This graph shows Spike Lee’s score on our annual analysis of leading stars at the box office. The Star Score represents points assigned to each of the leading stars of the top 100 movies (based on box office) in the current year and two preceding years. For appearing in the number one movie in a year a star gets 100 points, the number two movie 99 points and so on..
Latest Ranking on Selected Box Office Record Lists
This week, we have two of the biggest original movies debuting on a streaming service all year. Artemis Fowl is the bigger of the two releases in terms of production budget and was originally going to be a tentpole release last summer. To put it politely, that didn’t work out. Da 5 Bloods is the much better of the two releases and it should find a receptive audience on Netflix.
More...
We are still in the summer doldrums on the home market. The biggest first run release of the week is Alita: Battle Angel, which is much better than its box office numbers and one of the best releases on this week’s list. Other contenders for Pick of the Week include Do the Right Thing and Nichijou: My Ordinary Life: The Complete Series. In the end, I went with Nichijou: My Ordinary Life: The Complete Series. In part because it is an amazing series, but also in part in solidarity with the victims of the Kyoto Animation arson attack.
More...
It’s Oscar night and we will be live blogging the show. We will announce the winners and have our reactions as they happen, while keeping track of how our readers did in predicting the outcomes.
More...
Voting has finished in our annual Predict the Academy Awards contest, and we can reveal who you, our readers, expect to win at the Oscars tonight. Roma tops the polls, both in the number of Oscars it’s expected to win, and as the favorite for Best Picture, but its win is far from a sure thing. It gets 67% of the vote for Best Picture, well ahead of any other film, but not enough for us to call the race at this point. Green Book is the second-favorite for Best Picture, with about 15% of the vote, and Black Panther third with 6%. Bohemian Rhapsody is favored by 5% of voters, and the list is rounded out with the true longshots: A Star is Born, The Favourite, BlacKkKlansman, and Vice, in that order, with those last four all getting less than 3% of the votes.
More...
It’s Oscar Day, and we will be live blogging the show. Before that, let’s take a last look at the nominations with a few annotations. in Italics are those that have received the most votes from our readers so far in our Oscar contest (which is open to new entries until noon, Pacific, today—enter now!). Bold films are those films I think will win. Meanwhile, those that are Underlined are those I want to win. Not all categories have underlined nominees, because not all categories have someone I’m cheering for, or because there are two nominees I couldn’t pick between. For example, I would be happy with half of the Best Picture nominees winning.
More...
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at Best Director, which is not exactly competitive, but it is yet another category where we have a favorite, but where an upset wouldn’t be too shocking.
More...
With our annual Oscar Prediction contest underway, now is the best time to look at the nominees and try and figure out who the favorites are and which films should just feel honored to be nominated. Today we look at the two Screenwriting Categories, starting with Best Adapted Screenplay, which is not among the most competitive categories, but it isn’t inconceivable that there will be an upset.
More...
The BAFTA winners were announced and The Favorite led the way with 7 wins. Like I mentioned before, understandably, the BAFTAs tend to favor British films and this can lessen their ability to predict Oscar winners and The Favorite is such a British Film that they managed to spell the word correctly. That doesn’t mean there are no lessons we can learn from these results.
More...
The Directors Guild of America announced their winners on Saturday. There were some surprise results that suggest it could be an unusual year at the Oscars.
More...
The Oscar nominations were announced yesterday starting at just after 5 am Pacific time. They do this every year for reasons no one has been able to adequately explain to me. Because it was the day after a long weekend, it took a bit of time to get all the normal work done and digest the results. And there were some interesting results to digest. No one film led the way with total nominations, as two films, The Favourite and Roma tied with 10 nominations each.
More...
The BAFTA nominations were announced and The Favorite led the way with 12 nominations. Sometimes the BAFTAs are a really good indicator for who will do well on Oscar night. Other times their bias to British films is too much. I think this year will be an example of the latter and I don't think The Favourite is suddenly an Oscar favorite. That said, there’s still some things you can learn here.
More...
The Writers Guild of America has a lot of categories, as they hand out nearly 30 awards. However, only three of them are for theatrical releases. The list of nominees include several major Awards Season players and not a lot of surprises. There are some clear patterns emerging, but also some surprising results.
More...
Directors Guild of America announced their theatrical nominations this week and we are starting to see some real patterns emerge and I think the Oscar picture is getting clearer.
More...
The Golden Globes were the first major Awards Season ceremony this year handing out the hardware on Sunday night. Are last night’s events a strong indicator for the Oscars? I hope not! Certainly not in all categories, as there were some puzzling results last night.
