Dejana

Fifty Shades of Grey scored 25% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Fifty Shades Darker is sitting at 10%! Can Fifty Shades Freed complete the downward trajectory and score under 5 percent next year? Of course, EL James will never blame her meddling for having anything to do with it!

I also recall him saying that he was from the area. A while back I remember reading that the Las Vegas area had a surprisingly large LDS population (about 5 percent), not that all Mormons are into farming or all non-LDS people just hang out on the Strip all night, but the young big family wanting to carve out a simple country life on the outskirts of Sin City did remind me of that...

I can already picture Nowalk spinning the whole ruse as, "Well, I told you Wes died but I never said anything about Christophe..."

The Vegas couple was looking for a farm and only viewed one farmhouse out of the three properties: three guesses which one they bought...

Randall and maybe Kevin are the only characters whose employment situations hold up to scrutiny (does Kate still have a job in LA? What did Toby ever do for a living? Shouldn't Jack have made enough to afford better than a sixth-floor walkup by 35?), so maybe it's less that Rebecca is a pampered princess than the writers didn't feel like thinking through the mundane details of how jobs and money actually work. Although, she is Kevin's mother so maybe he did inherit some of his love of the limelight and adulation—while being sort of half-assed about pursuing it—from her.

Before Rebecca got pregnant with triplets and became a stay-at-home mom (understandable), she was...a full-time bar singer? If she and Jack were short on money early on, I don't know why she didn't have some sort of job to help out with expenses for the two of them, that wouldn't have interfered too much with her creative pursuits. Unless the music scene in Pittsburgh circa 1980 was so hot that Rebecca would have missed out on all those prime gigs, by working a couple of days a week in retail or being a part-time receptionist or something...

The sewed in hair was starting to look matted...extensions have a shelf life even under the best maintenance, let alone jail (prison?) circumstances. The hair was also a signifier of Annalise coming from a different world than the other women inside, which added to their resentment toward her.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised the women's march was NBD to him, but a Melissa McCarthy impersonation gets under his skin and may cause a White House shakeup. Strange days, indeed. Rosie is another sworn enemy so bringing her on as Bannon might just cause his head to explode. I was a bit surprised Kristen read those tweets, El Presidente was creepily obsessed but that scandal was not a good look for her. I didn't think she got the worst headlines out of it because of sexism so much as the massive disparity in fame. Sure, the older director was to blame for his actions but Kristen was a huge star from a blockbuster teen franchise and half of an A-list couple while the married man was at best, the world's third most famous Rupert. If it had been, IDK, M Night Shyamalan or Christopher Nolan or Spielberg, some people still would have been hard on Kristen and less so on him, but the cheating guy would have had enough star power of his own to carry more of the headlines. As it is, the wife divorced him, started modeling again and went on to marry Jimmy Iovine, Kristen carved out a respectable career post-scandal and Rupert Sanders wasn't asked back to the Huntsman sequel, which flopped, anyway: maybe they all won in the end. Hopefully the Sanders kids are still a bit young to care about SNL monologues... :/

The speculation about Frank still possibly being the father reminds me one particular baby storyline on Mad Men. There was a bit of intentional misdirection early on that was resolved within the same season, but not to the satisfaction of some fans who literally spent years demanding the storyline to play out onscreen the way it had in their heads. You could tell that after a while, the mods on MM forums just wanted to post a big disclaimer that the storyline was done and dusted and to let it go, already! And HTGAWM is a much less straightforward, linear show than that one, I mean, we had fans second guessing if Annalise really made a cobbler, or if Sam died in some other way after Wes's blow to the head, so it doesn't surprise me that a pregnancy might lead to all kinds theorizing or belief that the truth is not what it seems.

