Movies

Just when pundits had begun to reduce the Oscar fracas to a two-horse race between toe-tapping populist favorite La La Land and critically-adored downbeat character piece Moonlight, a possible spoiler has come out of nowhere. Last night, the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards gave Hollywood’s union of performers a chance to recognize some of their own whom had done outstanding work over the past year. The most coveted award of the ceremony is the prize for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Motion Picture, regarded by some as a bellweather for Oscar night, and it went to unexpected contender Hidden Figures.

Last week, Split had a huge opening and everyone noted that M. Night Shyamalan was unquestionably back. But now, in week two, it feels a little more official. The second weekend saw the film holding onto its spot at the top of the box office charts, but it also did so while dropping a percentage most movies would kill for. In other words, people like Split and are telling their friends to go see it.

Mary Tyler Moore, star of The Dick Van Dyke Show and her own television sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, has died after being in “grave condition” at a Connecticut hospital. The actress was 80.

Ah, can you smell it? The aroma of scorching hot awards season debates is already in the air! The nominees for the 2017 Oscars were announced bright and early this morning – or should we say dark and early, as the ScreenCrush team beat the sunrise for the big announcement.

As is tradition, the night before the Oscar ceremony takes place, the 37th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards will descend on Los Angeles to commemorate the worst that Hollywood had to offer in 2016. A mean-spirited diss-fest in the estimation of some, a good-natured ribbing to others, the so-called Razzies are twice as unpredictable and ten times as frank as the usual awards program. The expected categories of Worst Picture, Worst Director and Worst Actor/Actress share space with the distinctions of Worst Screen Combo and Worst Prequel, Remake, Ripoff, or Sequel at the ignominious ceremony. Some celebrities take the jokes in stride (Sandra Bullock famously showed up to receive her Worst Actress Razzie for All About Steve the day before she dropped by the Oscars to pick up her Best Actress prize for The Blind Side), but the program goes widely ignored by the industry overall.

Is it safe to say that M. Night Shyamalan is back? He got his foot in the door a few years ago when The Visit opened to $25 million and went on to make $65 million against a budget of only $5 million, but with the release of Split, he’s officially sitting on the couch, eating your chips and drinking your beer. However, the same could not be said for xXx: Return of Xander Cage, which opened to more lackluster numbers.

After a neck-and-neck race last weekend, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has officially stepped aside to let Hidden Figures reign supreme. The crowd-pleasing drama about the black female mathematicians who assisted NASA in its early days topped the box office, leading a weekend that was otherwise all about films bursting out of limited release. The bulk of the new releases were not so fortunate.

No list of the greatest horror movies ever made is complete without 1973’s The Exorcist. The film was directed by William Friedkin and based on the novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, who adapted his own book to the screen and won an Oscar for his screenplay. Sadly, Blatty passed away yesterday at the age of 89. Friedkin himself tweeted about the news a short while ago:

The headline here is that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story held onto the number one of the box office top 10 for the third weekend in a row, which was expected. However, the real story is that the past few days made for one of the most impressive weekends of the past year, closing out 2016 (and starting 2017) with a bang.

Unbeatable entertainer Debbie Reynolds, star of Singin’ in the Rain and mother to Carrie Fisher, has died at the age of 84 after suffering a stroke earlier on Wednesday.