Box Office: A Fantastic Woman, A Wrinkle in Time, and More...

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (March 9th-11th) Estimates
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1. Black Panther  $41.1 (cum. $562) PODCAST	1. 🔺 Thoroughbreds $1.2 on 549 screens NEW REVIEW
2. 🔺 A Wrinkle in Time (pictured) $33.3 NEW REVIEW	2. 🔺  A Fantastic Woman (pictured) $287k on 166 screens (cum. $1.1)  REVIEW  | OSCAR WIN
3.🔺 Strangers Prey at Night $10.4 NEW	3.🔺 The Death of Stalin $181k on 4 screens NEW REVIEW
4. Red Sparrow $8.1 (cum. $31.1) REVIEW | JENNIFER IN VERSACE	4. 🔺 The Leisure Seeker $119k on 28 screens NEW
5. Game Night $7.9 (cum. $45) REVIEW	5.  The Party  $98k on 91 screens (cum. $483k)

It's a history-making weekend at the box office. For the first time ever the two top grossers are both from African-American directors. Ryan Coogler's Black Panther continues its astonishing run. It's now the biggest non-Star Wars hit since Jurassic World three years ago and The Avengers before that six years ago and likely to outgross them both). It was also opening weekend for Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time. $33 million for a movie with no bankable stars that's not a sequel is good though people are calling it a failure due to its heavy price tag.  How the Oscars affected the box office after the jump...

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Gimme Gimme... That Thing Called Link

Screen
• Forbes a theory as to how network TV could survive the exodus of both Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy
• Film Ink Lady Bird was forced to make cuts and dub dialogue to get an M rating in Australia (essentially our PG13). That Playgirl magazine scene really upset the board that much? Ugh. I guess puritanism isn't only for Americans.
• /Film The Duplass Brothers have signed a four film deal with Netflix. This makes so much innate sense to me because their work always felt very televisual.
•/Film Bond 25 is taking an awfully long time to come together. Danny Boyle and the screenplay still aren't even done deals
• Pajiba Disney's upcoming streaming service and the possibility of more Muppets
• Decider Joe Reid reveals his obsession with To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar

Black Panther Mania
• The Atlantic "The Tragedy of Erik Killmonger"
• Shadow and Act Ryan Coogler and Michael B Jordan's next project together, their fourth, is Wrong Answer a true story about an education system scandal.
• MCN David Poland persuasively argues which ways Black Panther will change things in Hollywood and which ways it won't
• Coming Soon Lupita Nyong'o will costar in Born a Crime, based on the memoir about the childhood of The Daily Show's Trevor Noah. She'll play his mother

Off Cinema
• Playbill watch highlights from a reunion concert of Thoroughly Modern Millie starring Sutton Foster and Gavin Creel -when is someone going to give Sutton a movie musical. She's great on camera (see Bunheads and Younger) and a bonafide Broadway star.
• The New Yorker a thought-provoking piece on the official Obama portraits in case you missed it
• W Mag Greta Gerwig directs Florence Welsh in a photoshoot 
• W Mag Jordan Peele directs Janelle Monae in a Hitchcock inspired photoshoot
• W Mag Luca Guadagnino directs two models in a desert photoshoot
• Playbill Santino Fontana (Crazy Ex Girlfriend!) taking over for Gavin Creel in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway. Apparently Gavin Creel is having back surgery? Ouch.

Exit Video
Keala Settle and Pasek & Paul are all still out there campaigning for The Greatest Showman's Original Song. Pasek & Paul were just interviewed by Variety and Settle just performed "This Is Me" this time on Ellen. I love this song even though you hate it. Sorry not sorry.

That said, I still haven't decided if it's going to win Pasek & Paul a consecutive Oscar (they won last year for "City of Stars") or if Oscar voters will be more partial to honoring Mary J Blige (given the Mudbound fanbase and her double nomination) or if Coco will mean more to voters than just the mandatory check mark for Best Animated Feature.

Thoughts? Sing your Original Song prediction in the comments.

Box Office: T'Challa Reigns

by Nathaniel R

Holiday Weekend Box Office (Feb 15th-18th) Estimates
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1.🔺 Black Panther (pictured) $235 NEW PODCAST	1. 🔺 Detective Chinatown 2 (pictured) $862k on 115 screens NEW
2. Peter Rabbit $23.1 (cum. $54)	2.  The Oscar Nominated Short Films  $780k on 272 screens (cum. $1.8)
3. Fifty Shades Freed $19.4 (cum. $78.6) REVIEW	3. La Boda de Valentina $642k on 331 screens (cum. $2.1)
4. Jumanji $10 (cum. $379.6)	4.  Pad Man $435k on 152 screens (cum. $1.4)
5. The 15:17 to Paris $9.1 (cum. $26.8) REVIEW	5. 🔺 Monster Hunt 2  $401k on 69 screens NEW

Black Panther just had a record-smashing holiday weekend. It's the biggest President's Day Weekend haul of all time and the 5th biggest opening ever. And in a single weekend (even if you don't count the holiday) it became 2018's biggest hit. That's thus far of course. Three dependably behemoth franchises that, like Black Panther, will have no trouble whatsoever raking up their first 1/2 billion globally (even if people don't love them) are still to come. We're talking Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Avengers: Infinity War which could threaten King T'Challa for #1 of the year dominance. 

But at least until the summer movie season begins "Wakanda Forever!" is the rallying cry for moviegoers, so there wasn't much talk of anything else...

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Podcast: Black Panther (plus underseen gems)

With Nathaniel now ensconced in new digs, the podcast can resume. Up first a mini-podcast on Ryan Coogler and Marvel's Black Panther blockbuster with Nick Davis and Katey Rich. It's paired with a "deleted scene" from the last podcast as Nick, special guest Teo Bugbee and Nathaniel discuss favorites that were never really in the awards conversation but we hope people will find on streaming including super-hero adjacent Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Black Panther and More

T'weetweek, T'Challa!

a semi weekly collection for those w/ or w/out twitter curated by Nathaniel R

Why do straight people riot when their sport team wins? Like, when Julianne Moore won her Oscar all I did was have an extra mimosa.

— Love. Angel. Music. Benji. (@benarmishaw) February 5, 2018

After the jump little jewel tweets on Saoirse Ronan, ASL in film, Russell Crowe on his next film, and Jessica Chastain relating to Lady Bird. But first Black Panther...

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