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8 votes
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‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ sweeps five categories at Razzies, including Worst Picture
11 votes -
'Rust' armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed guilty of involuntary manslaughter
29 votes -
When Hollywood gets it right – the best fencing scenes
11 votes -
Disney has “killed a few projects” amid studio overhaul, says Bob Iger; “We’ve not been that public about it”
11 votes -
‘Dune: Part Two’: How sci-fi space worm epic reared head to $81.5m opening after strike release delay
68 votes -
Anna Kendrick's unique and authentic style
19 votes -
Final 2024 Oscar predictions
We are officially one week away from the Oscar's and all the precursors (being the award shows that happen before the Oscar's) have come and gone. Here's where I think the Oscar's will go on March...
We are officially one week away from the Oscar's and all the precursors (being the award shows that happen before the Oscar's) have come and gone. Here's where I think the Oscar's will go on March 10th.
Picture: Oppenheimer
It's a done deal.
Director: Christopher Nolan - Oppenheimer
Original Screenplay: Anatomy of a Fall
After unexpectedly winning the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay it immediately became the front-runner in the category besting previous front-runners The Holdovers and Barbie (which got switched over to Adapted anyway). Having picked up the BAFTA in the same category, it's locked.
Adapted Screenplay: American Fiction
Also having won the BAFTA for Adapted Screenplay, beating out Poor Things and Oppenheimer (which BAFTA loved) this is also pretty clearly the favorite to win here. Two weak winners in a row for this category imo.
Lead Actor: Cillian Murphy - Oppenheimer
This seemed obvious for a long time, but now that he's swept all the awards it's a done deal..
Lead Actress: Lilly Gladstone - Killers of the Flower Moon
This is actually a tight race between her and Emma Stone in Poor Things. They both won the Globe and Stone won the BAFTA while Gladstone won SAG. Gladstone wasn't even nominated at BAFTA (despite the jury being there to nominate minorities) which complicated the race. However, with SAG having gone after BAFTA I think that'll have more influence and give Gladstone more momentum. Also, most of the time when SAG gives Best Ensemble to the eventual Picture winner they tend to go 4/4 in the acting categories.
Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr. - Oppenheimer
He swept like Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Supporting Actress: D'avine Joy Randolph - The Holdovers
Also swept.
Original Score: Oppenheimer
Original Song: What Was I Made For? from Barbie
Sound: Oppenheimer
Production Design: Poor Things
Cinematography: Oppenheimer
Makeup & Hairstyling: Maestro
Costume Design: Barbie
Poor Things won BAFTA, however BAFTA as a whole did not like Barbie very much. And there's too much iconography attached to the film in this category that I think the Oscar's will go for it over Poor Things.
Film Editing: Oppenheimer
Visual Effects: The Creator
After the branch snubbed both Oppenheimer and Poor Things, it muddled the winner in this category. People initially thought Guardians of the Galaxy 3 would be the winner. But there's pretty severe anti-superhero bias in the category. The Creator won at the VFX guild, it's flashy, it looks good, and it's somewhat of a "serious" movie.
Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
This isn't as clear as a race as I thought it would have been. Globes and BAFTA went with Boy and the Heron in this category while Critic's Choice and PGA went with Spider-Verse. The Oscar's usually goes populist in this category (eg they went with Toy Story 4 when Globes and BAFTA went in a more artsy direction). So I'm sticking with Spider-Man here.
Documentary Feature: 20 Days in Mariupol
Live Action Short: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
This would give Wes Anderson his first Oscar win, if the Academy doesn't blue ball him.