International Box Office: LA LA LAND: $150M Overseas | $268M Global Total XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE: $112.4M Overseas | $152.4M Global Total SPLIT: $44M Overseas | $142.7M Global Total RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER: $95.6M Overseas | $117.4M Global Total RINGS: $15.2M Overseas | $28.2M Global Total

February 3–5, 2017 Estimates: 1 (1) Split $14,584,485 | 3,373 Theaters | $4,324 Avg. | $9M Budget | $98,700,950 2 (N) Rings $13,000,000 | 2,931 Theaters | $4,435 Avg. | $25M Budget | $13,000,000 3 (2) A Dog's Purpose $10,824,830 | 3,178 Theaters | $3,406 Avg. | $22M Budget | $32,926,095 4 (3) Hidden Figures $10,100,000 | 3,401 Theaters | $2,970 Avg. | $25M Budget | $119,402,095 5 (5) La La Land $7,450,000 | 3,236 Theaters | $2,302 Avg. | $30M Budget | $118,306,924 6 (4) Resident Evil: The Final Chapter $4,500,000 | 3,104 Theaters | $1,450 Avg. | $40M Budget | $21,851,775 7 (7) Sing $4,080,715 | 2,293 Theaters | $1,780 Avg. | $75M Budget | $262,907,195 8 (6) xXx: The Return of Xander Cage $3,875,479 | 2,478 Theaters | $1,564 Avg. | $85M Budget | $40,200,366 9 (N) The Space Between Us $3,775,596 | 2,812 Theaters | $1,343 Avg. | $30M Budget | $3,775,596 10 (14) Lion $3,760,097 | 1,405 Theaters | $2,676 Avg. | $12M Budget | $24,465,771 Best Picture Watch: Hidden Figures — 12.25.16 | $25M Budget | $119,402,095 La La Land — 12.09.16 | $30M Budget | $118,306,924 Arrival — 11.11.16 | $47M Budget | $98,641,635 Hacksaw Ridge — 11.04.16 | $40M Budget | $66,361,363 Fences — 12.16.16 | $24M Budget | $52,716,020 Manchester by the Sea — 11.18.16 | $8.5M Budget | $43,914,563 Hell or High Water — 8.12.16 | $12M Budget | $27,007,844 Lion — 11.25.16 | $12M Budget | $24,711,674 Moonlight — 10.21.16 | $5M Budget | $19,639,551 Average Gross: $63,411,297 Other Contenders: Moana $1,249,000 | 847 Theaters | $1,475 Avg. | $150M Budget | $242,008,515 Passengers $875,000 | 1,104 Theaters | $793 Avg. | $125-130M Budget | $97,405,870 I Am Not Your Negro $709,500 | 43 Theaters | $16,500 Avg. | $709,500 20th Century Women $483,230 | 253 Theaters | $1,910 Avg. | $7M Budget | $4,789,758 Jackie $360,000 | 327 Theaters | $1,101 Avg. | $9M Budget | $12,862,236 The Salesman $236,871 | 46 Theaters | $5,149 Avg. | $346,924 Doctor Strange $228,000 | 190 Theaters | $1,200 Avg. | $165M Budget | $231,901,043 Silence $170,000 | 152 Theaters | $1,118 Avg, | $50M Budget | $6,804,454 Toni Erdmann $103,302 | 24 Theaters | $4,304 Avg. | $3.2M Budget | $528,079 Elle $95,044 | 104 Theaters | $914 Avg. | $9.1M Budget | $1,943,214

IRL Katherine had remarried before 1961 so the romance was probably scripted to happen when it did to give her storyline a bit more personal drama, to throw some romance into the movie, and explain how she became Katherine Johnson, since she's introduced with a different last name. I was a bit surprised the actual wedding was skipped and we only saw Katherine getting ready at the church, but maybe the thought was that the engagement scene had already covered many of the same emotional beats.

