WIWTW #27

But first...

Some News (That I Actually Care About)

• So which actor is the best bang for your buck in Hollywood these days? At the moment, that honour goes to Chris Evans of Captain America. Amazingly enough, 4 of the top 11 actors are part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe which goes to show just how profitable the franchise is. @Forbes
  

• Box office report: Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already passed $1 billion worldwide with $544.6 million of that being generated domestically. We're only on weekend #2 people and already it's pretty much guaranteed that it'll pass Avatar as the highest grossing movie of all time. We'll see. Besides Star Wars, the Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell comedy Daddy's Home managed a strong $38.8 million, followed by David O. Russell's Joy which grossed $17.5 million. Kind of/sort of bomb of the week? That would be Concussion which with $11 million now represents Will Smith's lowest opening for a movie he stars in. It's $35 million price tag will most likely save it from being a loss. The true bomb of the weekend? The Point Break remake deserves that title since it only managed a meager $10.2 million on a budget of $100 million.

• A lot of digital ink has already been spilled regarding the under-representation of women in Hollywood, but the same can be said when it comes to film criticism. Where are all the female critics? @The Atlantic

• In cute Christmas story news; the astronauts on the International Space Station received Ridley Scott's The Martian as a Christmas gift. @USA Today

• Let's leave it at that for news since I'd like to go back to lazing around on the sofa in my PJ's. Hope everyone had a merry Christmas.

Video of the week: Cool little video detailing the work being done at Criterion Collection.

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Number of movies watched: 11

Average rating: 6.18
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WIWTW #26

But first...

Some News (That I Actually Care About)

• Disney is protecting itself by investing in YOUR childhood. Or at least that's what's being said in this article: @The Economist
  

• Box office report: You'll probably need to think long and hard in order to guess what movie came out on top at the box office this weekend. Well, only if you weren't aware that a new Star Wars movie came out somehow. So how much did Star Wars: The Force Awakens earn? A cool $238 million is all. While that's a bit lower than some of the projections that were out there, Disney and J.J. Abrams managed to beat Jurassic World's opening weekend of $208.8 pretty handily. Globally, we're talking $517 million which is actually lower than the $525 JW managed. That's without China though which will have to wait until January before being able to see Kylo Ren and the gang. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip and Sisters also opened this weekend to the tune of $14.4 million and $13.4 million respectively which honestly isn't that bad going up against that Star Wars juggernaut.

• Star Wars is everywhere, so it only makes sense that the presidency gets involved too. @ComicBook
  

• Not too sure what the future holds for Studio Ghibli, but they have a new movie that will be coming out in Japan next September. Definitely a little weird seeing two Euros handling directing and writing duties though. @Rebooti

• What's the most mistake-filled movie of the year? That "honour" goes to Furious 7 with a total of 41 goofs. You can see the rest of the list here: @NME
  

• Katherine Waterson has officially landed. Claiming the female lead in Ridley Scott's upcoming Alien: Covenant, it's left me wondering what's going to happen to Noomi Rapace's Elizabeth Shaw and her story. Oh well. @Collider
  

• The prestigious American Film Institute has come announced their top 10 movies of the year. As long as you don't live under a rock, you can probably guess a couple of them. @The Hollywood Reporter

Video of the week: YuGiOh! is still alive these days?

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Number of movies watched: 9

Average rating: 5.39
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WIWTW #25

But first...

Some News (That I Actually Care About)

• For those disappointed by the lack of Xenomorphs in Prometheus, no need to worry. Ridley Scott has confirmed that the mythic sci-fi monster will make an appearance in his upcoming Alien: Covenant. Oh yeah, Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender will be back too. @Flickering Myth
  

• Box office report: Is the Star Wars: The Force Awakens-effect already been felt at the box office? It's definitely possible as Ron Howard's newest film In the Heart of the Sea belly flopped with a measly $11 million despite playing at a huge 3,103 theatres. Movie-goers could very well be holding onto their money for what will no doubt be one of the biggest movie launches of all time. Meanwhile, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 barely held onto the number one spot with $11.3 million and is close to hitting $250 million domestically. Not much else of interest as this weekend is totally the calm before the storm if I ever saw one. 

