BadAtGender

Lumpia is one of the best foods ever devised. Dammit, now I want some.

Movie Title (click title to view) Studio Lifetime Gross / Theaters Opening / Theaters Release Links American Hustle Sony $150,117,807 2,629 $740,455 6 12/13/2013 Images American Pie 2 Uni. $145,103,595 3,157 $45,117,985 3,063 8/10/2001 Trailers American Gangster Uni. $130,164,645 3,110 $43,565,115 3,054 11/2/2007 Trailers Images American Beauty DW $130,096,601 1,990 $861,531 16 9/15/1999 Showtimes American Graffiti Uni. $115,000,000 n/a n/a n/a 8/1/1973 American Wedding Uni. $104,565,114 3,175 $33,369,440 3,172 8/1/2003 Trailers American Pie Uni. $102,561,004 2,544 $18,709,680 2,508 7/9/1999 The American President Sony $60,079,496 1,508 $10,014,558 1,508 11/17/1995 American Reunion Uni. $57,011,521 3,203 $21,514,080 3,192 4/6/2012 Images An American Tail Uni. $47,483,002 1,249 $5,234,446 1,246 11/21/1986 The American Focus $35,606,376 2,833 $13,177,790 2,823 9/1/2010 Images An American Werewolf in London Uni. $30,565,292 n/a $3,786,512 870 8/21/1981 Showtimes An American Werewolf in Paris BV $26,570,463 1,731 $7,600,878 1,728 12/25/1997 How to Make an American Quilt Uni. $23,600,020 1,532 $5,790,445 1,504 10/6/1995 American Gigolo Par. $22,743,674 n/a $3,559,930 570 2/1/1980 My Fellow Americans WB $22,313,201 1,915 $2,860,334 1,915 12/20/1996 An American Tail: Fievel Goes West Uni. $22,166,041 1,698 $3,435,625 1,680 11/22/1991 Geronimo: An American Legend Col. $18,635,620 1,636 $4,018,452 1,605 12/10/1993 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl PicH $17,657,973 1,849 $220,297 5 6/20/2008 Trailers Images An American Haunting Free $16,298,046 1,703 $5,783,508 1,675 5/5/2006 Trailers American Psycho Lions $15,070,285 1,242 $4,961,015 1,236 4/14/2000 More American Graffiti Uni. $15,014,674 n/a n/a n/a 8/3/1979 American Outlaws WB $13,342,790 2,348 $4,855,475 2,348 8/17/2001 Trailers American Me Uni. $13,086,430 830 $3,378,100 830 3/13/1992 The Quiet American Mira. $12,988,801 396 $101,663 6 11/22/2002 Trailers Everybody's All-American WB $12,638,294 1,123 $3,425,796 1,122 11/4/1988 American Ninja Can. $10,499,694 672 $3,234,837 672 8/30/1985 American Hot Wax Par. $7,932,571 n/a n/a n/a 3/17/1978 American Dreamz Uni. $7,191,830 1,500 $3,667,420 1,500 4/21/2006 Trailers Images An American Carol Viv. $7,013,191 1,639 $3,656,000 1,639 10/3/2008 Trailers American History X NL $6,719,864 513 $156,076 17 10/30/1998 Trailers American Splendor FL $6,010,990 272 $159,705 6 8/15/2003 Trailers The Last American Virgin Can. $5,829,781 158 $527,198 158 8/6/1982 American Dreamer WB $5,021,751 801 $1,580,990 801 10/26/1984 American Anthem Col. $4,845,724 900 $1,867,969 900 6/27/1986 American Ninja 2 Can. $4,000,000 397 $1,039,301 397 5/1/1987 American Sniper WB $3,424,778 3,555 $633,456 4 12/25/2014 Images Born American PEC $3,388,020 1,071 $2,225,475 1,071 8/29/1986 The Work and the Glory II: American Zion Vine. $2,025,032 206 $518,222 205 10/21/2005 Trailers Decline of the American Empire Cinpx $1,902,706 n/a n/a n/a 11/14/1986 American Flyers WB $1,420,355 5 $78,345 5 8/16/1985 Adventures of American Rabbit Atl $1,268,443 242 $291,126 242 1/17/1986 American Movie SPC $1,165,795 29 $20,260 2 11/5/1999 American Teen ParV $942,441 109 $45,589 5 7/25/2008 Trailers American Desi Eros $907,835 38 $305,054 38 3/16/2001 American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt Can. $902,152 140 $222,252 140 2/24/1989 An American Rhapsody ParC $850,255 54 $40,200 7 8/10/2001 American Buffalo Gold. $665,450 73 $164,109 29 9/13/1996 American Violet Gold. $554,434 61 $243,162 61 4/17/2009 Trailers Images American Heart Trit $384,048 8 $5,549 1 5/7/1993

Some rather large crowds at my local theater for AS. Dunno about sellouts, but it seemed business was brisk all around. The showing of Birdman I saw was quite full, too. And Birdman is pretty great. I really didn't know what to expect, since I'd never seen a trailer and only knew that Keaton was playing an actor who had been in a superhero film (so, a version of himself). And it's funny, has stellar acting, and OMG that cinematography is fantastic. (As for AS, I'll skip it. I don't know if there's a film in wide release that I'm less interested in, whatever it's about. But cool box office there.)

