This graph shows Christopher Plummer’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 could be the worst week for DVD / Blu-ray releases I’ve seen, outside of when a Tuesday falls on January 1st. The reason for this is simple, Trolls World Tour is hitting VOD. Or to be more precise, it is transitioning from premium VOD to electronic sale through VOD. You can now buy it for the same price you could rent it before. This film is easily the biggest release of the lockdown and it will easily be the biggest DVD / Blu-ray release of the summer. Unless there’s a monster TV-on-DVD release this fall, it will be the biggest release until the pandemic fully subsides. And, since there are parts of the world that are hitting daily records for new cases, including many parts of the United States, that could be a few more months at the very least. Fortunately, while there are only three releases on the highlights list this week, two of them are Pick-of-the-Week contenders. Murder by Decree and Portrait of a Lady on Fire are both absolutely worth picking up, but the latter wins out for Pick of the Week thanks to its Criterion Collection Blu-ray release.
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Dragnet is a continuation of the 1950s / 1960s police procedural TV series of the same name. It isn’t exactly a remake, as Harry Morgan reprises his role as Bill Gannon, but it is certainly a more comedic take on the show. I remember loving this movie as a kid, but I also haven’t seen it since I was a kid. Has it aged well? Or am I going to be forced to use the “I was young.” excuse?
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It is a slow week for limited releases and none of the films have a real shot at becoming a box office hit. Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is earning the best reviews of the week, but it is a foreign-language film, so its box office chances are weak. Never Steady, Never Still is the film I’m most interested in. Its reviews are solid and it is also a Canadian movie.
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The last box office hit of 2017, The Greatest Showman, hits the home market this week. There are also a couple of Awards Season contenders, but for the most part, it is another slow week. Phantom Thread on Blu-ray is the clear Pick of the Week winner. Meanwhile, Molly’s Game on Blu-ray Combo Pack is the only real competition.
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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.
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It’s Oscar night and we will be live blogging the show. Before that, let’s take a last look at the nominations with a few annotations. Nominees 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 will be happy no matter who wins Best Supporting Actress. One last note: The contest is still going and the leading for Best Picture Switched from The Shape of Water to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri to tied over the time I was writing this story. This is the closest I’ve ever seen it. Guessing the best picture correctly will go a long way to winning.
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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 who should just feel honored to be nominated. This week we look at the four acting categories, continuing with Best Supporting Actor. In this category, as with every acting category, there is an overwhelming favorite.
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The Oscar nominations were announced starting at just after 5 am Pacific time. They do this every year and no one has been able to adequately explain why to me. At least there were some interesting results this year. The Shape of Water led the way with 13 nominations, which is one below the current record and nearly as many as the next two films combined. Overall, there were seventeen films that earned two or more nominations.
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The BAFTA nominations were announced and this time The Shape of Water led the way with 12 nominations. The same films appear on many of the lists of nominees, but so far no one film has come to dominate the list. This makes it interesting, to say the least. There’s a good chance no one film will win the majority of prestige awards and that multiple films will have lots of reason to celebrate on February 18th when the awards are handed out.
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It’s Christmas weekend, and, while there are a large number of wide releases, there are not that many limited ones. Some of them, like The Post, are going for Oscar glory. Others just feel like they are being dumped into theaters to disappear.
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The Golden Globes nominations are the second major Awards Season set to come out. Sort of. (WGA announced the nominations for TV, radio, etc., but not their theatrical nods.) It is still very early in the year, so it is hard to say if there are any real snubs, or if there are any real favorites. The Shape of Water led the way with seven nominations, while The Post and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri were right behind with six a piece.
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This week the biggest releases are busted Oscar-bait, Joy; a post-apocalyptic young adult adaptation, The 5th Wave; and the latest from Nicholas Sparks, The Choice. Joy is worth at least a rental. The other two are not. There are no major releases that are contenders for Pick of the Week, so that title will go to a smaller release, East Side Sushi on DVD. It has earned unanimously positive reviews, but no buzz.
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It's Valentine's Day weekend, so it should come as no surprise that there's a few romantic films on this week's list. On the other hand, the biggest release is Where to Invade Next. Its reviews are good, but it is opening in 300 theaters, which could prove to be too many.
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Christmas day is the single biggest gift-giving day of the year... so it makes total sense that the week after Christmas is a terrible week to release any new DVDs or Blu-rays. The week is better than you would expect with a few notable releases, including The Equalizer, which earned just over $100 million during its theatrical run. It is also one of the best releases on this week's list and with solid extras, the Blu-ray is a contender for Pick of the Week. The other two contenders are Banshee: Season 2 on DVD or Blu-ray and Shameless: Season 4 on DVD or Blu-ray Combo Pack. It was a bit of a coin toss, but in the end I went with Shameless.
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There's good news and bad news this week when it comes to limited releases, and both focus on the same film: Silver Linings Playbook. At the beginning of the month, this was one wide release I was really looking forward to and I thought it had a real chance of being a sleeper hit. However, it was moved up a week and is rolling out in limited release this week before expanding to select cities next week. It should be the biggest hit this week, but expanding wide is never an easy task. There are a few other limited releases this week that have earned some measure of pre-release buzz, but none of them have earned reviews to match.
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All Acting Credits
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