Dejana

December 16–18, 2016 Estimates: 1 (N) Rogue One: A Star Wars Story $155,000,000 | 4,157 Theaters | $37,287 Avg. | $200M Budget | $155,000,000 2 (1) Moana $11,664,000 | 3,587 Theaters | $3,252 Avg. | $150M Budget | $161,858,745 3 (2) Office Christmas Party $8,450,000 | 3,210 Theaters | $2,632 Avg. | $45M Budget | $31,518,267 4 (N) Collateral Beauty $7,000,000 | 3,528 Theaters | $1,984 Avg. | $36M Budget | $7,000,000 5 (3) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them $5,030,000 | 3,036 Theaters | $1,657 Avg. | $180M Budget | $207,681,095 6 (7) Manchester by the Sea $4,156,338 | 1,208 Theaters | $3,441 Avg. | $8.5M Budget | $14,016,643 7 (15) La La Land $4,020,000 | 200 Theaters | $20,100 Avg. | $30M Budget | $5,260,166 8 (4) Arrival $2,775,000 | 2,157 Theaters | $1,287 Avg. | $47M Budget | $86,468,367 9 (5) Doctor Strange $2,036,000 | 1,930 Theaters | $1,055 Avg. | $165M Budget | $226,086,027 10 (8) Nocturnal Animals $1,391,380 | 1,246 Theaters | $1,117 Avg. | $22.5M Budget | $8,812,746 11 (9) Trolls $1,300,000 | 1,714 Theaters | $758 Avg. | $125M Budget | $147,355,938 12 (6) Allied $1,245,000 | 1,625 Theaters | $766 Avg. | $85M Budget | $38,453,917 13 (10) Hacksaw Ridge $895,000 | 1,341 Theaters | $667 Avg. | $40M Budget | $62,793,104 14 (12) Almost Christmas $573,730 | 720 Theaters | $797 Avg. | $17M Budget | $41,173,660 15 (19) Jackie $550,000 | 84 Theaters | $6,548 Avg. | $9M Budget | $1,592,735 Miss Sloane $460,000 | 1,463 Theaters | $314 Avg. | $13M Budget | $3,199,636 Moonlight $400,525 | 305 Theaters | $1,313 Avg. | $5M Budget | $11,502,200 Loving $205,780 | 396 Theaters | $520 Avg. | $9M Budget | $7,100,022 Lion $130,539 | 16 Theaters | $8,159 Avg. | $701,613 Fences $128,000 | 4 Theaters | $32,000 Avg. | $24M Budget | $128,000 The Wasted Times $90,000 | 20 Theaters | $4,500 Avg. | $90,000 Elle $35,534 | 24 Theaters | $1,481 Avg. | $9.1M Budget | $696,230 Neruda $28,265 | 3 Theaters | $9,422 Avg. | $28,265 Worldwide Box Office: ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY: $135.5M Overseas | $290.5M Global Total FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM: $509.8M Overseas | $717.5M Global Total

Isn't Taylor Lautner on Scream Queens? He'll work for a few years if he becomes a Ryan Murphy favorite. La La Land was originally announced with Emma Watson and Miles Teller as the leads. I doubt it would have turned out as well with them but I wonder if they are kicking themselves for not ending up in the project. Beauty and the Beast is bound to make a lot of money, but it would be a much bigger deal for Emma Watson's career to get nominated for real awards (not to mention the tizzy that would've ensued among Potterheads if she'd been the first of the "kids" to get an Oscar nod).

Will Smith hoped Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds were his ticket to Oscar, so maybe his tastes in awards bait leans to the maudlin side, but I would guess the rest probably thought CB was profound and had a message about the meaning of life, without taking into account the creepy yet hokey nature of the story. If you look back at a many classic movies, they have fairly sinister elements that are glossed over, but you'd like to think that if those stories were made now, that the scripts would take changing mores into account and play out differently. Except I think sometimes Hollywood, especially the movie side, is firmly stuck in the past and don't seem to fully anticipate how stuff that would've flown in the Eighties or Nineties gets roundly rejected now, not just by critics but by audiences as well. Movies like Patch Adams used to make lots of money even with terrible reviews, niy now people will just wait to watch it at home in three months.

