Chrestomanci

Yes, but, to be fair, there's no way it would have gotten that theater increase (or extra ads) without the Oscar nominations (or at least without the nominations being expected), so it is still perfectly reasonable to call it an Oscar bump. And while The Descendants extreme theater count increase ultimately resulted in a decrease in PTA for the film, the film might well have seen an increase this weekend, albeit a much more sedate one, even if it hadn't added any theaters.

I'd be pretty surprised if it didn't fall with actuals though. I know IMAX generally softens decreases a bit, but they're estimating only a 21.4% drop on Sunday when the other films of the series all fell at least 33.3% on the Sunday of their second weekend (though Lycans' 58% drop is clearly Super Bowl related).

I'm a bit torn on this. Ordinarily, I would recommend either going in release order or going in the following order (which was the subject of the series of articles linked in the first post, but you really shouldn't read them unless you already know everything about the series): Star Wars (a.k.a. A New Hope), Empire Strikes Back, Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi. In the latter case, the prequels sort of act as a prolonged flashback sequence and you still get to end the series on a high note with Return of the Jedi.However, with the re-release of Phantom Menace imminent, there is an argument to be made for starting by watching Phantom Menace first, on the big screen, since that's probably the best way to experience any of these movies. And if you see Phantom Menace first . . . going on with the other prequels is probably the easiest way to continue. Though I don't think Phantom Menace really spoils anything in the original trilogy, so you could still go back to those before going on with the other two prequels -- if jumping around in time like that wouldn't confuse you too much.I think it may come down to how much you already know about the series. If the big reveals of the original trilogy have already been spoiled for you (which would hardly be surprising, unfortunately), then there's no real harm in watching the prequels first, so you should probably take advantage of the chance to see Phantom Menace on the big screen. But if you're lucky enough that you're going into this with only a vague idea of the story, then, while you should catch Phantom Menace in the theater if you can, I would highly recommend you watch the original trilogy (or, at a minimum, Star Wars and ESB) before you watch the prequels (or, at the very least, before you watch Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith).Hope that helps a bit. Have fun!

Well, I don't want to get hopes up too much. The expansion Hugo is getting is significantly less than the one Descendants is getting, for instance.ETA: BOM is up now.

Probably. Though it is re-expanding this weekend according to the LA Times, so you never know.

Sony, WB, Disney, Weinstein and Paramount numbers from boxoffice.com:Underworld 4 - $1,539,354 (-28%)EL&IC - $768,174 (-23%)B&tB - $485,868 (-20%)Iron Lady - $429,206 (-15%)MI4 - $395,423 (-17%)Joyful Noise - $384,281 (-26%)TGWTDT - $349,882 (-12%)SH2 - $331,410 (-13%)WH - $325,038 (-14%)TDI - $176,370 (-14%)Tintin - $123,900 (-28%)Artist - $355,221 (+2%)Hugo - $157,264 (+16%) <---- A big increase again on Wednesday after a huge increase on TuesdayMWwM - $51,262 (-2%)

Here's what's in so far on boxoffice.com:Red Tails - $972,227 (-25%)Contraband - $875,350 (-24%)Haywire - $629,455 (-28%)WBaZ - $149,381 (-14%)Alvin 3 - $121,212 (-10%)Descendants - $271,058 (-6%)TTSS - $180,987 (-14%)So, if the pattern holds up when the rest of the movies come in, it looks like big drops for most movies, with smaller drops for the Oscar nominees and family movies (the latter of which either dropped or had minimal increases on Tuesday).ETA: And already there are a couple of movies breaking the pattern. BD1, which had a small increase on Tuesday, actually increased slightly on Wednesday, up 2% to $27,293. Tower Heist, which is neither an Oscar nominee nor a family movie, dropped only 7% to $14,285. But both of those movies are making little enough/in few enough theaters at this point that they wouldn't necessarily obey the overall pattern anyway. (And the previous fall Twilight movies also had small increases on the equivalent day.)ETA2: Full results now up at BOM.

