaire.”
What a difference a year makes.
Whether stung by matters of ratings and economics, or simply wowed by a very different school of cinema this year, the Foreign Press voters were back to the big-name pandering for which they are famous.
Everyone present, meanwhile, seemed quite aware of the fact, some — including host Ricky Gervais and, in the night’s best speech, Robert Downey, Jr. — openly teasing them for it. “One thing you can’t buy is a Golden Globe,” the reliably droll Gervais observed, beer in hand. “Officially.”
So, what did I learn from last night’s proceedings?
• John Horn talks “Avatar” box office with James Cameron and his Best Director competitors. [24 Frames]
• Dave Karger offers up his perspective on how last night’s Golden Globe awards will affect the Oscar race. [Oscar Watch]
• Sharon Waxman hits the after-party circuit and discovers the late night talk show drama dominating the conversation. [The Wrap]
Kris offered a space for Golden Globe speculation, along with his own predictions, a few days ago — but if you still have some guesses to get out of your system before the ceremony tonight, have at it here. My own predictions (along with some wild stabs in the TV races) have been up on Tom O’Neil’s site for over a week now. In case you missed them, however, here they are, along with my personal picks in each category.
I’m not as confident in these predictions as I was when I made them a fortnight ago. But even if “the buzz” is telling us that “Avatar” has the top prize in the bag, it’s been mistaken before. So I’m sticking with my off-beam prediction that the Globes’ more European sensibilities could come into play in that race, while also tipping the Best Actress balance toward Carey Mulligan rather than the momentum-advantaged Sandra Bullock. Probably wrong on both counts, but we’ll see. Meanwhile, two comedy races pose multiple potential outcomes … what are your hunches?
Best Picture (Drama)
Will win: “Inglourious Basterds”
Should win: “The Hurt Locker”
Best Picture (Musical or Comedy)
Will and should win: “It’s Complicated”
*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.
First off, I should apologize for neglecting to write a Friday Forecast column this week. Fridays are my day off from work so while I have plenty of time to cook up an article, it’s also the one day where the box office is farthest from my mind, so I beg your pardon. I’m pretty sure the world went on spinning without it and rest assured, I would have predicted all these numbers to the cent.
So, our number one film this week is “Avatar.” That’s five weeks in a row and it’s the first film to accomplish that feat since “The Sixth Sense” a decade ago. Yes, the entire naughties nearly went by without a single film setting up residence at the top for more than four weeks. The fact that “Avatar” has done it and dropped only 18% in the process is flat out jaw-dropping.
The film grossed $41.3 million for the weekend, which is only 47% off from the film’s debut weekend almost a month ago. In other words, this would have been a perfectly respectable second weekend total, but as a fifth weekend, it trails only the $47 million of “Titanic.” So, Cameron’s latest has finally dipped below the weekly performance of his last, although “Titanic” only had $371 million at this point, while “Avatar” has $491.8 million.