by The Flickcast, Feb 24 2011 // 3:00 PM
This may be the biggest year for the Academy Awards, as some major Hollywood players are going up against some fresh newcomers. Eyeballs everywhere will be glued to ABC on Sunday, February 27th at 8PM E/5PM P when the awards show goes live. But before that, we decided to do some picking of our own with the staff’s predictions for each award.
For a full list of the nominees, check out our previous article on the subject. Now, on to the predictions.
Best Picture
Shannon Hood-The Social Network. It had early and consistent momentum all year, and the Academy appears to be trying to shake up their stodgy image. This would be the perfect film to put their money where their mouth is.
Matt Raub – True Grit. Not only are the Coens a regular in the “I Have an Oscar” club, but this testament to classic western films is definitely one for record books, between its all-star cast and gritty (no pun intended) visual style, this one definitely deserves the golden statue.
Chris Ullrich – True Grit. Even though this was a pretty great year for movies and there are many excellent choices in this category, True Grit stands on its own as my pick. As an example of pure movie storytelling, this Coen Brothers masterpiece excels on every level and delivers a pure entertainment experience you will want to revisit many more times in the future.
Cortney Zamm – The Social Network. There’s a lot of great films in this category, some of them from my favorite directors and starring my favorite people. But the one that combined all of the essential elements of filmmaking into a truly gorgeous, compelling, and memorable film was The Social Network.
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Posted in: Academy Awards · Awards · Drama · Events · Exclusive · Features · Flickcast Picks · Flickcast Presents · Movies
Tagged: 127 Hours, Aaron Sorkin, Academy Awards, Alice in Wonderland, Amy Adams, Annette Bening, Another Year, Atticus Ross, Barney's Version, Biutiful, Black Swan, Christian Bale, Colin Firth, Country Strong, Darren Arronofsky, David Fincher, David O Russell, Day & Night, Ethan Coen, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Flickcast Picks, Geoffrey Rush, God of Love, hailee steinfeld, Harry Potter, Helena Bonham Carter, Hereafter, How to Train Your Dragon, I Am Love, Incendies, Inception, Iron Man 2, Jacki Weaver, James Franco, Javier Bardem, Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner, jesse eisenberg, Joel Coen, John Hawkes, Let's Pollute, mark ruffalo, Melissa Leo, Michelle Williams, Na Wewe, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Oscars, Salt, Tangled, The Confession, The Crush, The Fighter, The Gruffalo, The Illusionist, The Kids Are All Right, The King's Speech, The Lost Thing, The Social Network, The Tempest, The Way Back, The Wolfman, Tom Hooper, Toy Story 3, Trent Reznor, Tron Legacy, true grit, Unstoppable, Winter's Bone, Wish 143
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by Shannon Hood, Jan 17 2011 // 11:00 AM
Despite some tepid reviews, Green Hornet ran away with the top spot this weekend. The Seth Rogan comedy/action hybrid made about $34 M, which is good enough to be the third highest January opening ever. About 69% of the film’s take was from 3D screens. It was a pricey film to make ($110 M), so it will need to build on its opening weekend momentum.
Vince Vaughn’s latest film The Dilemma made about $17 M, placing it solidly in second place. True Grit only dropped 23%, and made an additional $11 M. This $38 M film just passed the $125 M mark. Kind of reaffirms your faith in movie audiences, doesn’t it?
If that tidbit of intel warms your heart, then wait for the next news: we had a trifecta of terrific movies occupying the top five this week. In addition to True Grit, The Kings Speech and Black Swan had great weekends.
The King’s Speech actually surged 41% in its eighth week in release for a cool $9 M. It is still playing on less than 1600 screens, so those are some impressive numbers. Very quietly, the film has made $44 M to date.
Black Swan has also done remarkably well. Made on a shoestring budget of $13 M, Natalie Portman’s star vehicle now totals almost $73 M in box office receipts, without a 3D screen in sight. Gwyneth Paltrow has not been as lucky. Her movie Country Strong fell completely out of the top ten this week, coming in at number twelve. In four weeks, the movie has only made $13 M.
Barney’s Version opened on only four screens, but it managed to make $17,925 per/screen.
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Posted in: Box Office · Movies · News
Tagged: Barney's Version, Black Swan, Box Office, Country Strong, Green Hornet, News, The Dilemma, The King's Speech, true grit
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by Shannon Hood, Jan 10 2011 // 7:30 AM
It’s very rare for a film to hit the number one spot at the box office several weeks after its release, but that is exactly what the Coen Brothers’ True Grit accomplished this weekend. The film finally shook the monkey (Little Fockers) off its back for a clear shot at the number one slot.
Grit made about $15 M over the weekend, and because it was a god-awful weekend at the box office, that was good enough for a first place finish. Business was down almost 30% from last weekend. Entertainment Weekly reports that it could be the worst January weekend since 2000!
The good news is that the Coen Brothers just surpassed the $100M milestone for the very first time. This is the first film they have made that has made it to into the club, so to speak. Good for them. True Grit will surely continue to succeed in theaters, particularly if the film receives any Oscar nominations.
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Posted in: Box Office · Movies · News · Reboots and Remakes · Westerns
Tagged: Black Swan, Box Office, Country Strong, Little Fockers, Season of the Witch, the Coen brothers, Tron Legacy, true grit
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by Shannon Hood, Jan 7 2011 // 10:00 AM
File this one under guilty pleasure. This sudsy soap opera is set against the angst-ridden world of country music, and it jams every Lifetime Television cliché imaginable into a running time just shy of two hours. There’s a constant barrage of booze, drugs, depression, adultery, love, and loss. I’d be flat out lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it immensely.
If you are the type of person who can’t wrench yourself away from the Lifetime Movie Network (guilty as charged) you will eat this stuff up. I’m already fantasizing about when this movie will go into heavy rotation on cable.
I can’t really defend the movie as fine film making. It’s a mess of a story that jumps all over the place. Writer and director Shana Feste seemed to try to cram way too many storylines into the film, and it suffers as a consequence. It’s also not particularly original, if you have ever seen any movie about the country music industry.
However, what this film has got going for it is Gwyneth Paltrow, and a talented supporting cast. Gwyneth seems like a ridiculous choice to play a country western star. She’s an elitist blueblood actress who was born into a heavy-hitting Hollywood family (Blythe Danner is her mother, the late Bruce Paltrow was her father) and has alienated a lot of her fans with her self-righteous Goop website.
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Posted in: Drama · Movies · Musicals · Reviews · Screen Gems
Tagged: Country Strong, Garrett Hedlund, guilty pleasures, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leighton Meester, Shana Feste, Tim McGraw
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