More...
The Golden Globes nominations are the second major Awards Season set to come out. It is still very early in the year and the predictive value of the Golden Globes is a little suspect, but there are still some things to learn here. For example Vice led the way with six nominations, so its Oscar chances have gone up, but don’t expect it to lead the way when the Oscars nominations are announced.
More...
It's Thanksgiving weekend, which means Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and of course the first installment of our Holiday Gift Guide. This week we will tackle first run releases and franchise box sets as well. Unfortunately, 2018 has not been a good year for blockbusters for any studio not named Disney. In order to be on this list, a film has to be a major release, earn critical praise, and be on out DVD / Blu-ray and that’s a really short list this year. For example, Universal is the second best studio this year in terms of total domestic box office, but they’ve only released one film that has earned $100 million and overwhelmingly positive reviews. That film, Halloween doesn’t come out on DVD / Blu-ray till January. Most of the rest of the big six are lucky to have more than one entry on this week’s list.
More...
It is a really slow week on the home market this week. Not only are there very few releases, none of them are top-tier. The biggest release of the week is Goosebumps, but it is only good and not great. There are plenty of films worth picking up (The Assassin, Chi-raq, The Wrong Man, etc.) but none truly rise to Pick of the Week level.
More...
It's a very busy weekend with way too many limited releases. Because of this, we had to be a little more selective with what films made the cut to appear in our column. Chi-raq is opening the widest and should earn the most over the weekend. However, there are more than half-a-dozen films on this week's list earning overwhelmingly positive reviews. Some of these might pick up some major Awards Season nominations.
More...
After two weeks of doing highlights for limited release, I'm thinking of sticking with the format. If the film can't get at least five reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, it likely won't find an audience in theaters. I was thinking of only talking about films with overwhelmingly positive reviews, but some weeks that would be none. This week, there are only two. What We Do in the Shadows (Reviews) and Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Reviews). The latter has better reviews, but the former has more popular appeal.
More...
This week's list of new DVD and Blu-rays includes a couple of first run releases, but neither are really must haves. Of all of the theatrical releases coming out this week, Alan Partridge on DVD or Blu-ray is the one I'm most interested in seeing, but the screener is still late. I'm also waiting for the screener for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, but I saw every episode on TV and the DVD or Blu-ray is clearly a contender for Pick of the Week. So is True Detective: Season One on DVD or Blu-ray. It was a bit of a coin toss, but in the end I went with Cosmos.
More...
This week there are a couple massive releases on the home market. 12 Years a Slave just earned the Best Picture Oscar, so it's the perfect time to release it on DVD or Blu-ray. The biggest release of the week is The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, but it doesn't come out on DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack till Friday, so I will get the review online in a couple of days. On the flip side, those two releases seem to have scared away most of the competition, because there's almost nothing else worth talking about. (There's an exercise video in the top five new releases on Amazon.com. That almost never happens.) As for the Pick of the Week, it's 12 Years a Slave on Blu-ray. It's not the only release coming out on Tuesday that's worth buying. I recommend picking up Girl Rising on DVD as well, while Venture Bros.: Season Five on DVD or Blu-ray is also worth the money.
More...
October ended on a winning note, but it was the only time the entire month that 2013 topped 2012 in the year-over-year comparison. This is quite shocking, as Gravity crushed expectations with more than $200 million and counting. Even with that surprise monster hit, the month still couldn't keep pace with last year. Compared to October, November looks a lot better with three films that could be monster hits: Frozen, Thor: The Dark World, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. On the other hand, those are the only three movies with a 50/50 chance or better to top $100 million compared, while there were seven films that reached that milestone last November. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire should make more than last year's number one film, Skyfall, but the depth last year could prove too much to deal with. 2013 might dip below last year's pace sometime during the month, but hopefully it won't stay there too long.
More...
It's the last week before Christmas, which means it is the last chance for last minute gifts. There are a number of first-run releases coming out this week, some of which are not coming out till Friday, or even next Monday. There are also quite a few limited releases and TV on DVD releases hitting the home market this week. However, none of these were big hits and very few earned strong praise from critics. That doesn't mean there are none that are worth picking up. In fact, we have a trio of contenders for Pick of the Week. Shameless: The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-ray; Pitch Perfect on DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack; and Arbitrage on DVD or Blu-ray. It was a close call, but in the end I went with Arbitrage. Also coming out this week is Rush: 2012 - CD and Blu-ray in a Deluxe Edition or Super Deluxe Edition, which is a clear winner of Puck of the Week.
More...
All Acting Credits
Register with The Numbers for free to customize this chart.