Animated Short: Letter to a Pig
Documentary Short: The ABC's of Book Banning
8 votes -
Producers Guild Awards: ‘Oppenheimer’ takes top film prize
5 votes -
Independent Spirit Awards: ‘Past Lives’ wins Best Feature and Best Director for Celine Song
4 votes -
Tom Cruise is about to enter another, weirder golden era with reports of him being cast in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s next film, the world's greatest movie star is heading for an auteur renaissance
12 votes -
American Fiction founders on American reality
3 votes -
SAG Awards: ‘Oppenheimer’ wins for cast in a motion picture; Cillian Murphy and Lily Gladstone take lead acting prizes
12 votes -
‘Gladiator 2’ budget “ballooned” from 165 million to 310 million
20 votes -
The loneliness of Jodie Foster
30 votes -
Disney Movie Club closing after twenty-three years
9 votes -
‘Bob Marley: One Love’ gets up and stands up to $51M; ‘Madame Web’ crawls near $26M over six-day holiday frame
11 votes -
The Firehouse Five and the Cinderella surprise
5 votes -
The ‘Road House’ reboot battle: A contested streaming deal, Ari Emanuel’s ‘desperate’ pleas and a director going scorched-earth
2 votes -
DGA Awards: Christopher Nolan & Celine Song take home top film prizes
3 votes -
Destroying movies for fun and profit
14 votes -
Motion Picture Academy creates casting category, first new competitive Oscar since 2001
13 votes -
Sam Rockwell breaks down his most iconic characters
11 votes -
Forever 2014
10 votes -
Apple Original Films’ ‘Argylle’ with C+ CinemaScore and near $17m opening isn’t cutting it at weekend box office
17 votes -
Carl Weathers, linebacker-turned-actor who starred in ‘Rocky’ movies and ‘The Mandalorian,’ dies
31 votes -
Poor Things’ intimacy coordinator on consent, orgies and Emma Stone
27 votes -
Showgirls | re:View
9 votes -
All the 2024 best picture Oscar nominees ranked, from worst to best
12 votes -
Doug Liman says he’s boycotting SXSW premiere of his Jake Gyllenhaal film ‘Road House’ to protest Amazon MGM bypassing theaters for Prime streaming release
17 votes -
Sundance Film Festival awards: ‘In The Summers’, ‘Dìdi’, ‘Daughters’ top winners list
4 votes -
Anatomy of a fail: Inside France’s dysfunctional Oscar committee
7 votes -
2024 Oscar nominations
10 votes -
Razzie Awards: ‘Expend4bles’ leads nominations
10 votes -
Where Hollywood's printed props are made
2 votes -
Final 2024 Oscar nominations predictions
Nominations are coming out on Tuesday. Here's my final predictions on what gets in: Picture Oppenheimer The Holdovers Killers of the Flower Moon Poor Things Barbie Maestro Anatomy of a Fall Past...
Nominations are coming out on Tuesday. Here's my final predictions on what gets in:
Picture
- Oppenheimer
- The Holdovers
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Poor Things
- Barbie
- Maestro
- Anatomy of a Fall
- Past Lives
- The Zone of Interest
- American Fiction
Director
- Christopher Nolan - Oppenheimer
- Martin Scorsese - Killers of the Flower Moon
- Yorgos Lanthimos - Poor Things
- Justine Triet - Anatomy of a Fall
- Jonathan Glazer - The Zone of Interest
Original Screenplay
- The Holdovers
- Past Lives
- Anatomy of a Fall
- Maestro
- May December
Adapted Screenplay
- Poor Things
- Barbie
- Oppenheimer
- American Fiction
- Killers of the Flower Moon
Lead Actor
- Cillian Murphy - Oppenheimer
- Paul Giamatti - The Holdovers
- Bradley Cooper - Maestro
- Jeffrey Wright - American Fiction
- Leonardo DiCaprio - Killers of the Flower Moon
Lead Actress
- Emma Stone - Poor Things
- Lilly Gladstone - Killers of the Flower Moon
- Sandra Huller - Anatomy of a Fall
- Carey Mulligan - Maestro
- Margot Robbie - Barbie
Supporting Actor
- Robert Downey Jr. - Oppenheimer
- Ryan Gosling - Barbie
- Robert DeNiro - Killers of the Flower Moon
- Mark Ruffalo - Poor Things
- Dominic Sessa - The Holdovers
Supporting Actress
- D'avine Joy Randolph - The Holdovers
- Emily Blunt - Oppenheimer
- Sandra Huller - The Zone of Interest
- Penelope Cruz - Ferrari
- Florence Pugh - Oppenheimer
Film Editing
- Oppenheimer
- Poor Things
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Barbie
- The Holdovers
Sound
- Oppenheimer
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Maestro
- The Zone of Interest
- Ferrari
Cinematography
- Oppenheimer
- Poor Things
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Maestro
- The Zone of Interest
Costume Design
- Barbie
- Poor Things
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Oppenheimer
- Napoleon
Production Design
- Barbie
- Poor Things
- Oppenheimer
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Napoleon
Make-up and Hairstyling
- Oppenheimer
- Maestro
- Poor Things
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Golda
Original Score
- Oppenheimer
- Poor Things
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- The Zone of Interest
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Original Song
- I'm Just Ken from Barbie
- What Was I Made For? from Barbie
- Dance the Night from Barbie