IRL, the white bathrooms at NASA (or technically, its predecesor, the book gives the impression that by the time the agency took its present name, its facilities weren't formally segregated by race anymore) weren't labeled "whites only". It was only the "colored" restrooms and cafeteria spaces there that were labeled for minorities to know "their place". But since the whole sequence was largely invented for the movie anyway, it could have played out like you suggested. I looked at that series of events in the movie as would-be Oscar clips for Taraji and Kevin Costner more than anything else.

Sly didn't win the SAG last year; it was Idris Elba, despite his Oscar snub. Stallone's daughters were collectively Miss Golden Globes so he was there, and Leo presented Best Actress-Drama to Isabelle Huppert. I really liked Hidden Figures but my feeling is that the "Can it upset for Best Picture?" articles are more about Oscar bloggers trying to get clicks in a season with a runaway frontrunner, than any real buzz of an upset. It's like how all those anonymous ballot articles pick the most outrageous/risible accounts instead of the ones where people just voted for all the favorites. Best Actor actually is up in the air, though. Now watch Andrew Garfield win the BAFTA and Viggo Mortensen the Indie Spirit, so everyone in the category has won something, going into Oscar night!

If the reports are true about the original design of the monsters frightening children so much that the studio had the CGI for the entire movie completely redone, that would run up the costs.

January 27–29, 2017 Estimates: 1 (1) Split $26,268,685 | 3,199 Theaters | $8,212 Avg. | $9M Budget | $77,998,775 2 (N) A Dog's Purpose $18,386,020 | 3,059 Theaters | $6,010 Avg. | $22M Budget | $18,386,020 3 (3) Hidden Figures $14,000,000 | 3,351 Theaters | $4,178 Avg. | $25M Budget | $104,021,694 4 (N) Resident Evil: The Final Chapter $13,850,000 | 3,104 Theaters | $4,462 Avg. | $40M Budget | $13,850,000 5 (5) La La Land $12,050,000 | 3,136 Theaters | $3,842 Avg, | $30M Budget | $106,509,372 6 (2) xXx: The Return of Xander Cage $8,250,000 | 3,651 Theaters | $2,260 Avg. | $85M Budget | $33,487,750 7 (4) Sing $6,213,710 | 2,702 Theaters | $2,300 Avg. | $75M Budget | $257,405,085 8 (6) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story $5,124,000 | 2,049 Theaters | $2,501 Avg. | $200M Budget | $520,049,573 9 (7) Monster Trucks $4,100,000 | 2,496 Theaters | $1,643 Avg. | $125M Budget | $28,135,147 10 (N) Gold $3,470,000 | 2,166 Theaters | $1,602 Avg. | $3,470,000 11 (8) Patriots Day $2,850,000 | 1,847 Theaters | $1,543 Avg. | $45M Budget | $28,381,241 12 (11) The Founder $2,676,000 | 1,115 Theaters | $2,400 Avg. | $7M Budget | $7,503,067 13 (12) Moana $2,425,000 | 1,894 Theaters | $1,280 Avg. | $150M Budget | $240,115,596 14 (14) Lion $2,383,000 | 575 Theaters | $4,144 Avg. | $12M Budget | $19,752,872 15 (22) Manchester by the Sea $2,026,740 | 1,168 Theaters | $1,735 Avg. | $8.5M Budget | $41,540,879 Best Picture Watch: La La Land: $106,509,372 Hidden Figures: $104,021,694 Arrival: $97,325,199 Hacksaw Ridge: $65,948,329 Fences: $50,789,609 Manchester by the Sea: $41,540,879 Hell or High Water: $27,007,844 Lion: $19,752,872 Moonlight: $17,764,357 Average Gross: $58,962,239 Other Contenders: Passengers $1,000,000 | 625 Theaters | $1,600 Avg. | $125-130M Budget | $96,291,217 20th Century Women $938,340 | 650 Theaters | $1,444 Avg. | $7M Budget | $3,966,844 Jackie $665,000 | 508 Theaters | $1,309 Avg. | $9M Budget | $12,183,848 Silence $555,000 | 316 Theaters | $1,756 Avg. | $50M Budget | $6,349,378 Trolls $285,000 | 231 Theaters | $1,234 Avg. | $125M Budget | $152,737,834 Toni Erdmann $102,294 | 20 Theaters | $5,115 Avg. | $3.2M Budget | $380,897

Sundance TV is showing a marathon of the show right now. It's on until 8pm Eastern.