Thanks, that's good to know for future reference.

Well, not quite everything else: Puss in Boots decreased 6% and Happy Feet 2 decreased 3%. It looks like the common denominator is probably that these are all more or less family friendly movies (and the one that isn't precisely a family film, Red Tails, is still in its first week, when Tuesday decreases are normal anyway -- though Haywire and Underworld 4 increased . . . ). The other family films around that didn't get Oscar Bumps are B&tB and Tintin, which only got very small increases (indeed, Tintin was basically flat). But why Alvin fell so much harder than anything else . . . who knows.

Wow, how do you get it to look so nice? Anytime I try to paste results in like that, it just makes a mess. ETA: And clearly it can't be quoted either. Hmmm. ETA2: Okay, so it can be quoted if you turn HTML On.

I'm pretty sure it's from Emma -- the scene where he tells her he is going off to his brother's -- but I'm not 100% certain. I found it online somewhere. But I like both movies, so either way . . .ETA: I don't think this is where I got it from, but it certainly seems to be identified as coming from Emma here.

WB and Paramount numbers from boxoffice.com:EL&IC - $994,251 (+43%)Joyful Noise - $518,173 (+27%) (biggest increase so far for a non-Oscar film)MI4 - $474,511 (+9%)SH2 - $381,225 (+10%)TDI - $203,917 (+5%)Tintin - $171,149 (+0.4%)Hugo - $135,510 (+73%)

Some Sony and Disney numbers from boxoffice.com:Underworld 4 - $2,131,064 (+1%)B&tB - $610,222 (+2%)TGWTDT - $397,126 (+20%)War Horse - $376,837 (+34%)So TGWTDT and War Horse's increases were on the smaller side of the Oscar bumps so far. In fact, since TGWTDT's increase was the same as Haywire's, it's unclear whether there was any Oscar impact for it at all.

Biggest increase yet -- My Week With Marilyn up 60% to $52,471.

More numbers from boxoffice.com:Contraband - $1,148,000 (+13%)Haywire - $878,313 (+20%)Iron Lady - $507,734 (+38%)Artist - $347,256 (+41%)So Contraband and Haywire managed pretty good increases of their own, but the biggest increases still belong to the Oscar nominees.

I don't think so. Pretty much everything had a huge increase that day -- I think it was just an extreme case of the discount Tuesday effect.

Numbers for Tuesday are beginning to come in on boxoffice.com:Red Tails - $1,287,922 (-4%)WBaZ - $174,233 (-8%)Alvin 3 - $135,411 (-30%)Descendants - $287,691 (+49%)TTSS - $211,530 (+37%)BD1 - $26,823 (+3%)The interesting question is what part of those big increases for Descendants and TTSS is due to Oscar attention and what is due to the discount Tuesday effect. Since BD1 usually sees a significantly bigger Tuesday increase than it got this week and WBaZ had a very big increase on January 10 but decreased yesterday, I'd venture a guess that most of it is due to the Oscar nominations.ETA: BOM now up or see Taylor's post at the top of page 2 for full results.

Alan Rickman every time for me.

1937 - Leo McCarey - The Awful Truth1940 - John Ford - The Grapes of Wrath1950 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz - All About Eve1961 - Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins - West Side Story1962 - David Lean - Lawrence of Arabia1963 - Tony Richardson - Tom Jones1964 - George Cukor - My Fair Lady1965 - Robert Wise - The Sound of Music1966 - Fred Zinnemann - A Man for All Seasons1967 - Mike Nichols - The Graduate1968 - Carol Reed - Oliver!1996 - Anthony Minghella - The English Patient1997 - James Cameron - Titanic2001 - Ron Howard - A Beautiful Mind2003 - Peter Jackson - Return of the King2010 - Tom Hooper - The King's Speech16, with fully half of the list coming from the 1960's, LOL. (Of course, I've seen parts of Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, Gigi, Gandhi, Amadeus, Forrest Gump and probably a few others, but I'm not sure I've seen all of any of those, so I didn't count them.)