- Road to Freedom from Rustin
- Quiet Eyes from Past Lives
VFX
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
- The Creator
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
- Poor Things
Animated Feature
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- The Boy and the Heron
- Elemental
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
- Nimona
Documentary
- American Symphony
- 20 Days in Mariupol
- Four Daughters
- Beyond Utopia
- The Eternal Memory
International Film
- The Zone of Interest
- Society of Snow
- Fallen Leaves
- The Taste of Things
- Perfect Days
12 votes -
‘The Fabelmans’ star Gabriel LaBelle to play Lorne Michaels in Sony’s ‘SNL 1975’; Cooper Hoffman and Rachel Sennott also join ensemble
5 votes -
‘Oppenheimer’ wins Best Picture and Director at Critics Choice Awards, leads field with eight; ‘Barbie’ gets six
25 votes -
Why you should watch Straight Jacket, the lost gay rom-com
4 votes -
David O. Russell to direct Linda Ronstadt biopic, starring Selena Gomez
2 votes -
PGA awards nominations: ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ and ‘Zone of Interest’ make history and join ‘Barbie,’ ‘Oppenheimer’ and more
5 votes -
Sony lands surprise box office hit with ‘Anyone But You’
8 votes -
DGA Awards film nominations: Gerwig, Nolan, Scorsese, Lanthimos, and Payne
4 votes -
SAG Awards nominations: ‘Barbie’, ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Succession’ top list
4 votes -
Golden Globes: ‘Oppenheimer,’ ‘Poor Things’ win Best Picture awards
10 votes -
‘Past Lives’ wins Best Picture from National Society of Film Critics
14 votes -
Benny breaks out: The Safdie brother on going solo, making you squirm with ‘The Curse’ and what he learned from Christopher Nolan and PTA
6 votes -
Blumhouse-Atomic Monster merger now complete
4 votes -
On the superhero question
The year is over. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was released, marking the official end of the DCEU. It goes out with a whimper. Aquaman won't be profitable, but it won't lose as much as The Marvels...
The year is over. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was released, marking the official end of the DCEU. It goes out with a whimper. Aquaman won't be profitable, but it won't lose as much as The Marvels of The Flash did this year, which I suppose is some consolation prize.
As I said in my summer of busts post only two superhero movies this year made a profit theatrically. In certain corners of the box office community, there was a belief that The Marvels would beat Spider-Verse, but that never seemed realistic. It even came up short of the most conservative initial predictions for it. It did so poorly that it made The Flash's performance look decent.
So what happened? Last year Superhero movies dominated the box office. Although, Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water were the top 2 grossing movies. Both domestic and worldwide. But still, all three Marvel films opened to over 100M. Two made over 400M DOM, although, one had poor word of mouth. Even Thor: Love and Thunder, with some horrendous word of mouth, almost grossed 350M DOM. And all three were some of the most profitable blockbusters of the year.
I think 2022 laid the groundwork for what happened this year. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder were received poorly among general audiences. I would also say even though Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was well received, its reception was still pretty tepid, especially compared to the first. And people started enjoying blockbusters with a different look and flavor with Top Gun and Avatar, which made audiences reconsider what types of movies they should watch. Something I think falls in between here is The Batman, which, of course, is a superhero movie, but one that has a distinct look and feel. So, I would place that next to the blockbusters that offered something different than the MCU formula audiences had gotten used to consuming.
Going into 2023, audiences were still interested in superhero movies and, specifically, the MCU. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opened to over 100M, a franchise high. The poor reception of the film was, apparently, the straw that broke the camel's back for audiences.
This wasn't evident right away since the two superhero movies that were released right after (Guardians 3 and Across the Spider-Verse) were well-received and were some of the biggest hits of the year. Even with a softer opening, Guardians 3 managed to leg out incredibly well to outgross the first installment of the franchise. The post I made directly after Guardians 3 opened was perhaps premature in this regard. But I think the superhero films to come out after Spider-Verse proved that point right. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse required fantastic word of mouth to be the hits that they were. If they were received as poorly as the 2022 MCU films, they wouldn't have become the hits they are.