Every year during the Australian Open coverage there's an ad for Melbourne tourism that gets played to death. One year it was this: I remember this song getting stuck in my head a lot if I watched too much tennis, too:

January 20–22, 2016 Box Office: 1 (N) Split $40,010,975 | 3,038 Theaters | $13,170 Avg. | $10M Budget | $40,010,975 2 (N) xXx: The Return of Xander Cage $20,130,142 | 3,651 Theaters | $5,514 Avg. | $85M Budget | $20,130,142 3 (1) Hidden Figures $15,721,606 | 3,416 Theaters | $4,602 Avg. | $25M Budget | $83,710,357 4 (3) Sing $9,003,780 | 3,193 Theaters | $2,820 Avg. | $75M Budget | $249,328,975 5 (2) La La Land $8,427,583 | 1,865 Theaters | $4,519 Avg. | $30M Budget | $89,758,080 6 (5) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story $7,210,470 | 2,603 Theaters | $2,770 Avg. | $200M Budget | $512,376,033 7 (7) Monster Trucks $7,072,602 | 3,119 Theaters | $2,268 Avg. | $125M Budget | $22,684,156 8 (6) Patriots Day $5,753,016 | 3,120 Theaters | $1,844 Avg. | $45M Budget | $23,392,961 9 (8) Sleepless $3,453,212 | 1,803 Theaters | $1,915 Avg. | $30M Budget | $14,940,116 10 (4) The Bye Bye Man $3,430,655 | 2,220 Theaters | $1,545 Avg. | $7.4M Budget | $19,990,285 11 (N) The Founder $3,404,102 | 1,115 Theaters | $3,053 Avg. | $7M Budget | $3,405,368 12 (12) Moana $2,695,781 | 1,296 Theaters | $2,080 Avg. | $150M Budget | $236,970,483 13 (10) Passengers $2,247,012 | 1,556 Theaters | $1,444 Avg. | $110M Budget | $94,480,200 14 (15) Lion $1,765,427 | 575 Theaters | $3,070 Avg. | $12M Budget | $16,347,957 15 (9) Underworld: Blood Wars $1,738,855 | 1,466 Theaters | $1,186 Avg. | $35M Budget | $28,649,814 16 (11) Live by Night $1,718,017 | 2,822 Theaters | $609 Avg. | $65M Budget | $9,385,366 17 (26) 20th Century Women $1,385,337 | 650 Theaters | $2,131 Avg. | $7M Budget | $2,311,978 18 (14) Fences $1,214,742 | 693 Theaters | $1,753 Avg. | $24M Budget | $48,714,426 19 (N) The Resurrection of Gavin Stone $1,206,771 | 890 Theaters | $1,356 Avg. | $2M Budget | $1,206,771 20 (16) Silence $1,166,271 | 1,580 Theaters | $738 Avg. | $50M Budget | $5,174,972 Manchester by the Sea $995,475 | 543 Theaters | $1,833 Avg. | $8.5M Budget | $38,943,971 Moonlight $633,744 | 489 Theaters | $1,296 Avg. | $5M Budget | $15,826,127 Jackie $365,000 | 239 Theaters | $1,527 Avg. | $9M Budget | $11,267,840 Arrival $315,000 | 180 Theaters | $1,750 Avg. | $47M Budget | $95,665,000 Elle $110,064 | 143 Theaters | $770 Avg. | $9.1M Budget | $1,586,300 Global Totals: ROGUE ONE: $499.1M Overseas | $1.011B Global Total MOANA: $272.5M Overseas | $509.3M Global Total PASSENGERS: $175.1M Overseas | $269.6M Global Total LA LA LAND: $83.7M Overseas | $173.4M Global Total XXX: RETURN OF XANDER CAGE: $50.5M Overseas | $70.5M Overseas Total