After the reveal

Starring: Will Smith, Helen Mirren, Edward Norton, Michael Peña, Naomie Harris, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet IMDb: Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus (it's at 14% fresh right now): More than one critic says that even M. Night Shyamalan would think the twists in this one are too much (here, in case you really want to know). Had this shown up on UP or Lifetime (a Hallmark movie would never be so diverse) with a much less famous cast and a smaller budget, it would've fit right in with the annual holiday TV movie deluge.

I haven't seen any ads/trailers that were up front about Even if the studio wasn't hiding it on purpose, it does not seem like they were eager to offer reminders. Collateral Beauty might just save Passengers from a Razzie sweep; it seems even more poorly conceived and put together.

I figured if the studio was so high on this as a holiday hit, that surely, the script was changed enough during filming to make the twist a bit more palatable to audiences, like Given the ads and trailers, it seems TPTB feared the big plot development would get in the way of selling this as Titanic in space, but they did realize that at some point, the movie would actually be seen, right? It's usually worse when people come away feeling duped, and false advertising isn't going to save a movie this expensive. It would be different if Passengers were genuinely one of those sci-fi movies interested in exploring a moral dilemma, and ended with But Sony just wanted an unobjectionable action romance and I don't know how well that was going to work with this premise.

Some of the awards sites track which screeners were sent and when (Maggie's Plan and Miles Ahead were first out of the gate for 2016, in August). Lots of voters in various branches post kind of braggy pics on social media of all their screeners as they come in. The voters have grown quite accustomed to being lavished (hence the outcry with the proposed changes to Academy membership: no votes? No more free movies!) and I don't want to say they can't be bothered to go out to the movie theaters, but many are either busy and/or have very sweet home viewing setups and honestly prefer watching movies that way. Even movies that were released in the spring and have been on DVD for months send out screeners to members of the different guilds and groups. The screener for The Girl on the Train was delivered more than three weeks ago and Loving, just last week, as SAG voting wrapped up. Oscar bloggers have been saying for months that Florence Foster Jenkins was playing very well with Academy types, but she missed for Hope Springs, which also had an August release date and made more than twice as much as FFJ. How a movie plays at home vs. on the big screen can also have an impact on Oscar voting, too. From a Vulture piece a few years ago, about why Argo would win Best Picture: Oscar frontrunners lose out for many different reasons (controversies stirred up by rivals, and voters being in love with the shiny new thing, or a movie about show business) but being "boring" at home according to voters couldn't have helped.

Just saw a Flip or Flop ad complete with the happy family holiday photos during tonight's new Fixer Upper. Really, HGTV?

Adapted musicals that add a new song for awards contention haven't had the best luck winning the Oscar but I think Best Song is La La Land's to lose barring a major plagiarism controversy. It's an original musical set in LA about a dreamy-eyed couple trying to make it in showbiz-pretty much catnip to AMPAS voters (though the annual anonymous ballot exposés are sure to unearth the vocal detractors, because that gets clicks). With the rule against more than two songs from the same movie being nominated, I doubt vote splitting will do enough damage to cause a loss, either. Anything's possible, of course.

Industry tracking supposedly has the opening weekend at $140-$150M, with a global range from $280-$350M. Worldwide Box Office: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM: $480.7M Overseas | $680M Global Total DOCTOR STRANGE: $423.4M Overseas | $645.7M Global Total TROLLS: $171.5M Overseas | $316.9M Global Total MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN: $191.2M Overseas | $277.6M Global Total MOANA: $93.8M Overseas | $238.8M Global Total SULLY: $94M Overseas | $218.6M Global Total JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK: $101.6M Overseas | $159.6M Global Total ARRIVAL: $48.4M Overseas | $129.8M Global Total HACKSAW RIDGE: $23M Overseas | $83.8M Global Total ALLIED: $33.9M Overseas | $69.5M Global Total UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS: $34.7M Overseas & Global Total OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY: $16.4M Overseas | $33.9M Global Total NOCTURNAL ANIMALS: $10M Overseas | $16.2M Global Total SING: $9.6M Overseas & Global Total LA LA LAND: $4.6M Overseas | $5.4M Global Total

