what's tasty and new in show business. [beta]
The West Coast is just waking up, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has already finished announcing their nominations for this year’s Oscars. It’s the first year since 1943 that there are 10 nominations for Best Picture, and it’s refreshing to see some films that might usually get overlooked receive some much-deserved kudos.
Most of the list is nothing surprising though, as the usual suspects that have been picking up noms and wins throughout the awards season are the ones filling out the categories for the Academy Awards. Leading the pack are James Cameron’s Avatar and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, with 9 nominations apiece. There are still a few surprises here and there, though, so be sure to check out the full list of nominees after the jump.
Here are your nominees…
Read»
Awards season is starting to kick into full swing in Hollywood. Plenty of regional organizations have already announced their picks for best movie of the year and, unsurprisingly, Up in the Air is claiming most of those distinctions. The Hurt Locker, however, is also scooping up a ton of top spots on the year-end best-of lists, despite being released way back in June. Anyone who was paying attention to the reviews that film was getting, though, shouldn’t be too surprised with the kudos it’s scoring now.
Today morning, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced its nominations for the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards (in a televised event hosted by Justin Timberlake, John Krasinski, and Diane Kruger). Up in the Air scored the most nominations with six, while Rob Marshall’s Nine was right behind with five nominations. Avatar and Inglourious Basterds tied for third with four nominations each.
In the running for Best Drama are Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious and Up in the Air. (500) Days of Summer, The Hangover, It’s Complicated, Julie & Julia, and Nine will compete for the Best Musical or Comedy award. I’m glad to see a non-traditional film like The Hangover score a nom, and I’d love to see (500) Days of Summer win, but I think it’s a foregone conclusion that the usually-safe HFPA is going to dish the Golden Globe to Nine (which isn’t to say that Marshall’s film isn’t fully deserving of the prize).
Hit the jump to see what we thought of the other nominations, as well as a look at the full list of nominees!
Read»
The holiday box office season was kicked off to a chilly start with the debut of Robert Zemeckis’ A Christmas Carol. Despite having Jim Carrey take on the lead and being pushed with the Disney Digital 3D tag, the performance-captured film was only able to gross a disappointing $31 million to take the top spot.
Considering its $200 million budget and Madagascar 2’s $63 million debut in the same frame last year, there wasn’t much merriment coming from Disney’s offices. However, Zemeckis’ last mo-capped Christmas film The Polar Express also had a shaky $23.3 million start before chugging to a $160+ million domestic gross over its holiday season run. Carol doesn’t have much direct competition through the winter season either, so it may find a foothold yet.
The Men Who Stare at Goats bowed above expectations with a decent $13.3 million haul for 3rd place. The Fourth Kind, meanwhile, came in right behind in 4th with $12.5 million. Richard Kelly’s The Box however was unable to find an audience, with the esoteric director’s third feature debuting in 6th place with a sub-par $7.9 million. As for last weekend’s number 1, Michael Jackson’s This Is It dropped to second with $14 million, while Paranormal Activity rounded out the top 5 with $8.6 million to come just short of the $100 million mark. Read»
Michael Jackson’s concert documentary This Is It won the top spot at the box office, grossing an estimated $21.3 million over the weekend to bring its five-day total to $32.5 million.
The total fell well short of expectations, which started out modest but ballooned after strong pre-sales and a $7.4 million Wednesday haul. It seemed most theatergoers itching to see the late King of Pop do his thing one more time showed up on opening day though; Thursday numbers fell to only $3.7 million. The doc did gross $68.5 million in foreign ticket sales however, which brings its 5-day worldwide total to an impressive $101 million. Though This Is It wasn’t able to top the single day or opening weekend figures of Hannah Montana: Best of Both Worlds, its worldwide sales have already topped the Disney pop princess’ lifetime tally to become the “biggest concert movie of all time” that it was promised to be.
Paranormal Activity continued its strong run, finishing second with $16.5 million. Its total sits at a lofty $84.8 million after 6 weeks. Saw VI meanwhile continued to disappoint, bleeding out to 5th place with $5.6 million for a $22.8 million two-week total. Rounding out the top 5 was Law Abiding Citizen in 3rd with $7.3 million and Couples Retreat in 4th with $6.1 million. Read»