1940 - Jane Darwell - The Grapes of Wrath1950 - Josephine Hull - Harvey1961 - Rita Moreno - West Side Story1974 - Ingrid Bergman - Murder on the Orient Express1982 - Jessica Lange - Tootsie1990 - Whoopi Goldberg - Ghost1992 - Marisa Tomei - My Cousin Vinny1996 - Juliette Binoche - The English Patient1998 - Judi Dench - Shakespeare in Love2001 - Jennifer Connellly - A Beautiful Mind2002 - Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chicago11 and heavily weighted towards the last twenty years or so with nearly half of the list coming from that period (more than half if you expand it to 25 years -- or even 22). Again, I'm not counting movies I know I've seen part of but either am not sure or don't think I've seen all the way through, e.g., Gone with the Wind and The Miracle Worker.

1947 - Edmund Gwenn - Miracle on 34th Street1950 - George Sanders - All About Eve (Great movie, great actor, great performance)1961 - George Chakiris - West Side Story1965 - Martin Balsam - A Thousand Clowns1973 - John Houseman - The Paper Chase1976 - Jason Robards - All the President's Men1981 - John Gielgud - Arthur1988 - Kevin Kline - A Fish Called Wanda1989 - Denzel Washington - Glory1991 - Jack Palance - City Slickers1996 - Cuba Gooding Jr. - Jerry Maguire1999 - Michael Caine - The Cider House Rules12. That's more than I've seen for either Best Actor or Best Actress and they're much more evenly spread out, too. There are a couple more which I think I've seen, but can't quite remember -- Cocoon and Topkapi -- so I didn't count either.

1941 - Joan Fonatine - Suspicion1944 - Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight1964 - Julie Andrews - Mary Poppins1967 - Katharine Hepburn - The Lion in Winter1968 - Katharine Hepburn - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner1969 - Maggie Smith - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie1992 - Emma Thompson - Howard's End1998 - Gwyneth Paltrow - Shakespeare in Love2006 - Helen Mirren - The QueenOnly 9, though there are a few more I've seen at least part of (Gone with the Wind and Roman Holiday, for sure, maybe a couple of others). Interesting that 3 of the 9 are in the last 20 years, though, whereas only 1 of the 10 Best Actor winning movies I know I've seen all the way through was in the last 20 years.

The Paramount movies finally came in on boxoffice.com:MI4 - $436,690 (-62%)TDI - $195,101 (-65%)Tintin - $170,510 (-75%)Hugo - $78,551 (-72%)ETA: And BOM is up.

Where did you find this number? According to boxoffice.com, Underworld Awakening's Monday number was $2,110,492 (-63%). (Which would be a better first Monday number than any of the previous films in the series. Interesting.)Other numbers from boxoffice.com:Contraband - $1,018,850 (-60%)EL&IC - $694,213 (-67%)B&tB - $595,377 (-77%)Joyful Noise - $408,418 (-71%)Iron Lady - $367,581 (-60%)SH2 - $346,085 (-63%)TGWTDT - $330,701 (-57%)War Horse - $281,333 (-61%)Alvin 3 - $193,834 (-80%)WBaZ - $188,465 (-73%)Artist - $246,040 (-59%)Descendants - $193,349 (-63%)TTSS - $154,598 (-59%)

1940 - Rebecca1948 - Hamlet1950 - All About Eve1956 - Around the World in 80 Days1961 - West Side Story1962 - Lawrence of Arabia1963 - Tom Jones1964 - My Fair Lady1965 - The Sound of Music1966 - A Man for All Seasons1968 - Oliver!1981 - Chariots of Fire1996 - The English Patient1997 - Titanic1998 - Shakespeare in Love2001 - A Beautiful Mind2002 - Chicago2003 - Return of the King2010 - The King's SpeechLooks like 19 for me too, though there are also a bunch more I've seen at least part of (Forrest Gump, Amadeus, Gandhi, Casablanca, Gone with the Wind and Gigi, at least, but probably several others, including Ben-Hur, as well).