Kerber and Murray lose on the same day—both top seeds gone! Will the British papers go back to dubbing Sir Andy a Scot for a while, rather than claiming him as British? :) The Aussie Open seems to be Murray's white whale, as the French was with Djokovic for so long. I think Mischa Zverev was inspired not only by Istomin taking out Djokovic, as the announcers repeatedly mentioned, but his little brother's efforts against Nadal the day before. McEnroe's pronunciation of "Zverev" was driving me a little nuts.

I didn't stay up to watch the Djokovic match but yesterday I wasn't optimistic about his overall prospects here after reading about the "cuddle guru". The path is clearing for Sir Andy! I figured he'd be knighted someday (or at least have it offered, I know people can decline), but I guess these things can't wait when a man from the UK wins his second Wimbledon title.

Possibly, if it's a completely different genre but Lawrence and Pratt would have to get paid a lot less, the next time around. I'm not sure if the total box office for Live By Night will ever reach what Gangster Squad did in its opening weekend ($17M on its way to $46M domestic, $105.2M worldwide). WB shouldn't have bothered with a qualifying release but kept it away from awards season completely. Lots of failed Oscar hopefuls manage to make a decent amount if they're given a bit of breathing room from the real contenders.

IDK, Transformers was a brand but the current movie franchise also tries to appeal to teens and young adults, too, making sure they earn that PG-13 rating, playing up the violence and sex appeal. Monster Trucks was PG and in a way that was meant to appeal to children (of course, a movie can be PG yet made primarily for adults, like Hidden Figures). An artist who worked on the movie shared some of the original concept art and retweeted a comment that referenced rumors of an early test screening that absolutely terrified a theater full of children, to the point where they lost half the audience. After which, the execs were said to have ordered a complete rehaul of the monster design and extensive re-cutting of the film, pushing the release back a year (at least). It did begin filming in Spring 2014 and the original opening date was supposed to be May 29, 2015, yet it's just being released now: major sign the studio knows they have a turkey on its hands. Passengers isn't doing amazingly but its prospects looked a lot worse after the toxic reviews and weak opening day. I think it will finish at that mid-range where it's not really a flop that will never turn a profit in time, but isn't a great success, so there's no bragging to be done, either. I don't know if the perception of international success has to do with studio but the budget/marketing costs. Studios get a lower cut of the international box office, so after spending $100-150M on the movie itself, then the tens of millions (or more) promoting it, the hope is probably for more than $300M or so worldwide. I think Sony was hoping for returns along the lines of other recent non-franchise space films like Gravity ($723M worldwide), Interstellar ($675M worldwide) or The Martian ($630M worldwide).

Worldwide Box Office: ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY: $481.1M Overseas | $980.0M Global Total FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM: $571.7M Overseas | $801.5M Global Total MOANA: $251.3M Overseas | $482.5M Global Total SING: $233M Overseas | $397.3M Global Total TROLLS: $186.3M Overseas | $338M Global Total PASSENGERS: $147.1M Overseas | $237.1M Global Total THE GREAT WALL: $199M Overseas & Global Total ASSASSIN’S CREED: $132.4M Overseas | $185.4M Global Total ARRIVAL: $65M Overseas | $160M Global Total LA LA LAND: $54.8M Overseas | $128.9M Global Total ALLIED: $62.2M Overseas | $102.1M Global Total WHY HIM? $37.5M Overseas | $92.6M Global Total UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS: $46.8M Overseas | $70.7M Global Total COLLATERAL BEAUTY: $38.3M Overseas | $68.6M Global Total MANCHESTER BY THE SEA: $1M Overseas | $37.9M Global Total RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER: $31.5M Overseas & Global Total NOCTURNAL ANIMALS: $16.9M Overseas | $27.4M Global Total MONSTER TRUCKS: $14.7M Overseas | $25.2M Global Total THE BYE BYE MAN: $1.3M Overseas | $14.6M Global Total LIVE BY NIGHT: $3.3M Overseas | $8.9M Global Total SILENCE: $2.5M Overseas | $5.5M Global Total

