Hello everyone,
- As predicted, this past weekend’s box office was the 2nd lowest of the year making a total of only approx. $35.5 million. This is because studios were very wary about opening a movie in December when everyone is busy holiday shopping and right before a major movie opening – next weeks “Avatar: The Way of Water”. Last year, “West Side Story” opened in early December the week before “Spider-Man No Way Home” and made only $10.5 million. This past weekend’s #1 was “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” which has now passed $400 million and is the #3 movie of 2022 slightly behind “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”. It should pass that movie this week, but it doesn’t have much chance topping #1 “Top Gun Maverick” which is almost double at $718 million.
- The only new opening in the top 10 was the “Met Opera” special screening which came in at #8 with less that $800 thousand. The only semi-wide release this past weekend was the awards hopeful “Empire of Light” which made a disappointing $163 thousand on 110 screens (a really bad $1480 per screen average) and was #20 on the box office chart. On the other hand, the limited release of “The Whale” which was only on 6 locations made a whopping $360,000 which means an average of $60,000 a theater. It’s the new record for per screen average in 2022.
- In disappointing news, director James Cameron reportedly got COVID while he travelled to L.A. for the premiere of “Avatar: The Way of Water” tonight. So, he is in islolation and won’t be attending the premiere. Plus, he had to cancel some press interviews over the next couple days (although he might be able to do them remotely).
- The awards season is in full swing. Last week the National Film Board of Review announced their winners with “Top Gun Maverick” taking the top prize.
Best Film – Top Gun: Maverick
Best Director – Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Best Actor – Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Actress – Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Best Supporting Actor – Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Best Supporting Actress – Janelle Monáe, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
- Yesterday, the Los Angeles Film Critics announce their winners with a tie for best picture.
Best Picture: EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE and TÁR (tie)
Best Director: Todd Field, TÁR (runner up: S.S. Rajamouli, RRR)
Best Leads: Cate Blanchett, TÁR and Bill Nighy, LIVING (runner up: Danielle Deadwyler, TILL and Michelle Yeoh, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE)
Best Supporting: Dolly de Leon, TRIANGLE OF SADNESS and Ke Huy Quan, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (runner up: Jessie Buckley, WOMEN TALKING and Brian Tyree Henry, CAUSEWAY)
- Finally the Golden Globes announced their nominations this morning. However, the responses to the nominations were mostly silence. Most actors and studios still have a wait and see attitude about those awards after the scandal a couple years ago. There were also comments about the lack of nominations for movies with black themes (the Hollywood Foreign Press had NO black members until they added new members last year).
Personally, I would be fine if the Golden Globes stopped entirely. The group doesn’t have many actual film critics in it, and it’s not affiliated with a union or an organization like the Motion Picture Academy.
Little bit of humor: Did you see the teaser photo of the new “Fast and Furious” movie???
Of course, it’s not really a teaser photo but I really think they should do a joke like this in next summers movie.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 