• Here's an article about what The Good Dinosaur flopping means for Pixar/Disney. I guess we can all say hello to Cars 3 and a whole lot of Mater. @Cartoon Brew

• I'm not usually too big into internet lists, but this one is totally worth the read: "The 30 Harshest Filmmaker-on-Filmmaker Insults in History." @Flavorwire

• Marvel continues to try and get every actor in Hollywood into their superhero movies and this time they came up with Cate Blanchett who will be in Thor: Ragnarok. @The Hollywood Reporter

• The film studio that brought us The Transporter, Taken and Lucy just signed a distribution deal with Amazon. No doubt that those Amazon Prime users will be seeing a lot more Luc Besson mid-budgeted action movies than they used to. @Variety
  

• Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, David O. Russell, Danny Boyle, Tom Hooper and Alejandro G. Inarritu got together for a little chat with @The Hollywood Reporter

Video of the week: I seriously love these kinds of videos:

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Number of movies watched: 8

Average rating: 4
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WIWTW #24

But first...

Some News (That I Actually Care About)

• You can never go wrong with Bill Murray and Wes Anderson. Makes you wonder how many messages Wes had to leave on Bill's voicemail to finally get him to accept. @IndieWire

• Box office report: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 unsurprisingly finished at the top of the heap with $18.6 million, bringing its domestic total to $227.1 million. That's alright, but don't look for it to beat any of its predecessors. Second place went to newcomer Krampus with an impressive $16 million. With a budget of only $15 million, it has already broken even. Meanwhile, Creed rode the wave of positive word-of-mouth to a $15.5 million second weekend and The Good Dinosaur finished with the same amount as well. That's bad news for TGD since Pixar/Disney movies usually have longer shelf lives in theatres than this.

• George Lucas has apparently seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens which must have been a pretty surreal experience for him. Did he like it? Well, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy later said "he really liked it." That it? @The Hollywood Reporter

• I'm definitely pretty intrigued with James Franco's upcoming The Disaster Artist which is going to be a film about the making-of the extremely terrible/wonderfully terrific cult film The Room. Anyway, Josh Hutcherson just joined the cast. @The Hollywood Reporter

• After experiencing the bad taste that was left in my mouth from Oldboy (2013), I'm really hoping that Chi-Raq will redeem Spike Lee. Certainly looks like that could be the case. Anyway, here's an interesting piece on it: @Vulture

• Here's the bizarre tale that is the making of sci-fi short film Captain EO which starred Michael Jackson and Anjelica Huston. Oh yeah, it was directed by Francis Ford Coppola too. @Yahoo Movies
  

• What do North Korea and Wes Anderson have in common? Maybe more than you'd think. @Visual News
  

Video of the week: You know the cool-looking Krampus movie that's out in theatres right now as we speak? Well here's the version that you should avoid like the plague. I'll probably watch it one of these days though...

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Number of movies watched: 7

Average rating: 5.57
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A Bride for Christmas (2012)

It's December people and you know what that means? Snow, ice skating, Christmas trees and more! Why, it's finally time get all those lights, wreaths and ornaments out of storage. Don't forget to dust off that giant inflatable Santa Claus for the front lawn too. It's also time to lose what little common sense we have in public when there is money to be saved on unnecessary household goods. Best of all though, it's time to veg out on the couch with a mug of candy cane-flavoured hot chocolate while endless feel-good TV Christmas movies are playing on the tube.

Watching TV Christmas movies from the likes of Hallmark and Lifetime has been a yearly pastime for me for a couple years now. They're cheesy, unoriginal, melodramatic, and sickeningly idealistic, but man are they entertaining. You just can't help but be impressed with the recipes that Hallmark and Lifetime have come up with. Combining B to C-level stars with familiar rom-com tropes and a slew of other possible elements, it's no wonder that you end up with what resembles that half-eaten panettone you forgot about in the pantry a couple of months after New Year's. Let me tell you, I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.