BadAtGender

There's more to a great screenplay than having quotable lines. It just is? It's very stark and mostly realistic, but it's still very much science fiction. Eh. While surprises may make for a disappointing show (although, that depends on your perspective) it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad Oscars. Far better the expected and predictable match up with the films and performances that are actually the best than there's a huge upset and we get a Crash situation.

Could AH be the film with the most nominations without a win? Not sure what the record is there.

Nice speech from the Lopezes. They're adorable.

EGOT!

Gravity does have a great score. So does How to Train Your Dragon.

Idina. Finally.

That was Cups playing when Kendrick & Sidbe walked on, right?

I liked the pizza gag.

Actual pizzas.

I don't think I'd heard The Moon Song before. It's cute. I think I like it better than Happy.

When Kim Novak paused, I almost died.

I wonder if a large percentage of the academy abstains if they don't see all the nominees.

Really sad, that. The other MCU scores are all pretty eh.

Peeved he wasn't nommed for 42, perhaps?

I was kinda rooting for it.

If it had gone to either AH or 12YAS it might have indicated how things might go down the line, but this isn't helpful at all.

Happy is okay, but it doesn't really stick with me. I honestly can't remember it from DM2 at all. Pharrell is pretty damn talented, though.

Me, watching the red carpet: Oh, I suppose that's a nice enough dress, but would you shut up and get on with it, please? Me, watching Frozen: Oh, god, look at that fabric texture! I wish I could pause the movie right now!

The big question for Avengers is whether it'll become the third film to crack a billion OS. While I wouldn't count it out, I wouldn't say it's guaranteed, either. Part of the problem is that it's not just contingent on retaining or expanding the audience, but also on the exchange rates. A weak dollar could translate to a weaker OS gross, even if admissions go up. Still, I'd expect Avengers to win the DOM race, even with a 10-20% decline from the first, and WW. Probably something like 500-550 DOM and 900-1050m OS, so something between 1.4 and 1.6b total. SW7 could hit 500, but that's approaching its ceiling. Even so, I'd probably give it a better chance of winning DOM than winning OS or WW. It's really difficult to peg what the OS gross will be. 600m seems a safe, conservative guess, and as much as 800m is possible, but not much more. DOM is probably good for 450-500. WW of 1.05-1.3b. I rather doubt anything else will hit a billion.

They also translate well. The stuff with Gru and the girls and the spy jokes all have some cultural baggage going on, but the Minions are like Scrat: they just ooze visual humor that's pretty universal.

Well, yes. A film doesn't get to a billion without something that the audience latches onto. All billion dollar films are special, in some way.

Pretty much. The labels and boxes we put on things aren't always useful. Yeah, I was going to make a point that Avatar's originality is in spite of the fact it's pretty much assembled from a hodge-podge of other sci-fi properties. But it's like, nothing truly unique is going to make that sort of business. Even if Frozen was a completely original story, it would still have that connection to the Disney name and the history of Disney musicals.

Frozen is pretty much as original a property as Titanic. Of the billion dollar films, Avatar can claim to be more original. Originality isn't binary, I suppose.

The lesson I've learned this weekend is that I should drink and post more often. It's gotten me a lot of likes. (I'm still unsure which post is my favorite.)

Oh, Gravity passed 270 million this weekend: 5 Gravity $875,000 3% 340 -8 $2,574 $270,464,531 22 Warner Bros. I wonder if it could see another bump next weekend. Argo saw a 15% bump and Life of Pi jumped 48%.