January 13–15, 2017 Box Office: 1 (1) Hidden Figures $20,853,947 | 3,286 Theaters | $6,346 Avg. | $25M Budget | $55,237,047 2 (5) La La Land $14,533,070 | 1,848 Theaters | $7,864 Avg. | $30M Budget | $74,114,639 3 (3) Sing $14,240,380 | 3,693 Theaters | $3,856 Avg. | $75M Budget | $233,455,900 4 (N) The Bye Bye Man $13,501,349 | 2,220 Theaters | $6,082 Avg. | $7.4M Budget | $13,501,349 5 (2) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story $13,468,189 | 3,162 Theaters | $4,259 Avg. | $200M Budget | $498,559,923 6 (30) Patriots Day $11,613,765 | 3,120 Theaters | $3,722 Avg. | $45M Budget | $12,537,847 7 (N) Monster Trucks $10,950,705 | 3,119 Theaters | $3,511 Avg. | $125M Budget | $10,950,705 8 (N) Sleepless $8,344,128 | 1,803 Theaters | $4,628 Avg. | $30M Budget | $8,344,128 9 (4) Underworld: Blood Wars $6,206,099 | 3,070 Theaters | $2,022 Avg. | $35M Budget | $24,322,217 10 (6) Passengers $5,345,892 | 2,447 Theaters | $2,185 Avg. | $110M Budget | $89,725,623 11 (43) Live by Night $5,106,046 | 2,822 Theaters | $1,809 Avg. | $65M Budget | $5,291,690 12 (8) Moana $4,311,271 | 1,847 Theaters | $2,334 Avg. | $150M Budget | $231,617,396 13 (7) Why Him? $3,591,726 | 1,977 Theaters | $1,817 Avg. | $38M Budget | $55,424,773 14 (9) Fences $2,755,038 | 1,342 Theaters | $2,053 Avg. | $24M Budget | $45,887,400 15 (13) Lion $2,292,484 | 575 Theaters | $3,987 Avg. | $12M Budget | $13,335,088 16 (20) Silence $1,984,530 | 747 Theaters | $2,657 Avg. | $50M Budget | $3,066,294 17 (11) Manchester by the Sea $1,691,155 | 726 Theaters | $2,329 Avg. | $8.5M Budget | $36,852,933 18 (10) Assassin’s Creed $1,388,282 | 968 Theaters | $1,434 Avg. | $125M Budget | $52,891,923 19 (22) Moonlight $1,096,097 | 582 Theaters | $1,883 Avg. | $9M Budget | $14,594,857 20 (14) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them $941,774 | 502 Theaters | $1,876 Avg. | $180M Budget | $230,813,099 Quite a few stories out this week's box office: Rogue One becomes the top 2016 release. Sing will take the (unadjusted) record for the highest grossing movie not to reach #1, displacing My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Hidden Figures and La La Land are the big winners of the weekend. Very happy that HF gets a full victory lap as the #1 movie in the country after the rankings changed on Monday (after most of the box office headlines have largely faded). Meanwhile, the picture isn't so great for awards bait that enters the game late doesn't get nominated for awards (Patriots Day, Live By Night, Silence). Lion is finally starting to pick up at the box office—maybe Weinstein can't completely be written off. Speaking of which, Viacom (parent company of Paramount) announced last September it was taking a $115 million write-down on Monster Trucks, which a (since fired) studio head dreamed up while watching how much his toddler son loved playing with toy trucks.