December 9–11, 2016 Estimates: 1 (1) Moana $18,842,000 | 3,875 Theaters | $4,862 Avg. | $150M Budget | $145,008,593 2 (N) Office Christmas Party $17,500,000 | 3,210 Theaters | $5,452 Avg. | $45M Budget | $17,500,000 3 (2) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them $10,785,000 | 3,626 Theaters | $2,974 Avg. | $180M Budget | $199,310,903 4 (3) Arrival $5,600,000 | 3,115 Theaters | $1,798 Avg. | $47M Budget | $81,451,708 5 (5) Doctor Strange $4,631,000 | 2,763 Theaters | $1,676 Avg. | $165M Budget | $222,362,446 6 (4) Allied $4,000,000 | 3,018 Theaters | $1,325 Avg. | $85M Budget | $35,633,452 7 (16) Nocturnal Animals $3,193,685 | 1,262 Theaters | $2,531 Avg. | $22.5M Budget | $6,219,813 8 (11) Manchester by the Sea $3,155,330 | 366 Theaters | $8,621 Avg. | $8.5M Budget | $8,325,531 9 (6) Trolls $3,110,000 | 2,786 Theaters | $1,116 Avg. | $125M Budget | $145,490,005 10 (7) Hacksaw Ridge $2,300,000 | 2,277 Theaters | $1,010 Avg. | $40M Budget | $60,862,448 11 (40) Miss Sloane $1,900,000 | 1,648 Theaters | $1,153 Avg. | $13M Budget | $2,038,365 12 (10) Almost Christmas $1,401,730 | 1,258 Theaters | $1,114 Avg. | $17M Budget | $40,238,215 13 (8) Bad Santa 2 $1,235,485 | 2,034 Theaters | $607 Avg. | $26M Budget | $16,800,253 14 (9) Incarnate $1,098,000 | 1,737 Theaters | $632 Avg. | $5M Budget | $4,240,138 15 (N) La La Land $855,000 | 5 Theaters | $171,000 Avg. | $30M Budget | $855,000 Loving $623,380 | 572 Theaters | $1,090 Avg. | $9M Budget | $6,565,642 Moonlight $589,627 | 449 Theaters | $1,313 Avg. | $5M Budget | $10,804,377 Jackie $495,000 | 26 Theaters | $19,038 Avg. | $9M Budget | $859,825 Lion $171,909 | 15 Theaters | $11,461 Avg. | $494,099 Elle $48,567 | 27 Theaters | $1,799 Avg. | $9.1M Budget | $631,985

Not The F8 of the Furious? Fail!

I wavered about which word to use: he did refuse her more than once and she did have to make a persuasive case, but pleading implies an amount of desperation that wasn't really there. Implored? I don't hate it as a scene but do feel Gabaldon was trying to make Jamie sleeping with someone else somewhat more palatable to the Jamie/Claire diehards.

The way I picture it, Mary offered to take the last meal to Jamie as did the others who would visit him in the cave from time to time. Jenny, who would have been the one putting together his food basket, was not born yesterday and probably read between the lines of Mary McNab volunteering as tribute, so sending her out there anyway was essentially giving tacit approval of the scheme. Even if Jenny didn't know of Mary's plans, it's still a scenario where a man who's gone without sex for 7 years, trapped in a cave for much of it, has a woman come to him, pleading with him to sleep with her. He wasn't forced but there are better ways for a writer to portray a character choosing to have sex just because he felt like it, than what Gabaldon offered up.

Charles Max-perfectly fine, if less distinctive than Vale, but family names are (usually) a good bet. He's a cutie!

I saw on the Arclight's site that they don't run outside ads and just 5-7 minutes of previews before each movie, so that would help a bit with the turnaround time. Still, it would have to be 6 screens or so, to have over 30 showtimes in one day.

People often wonder how movies make so much from a handful of theaters in limited release. La La Land comes out this weekend, and one of the theaters where it's playing is the ArcLight Hollywood, a multiplex showing it on multiple screens. Here are the showtimes listed for Saturday (remember, at one location): 8:00 AM, 8:30 AM, 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 10:15 AM (DOME), 10:15 AM (two screens at the same time), 11:00 AM, 11:30 AM, 12:00 PM, 12:45 PM, 1:15 PM, 1:30 PM (DOME), 2:00 PM, 2:30 PM, 3:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 4:15 PM, 4:45 PM (DOME), 5:15 PM, 5:45 PM, 6:15 PM, 7:00 PM, 7:30 PM, 8:00 PM (DOME), 8:30 PM, 9:00 PM, 9:30 PM, 10:00 PM, 10:45 PM, 11:15 PM (DOME), 11:45 PM, 12:15 AM, 1:00 AM The matinee price for an adult at that location is $15.75, the evening price $17.75, and its dome theater "seats more than 800 guests per showing". Basically, within those select two or four or five theaters, the indie/arthouse awards hopefuls are getting the Star Wars/Marvel treatment.