Time for Birdman

It's a sprawling 3 hour crime epic. Peter doesn't even show up for the first hour. The climax is a gun battle on the streets that culminates with the robber shooting Uncle Ben.

People are saying 3D is what sold Avatar, now? More like Avatar is what sold 3D.

Yeah, it would suck if we never saw the likes of Song of the Sea or Princess Kaguya in the nomination list again. This year I think there's a chance that one of the two could pull out a win. None of the field seems to overshadow the rest, at the moment.

It's a threshold thing, right? If there's 15 or fewer eligible films, there will be 3 noms, and if there's more there will be 5. This year we had 20. Even so, sticking to a 3-nom limit would make things a lot more interesting. Not better, but, yes, interesting.

If I had to guess, I'd say it comes down to Hyperion and Tangled. Which film has better animation is subjective, but which film is technically more complex is not. BH6 runs circles around LEGO in terms of what they did for lighting, setting, and so forth. LEGO uses its resources innovatively, yes, but BH6 developed revolutionary new resources. And besides that, I think the Academy is a little gunshy of another Tangled situation, where WDAS delivered a very technically complex and well-liked film and didn't get a nomination. Granted, that was probably more due to the 3 nom limit than anything else, but still.

It's technically more interesting. More seriously, a stop motion film with a wide release is practically guaranteed to get a nomination. In 2012 three of the five noms were stop-motion. In 2009 two of the five were. Since the award was implemented in 2001, only one wide-release stop motion film has failed to get a nomination, and that was Monkeybone.

Whoa, I just realized I've seen three of these. I haven't seen The Dam Keeper or A Single Life, yet. The Bigger Picture is a bit weird. The format is really cool, but the story's a bit eh. Feast most people know about. It's pretty great, although I do think it's a touch too long to get the point across. I don't think it was necessary for the final montage. The meatball rolling and baby dropping the food is enough to get a taste of what is to come for Winston. Me and My Moulton is fantastic. Absolutely hilarious and really heartfelt. It's my choice for the award.

I think it's less that Evans was trying to add plot elements than he was trying to fit his earlier movie idea into the "make a Raid sequel" hole. The meshing doesn't quite fit. On one hand the plot elements distract a bit from the action, and on the other the action doesn't quite fit in with his attempt at a sprawling crime epic. He's probably too young a filmmaker to pull off the latter, at the moment, but there's enough interesting things in the plot that he could make something really keen later in his career. With all that said, the pacing of the action scenes throughout the film is masterful. Each one is amazing and thrilling and I kept wondering if that was the peak of the film, but nope. The stakes kept getting raised so it was like each scene was an improvement on the previous. Just wow. BoL is fantastic. The world design is off the charts amazing. I hope that Fox and Reel FX have enough confidence in it to let Gutierrez do more, since I think he has planned two others.

How are noms determined for the other categories? Is it limited to the people in the specific field?

http://thedissolve.com/news/4474-academy-award-nominations/

It's probably because there are up to 10 noms for BP. So while there weren't enough people who'd seen it to get it nommed elsewhere, those who had seen it were enough to secure a low BP slot. Essentially those fewer who saw it really liked it. I'm wondering if this might mean that in the time between now and the end of voting, enough people will see it that it could garner a lot of support for the BP, if only because it didn't get any other recognition.

Okay, I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I think Blank really liked The LEGO Movie.

But it does make for some amazing visual effects. I hope it wins there, at least.

Yes. But it really, really pushes the "this is a movie about loss" thing.

By the Academy? Sure.

"for what it's worth"

Read what I responded to again. Treeroy was wondering about voters playing with LEGOs. I pointed out that, actually, a good portion of them might not have. Further: the nature of LEGOs has changed rather significantly over the past couple of decades. When I was totally immersed in them, there were no licensed tie-ins. It's possible that voters were actually turned off by the amount of of the licensed characters that showed up in the movie.

It's less bias and more a reasoning for why BH6 over Lego. FWIW, I don't think BH6 should win. I'm as shocked as anyone that Lego didn't get nominated. Boxtrolls is a huge surprise.

1) WDAS, which is riding a very strong streak at the moment. 2) Despite the superhero stuff, BH6 is very clearly about Other Things, and its construction really underlies that. 3) While LEGO have been around forever, a good chunk of the Academy probably does predate playing with them to a huge degree.

Not bummed about Lego. Surprised, but since I didn't think it was nearly as good as several other animated films which I've seen, I'm okay with it. Plus it really didn't play that strongly overseas, which may have had an effect. (Did the release date being so early? I don't know.) I am bummed "For the Dancing and the Dreaming" didn't get a Best Song nom. It's so much better than Everything is Awesome. (Powell not getting another score nom? Yeah, okay. It's a great score, but I understand why it didn't show up.) Selma getting snubbed feels weird. It really does seem like they flubbed the release.

Wow! I really did not expect that. I thought Lego was a shoo-in, at least for a nom. I'm actually kind of sad that The Boxtrolls got the nom instead of it. Not because I think Lego is better. (I put them about even, really. Lego does some things better, but Boxtrolls has an aesthetic and some design choices that are incredibly unique.) But rather, I'd hoped that Book of Life would sneak in there if something was going to get dropped. As for a winner, now. I really don't know. I feel like it will be Dragon? Probably? But really it feels like a tossup at this point.