This might seem obvious, you need a good movie that audiences like to be a hit at the box office. But, this was not the case in the prime era of superhero movies. In 2016, Suicide Squad was released with poor critical and audience reception. Yet it grossed 325M DOM and 745M WW. That same year X-Men: Apocalypse still managed to make over 500M WW also with poor reception. Venom would make over 800M WW two years later. Even as recently as 2021, the poorly received Eternals (while the pandemic was still ongoing) made over 400M WW which is double The Marvel's gross.
Quantumania was the start of it but The Flash, Blue Beetle, The Marvels, and Aquaman cemented it. This is a dead genre, and it had an explosive death this year. The top three grossing movies this year worldwide are Barbie, The Super Mario Bros Movies, and Oppenheimer. All three are quite different. And I think they show that audiences are ready for something else, and are shopping around. What used to excite audiences in the 2010s simply isn't exciting them anymore. As GenZ becomes the same age Millennials were ten years ago, they're simply not into superhero movies. The demographic for superhero movies will continue to get older as they continue to fall out of fashion. GenZ is finding interest elsewhere as they made Hunger Games and Wonka hits that outgrossed the majority of superhero movies released this year.
So what of the future?
2024 is barren in Superhero movies. There are technically five comic book movies coming out. However, three of those are from the Sonyverse; Madame Web, Kraven the Hunter, and Venom 3. Two of those seem to be guaranteed bombs and I don't think anyone expects Venom 3 to hit the same numbers as the first Venom. The only two major comic book movies to come out in 2024 are Deadpool 3 and Joker Folie à Deux.
Deadpool 3 is going to be heavily connected to the MCU. With all the plot leaks available, it's looking to be a multiverse cameo fest. This seems exactly the wrong time to be doing this type of film. Cameo porn, as coined by James Gunn, is not a guaranteed money maker as The Flash made it evident earlier this year. Mix that in with the fact that Deadpool 2 was released now almost six years ago, when the market was friendlier to superhero movies, and how heavily connected it is to a Disney+ show, I don't believe this is going to right the MCU ship the way Disney is hoping.
Joker Folie à Deux, however, should benefit from not being a typical comic book film the way something like Deadpool 3 is going to be. And the first Joker has had a long shelf life in the minds of audiences. It should be able to rise above the fatigue of the genre to interest audiences in it.
Still, I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with another top 3 without superhero films. Audiences could potentially gravitate towards other blockbusters like The Garfield Movie, Beetlejuice 2, and Dune: Part Two, or some other variation of films, to make those the three highest-grossing films of the year.
As we look even further beyond, we have Captain America 4 (which was originally set to release in 2024 but got delayed due to them doing massive reshoots), Fantastic Four, Thunderbolts, and Blade for the MCU in 2025. I doubt most of these are even gonna come out in 2025 since some of them don't even have completed scripts! From here on out I think the MCU is just too messy to predict. I suppose if something like Thunderbolts is good (which is being rewritten and directed by the duo that did Beef) that could help them start rebuilding their reputation. I'm not sure if there is gonna be any immediate fix available to jump-start the box office for this universe again though. I think it's gonna take some time. And I don't see the Avengers films currently planned to be massive money-makers either. I think it's time for Disney to reconsider their continuity, start over, and move on. They got too big too fast, and it's over.
Luckily for WB, well maybe not so lucky, the DCEU was already a disaster. So they got a headstart on rebooting and starting fresh with Superman: Legacy in 2025 (they should have rebooted after Justice League but Aquaman making a billion gave them false confidence that they could right the ship). Given Gunn's track record, this should be good. It should be well-reviewed, and it should get a strong audience reception. I think it can easily gross the same amount as The Batman given how much it has going for it. There has not been a good Superman movie since the 80s, I think it's about time a Superman movie breaks out with a 21st-century audience.
Also in 2025; The Batman Part II. Much like Joker, The Batman has kept a long shelf life. It resonated with the primary target audience for superhero films, that being white guys 25-35. It's dark and mature in a way that the audience wants these movies to be. People still talk about it and I don't see its relevancy dying down in another year. I think WB struck gold with The Batman, the way they did with Joker, and I think The Batman Part II could be another billion-dollar hit for WB.
It is weird to talk about a genre this way when it was dominant for most of my life. Writing a post-mortem for Superhero movies was not something I expected to do at the beginning of the year. It felt like something that was always going to be culturally dominant. But trends change and Hollywood is in an interesting place right now.
35 votes -
2023 US box office crossing $9 billion, led by Universal; ‘Wonka’ tops New Year’s weekend with $31m+
7 votes