Not sure where you're looking but people complained quite a bit about Spider-Man being rebooted, probably more about the Andrew Garfield version, so that this latest one with a teenager being cast in the role is almost a relief in a way. But everyone was hardly happy with the choice, and it's a comic book movie, so somewhere on the web at this very moment it's getting nitpicked to death before anyone has ever seen a second of it. I don't see hatred so much as annoyance about Ocean's Eight, that doesn't seem much different or stronger than the garden variety annoyance that always gets thrown at remade/rebooted movies and TV shows of all stripes. Still, with the female remake trend, it comes off like studio execs will only greenlight a popcorn movie with a female cast if it's a "proven" property that was already successful with men first, because of course that's the only way the young male audience would possibly be interested. Even when it's about women, it's really about men to TPTB. People who find the "Let's remake it with gals this time!" phenomenon patronizing are hardly sexist or have a problem with female casts in general. All that being said, the filming pics so far have made the movie look like it will be a lot of fun.

IDK, I've had a job where I predominantly deal with retirees all day and while some people in their 60s sound "older", many don't. I'm not in a position to say if they sounded exactly the same 30 years ago but in my own life, people always tell my mother, sister and me that they can't easily distinguish our voices, and she's 30 years older than us. When my mother calls the cable company, her account lists how long she's been a customer, so the reps are always asking if it's really her or did she put her daughter on the phone without giving permission first, because she doesn't sound old enough to them, to have been an adult in the early '80s. Still, since Mandy's ageing makeup job is...not the greatest, perhaps modulating the present-day Rebecca's voice would help with the impression that she's older. I'm not sure if doing something like that on a prolonged basis would damage Mandy's singing voice, though, so if that's the case then she shouldn't do it. In isolation, Rebecca overlooking Little Kate's stomachache wouldn't be a big deal, but given her other actions in the flashbacks it really does seem as though all of the kids' issues as adults are being dumped at her feet. I don't mind Jack being the more fun/natural parent of the two, since she was ambivalent about having children at all, but the writers are really overdoing it. Reversing that scene to make Jack the dismissive one, while Rebecca realized something more serious was afoot, would have shown Jack not to have been the perfect dad for once, and the scene doesn't carry the same loaded connotations of Rebecca being critical of what Kate eats, again. I was wondering what kind of Hallmark/Lifetime holiday movie realness was happening, for there to be an office Christmas party on Christmas Eve. Who does that? Even if the boss is lonely, Randall's job seems like the sort of place that at best would have a skeletal/junior staff on hand to run things while everyone else with any sort of seniority at all is off for the year, by the 21st or so.

An original concept from the four-year-old son of a movie studio president. It got the go-ahead for the same reasons most remakes and movies based on existing properties do: Eventually it became a live action movie, which added to the expense and the delayed release dates. They say test screenings are going well, but I know the monsters from the trailer would have terrified me as a little kid.

I don't know if any star these days will draw in a big audience regardless of the material, maybe Leo and Denzel, though even they have under-performers in their careers. Brad in his third World War II movie after Inglorious Basterds and Fury probably didn't help with making Allied a must-see. The movie was already busted Oscar bait lagging in promotion when Brad's divorce news dropped, there were affair allegations, an investigation of his parenting and a pregnant Marion Cotillard desperate to distance herself from the drama. I think it might have had slightly better luck if it had been moved to early next year, the way Shutter Island or The Monuments Men were, once it was clear they weren't going to rack up awards. Worldwide Box Office: DOCTOR STRANGE: $419.6M Overseas | $634.9M Global Total FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM: $424.4M Overseas | $608M Global Total TROLLS: $164.9M Overseas | $306.7M Global Total MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN: $185.5M Overseas | $271.8M Global Total SULLY: $75.9M Overseas | $200.6M Global Total MOANA: $57.5M Overseas | $177.4M Global Total JACK REACHER: NEVER GO BACK: $97.4M Overseas | $155.1M Global Total ARRIVAL: $21.5M Overseas | $105.2M Global Total ALLIED: $24.8M Overseas | $53.7M Global Total UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS: $18.9M Overseas/Global Total NOCTURNAL ANIMALS: $8.3M Overseas | $11M Global Total

She's definitely not how I pictured the character, either, and not just because that's a glamor shot and Mary was enduring a famine. The actress is somewhat similar in appearance to Cait while with the book, I didn't get the sense that Claire and Mary McNab shared much of a resemblance lookswise (or in personality, for that matter). Wonder if the show will play the cave encounter so that Jamie imagines Claire the whole time?

December 2–4, 2016 Estimates: 1 (1) Moana $28,373,000 | 3,875 Theaters | $7,322 Avg. | $150M Budget | $119,888,330 2 (2) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them $18,545,000 | 3,988 Theaters | $4,650 Avg. | $180M Budget | $183,507,403 3 (5) Arrival $7,300,000 | 2,915 Theaters | $2,504 Avg. | $47M Budget | $73,078,514 4 (4) Allied $7,050,000 | 3,160 Theaters | $2,231 Avg. | $85M Budget | $28,927,432 5 (3) Doctor Strange $6,486,000 | 2,935 Theaters | $2,210 Avg. | $165M Budget | $215,309,177 6 (6) Trolls $4,600,000 | 3,156 Theaters | $1,458 Avg. | $125M Budget | $141,371,445 7 (9) Hacksaw Ridge $3,400,000 | 2,494 Theaters | $1,363 Avg. | $40M Budget | $57,264,956 8 (7) Bad Santa 2 $3,288,699 | 1,537 Theaters | $2,140 Avg. | $26M Budget | $14,289,743 9 (N) Incarnate $2,659,000 | 1,737 Theaters | $1,531 Avg. | $5M Budget | $2,659,000 10 (8) Almost Christmas $2,500,350 | 1,556 Theaters | $1,607 Avg. | $17M Budget | $38,147,500 11 (13) Manchester by the Sea $2,363,500 | 156 Theaters | $15,151 Avg. | $8.5M Budget | $4,423,443 12 (10) The Edge of Seventeen $1,660,000 | 1,608 Theaters | $1,032 Avg. | $9M Budget | $12,768,490 13 (11) Loving $997,000 | 446 Theaters | $2,235 Avg. | $5,592,166 14 (14) Moonlight $915,000 | 574 Theaters | $1,594 Avg. | $5M Budget | $9,895,356 15 (15) The Accountant $765,000 | 608 Theaters | $1,258 Avg. | $44M Budget | $84,260,470 16 (18) Nocturnal Animals $686,095 | 127 Theaters | $5,402 Avg. | $22.5M Budget | $2,705,383 17 (N) Believe $602,519 | 639 Theaters | $943 Avg. | $3.5M Budget | $602,519 18 (12) Rules Don’t Apply $555,000 | 2,386 Theaters | $233 Avg. | $25M Budget | $3,322,655 19 (17) Bleed for This $289,287 | 649 Theaters | $446 Avg. | $6M Budget | $4,841,477 20 (N) Jackie $275,000 | 5 Theaters | $55,000 Avg. | $9M Budget | $275,000 The Eagle Huntress $213,442 | 81 Theaters | $2,635 Avg. | $1,198,956 The Girl on the Train $127,280 | 177 Theaters | $719 Avg. | $45M Budget | $75,081,395 Lion $120,234 | 7 Theaters | $17,176 Avg. | $279,382 Elle $93,795 | 32 Theaters | $2,931 Avg. | $9.1M Budget | $548,604 Things to Come $33,090 | 3 Theaters | $11,030 Avg. | $3.2M Budget | $33,090

The etymology of "No-Maj" has driven me a bit nuts since I first heard about it. Differences in British and American English like lift vs. elevator, parking lot vs. car park, subway vs. tube, etc. came about because people in separate countries an ocean apart settled on different terms for new inventions. There would have been non-magical people going back centuries and English-speaking wizards would have had a word to describe them, probably before European immigrants settled in America in large numbers. Unless, the American wizarding world is largely made up of homegrown Muggle-borns rather the emigrating wizards who would have brought terms like "Muggle" with them, in which case it makes sense that this new community of wizards came up with their own word to describe non-magical people. Still, it's pretty boring in comparison. To this American, the term "put-outer" brought to mind very different connotations than extinguishing lights and seemed wildly out of place in a children's book! Though AFAIK, the device is also referred to as a put-outer in the original British edition.