Jake Gittes

There it ishttp://boxofficemojo.com/monthly/?view=calendargross&yr=2009&month=11The combo of BD2, Skyfall and Ralph will definitely outgross NM, 2012 and ACC, but we won't have a fourth $100m grosser until the end of the month, and there are simply not as many wide releases this time (10 as opposed to 13, or 11 if you include Killing Them Softly). So yeah it'll be a challenge.

I guess Argo, SLP and Lincoln are pretty much locked here. With two spots left, I'd just like them to not nominate Les Mis at all and go with Killing Them Softly and The Perks of Being a Wallflower instead. In reality, though, I'll have to be very happy if even one of them makes it... and even then, it will need to upset Anna Karenina, Life of Pi or The Sessions for the fifth spot. Damn.

The way it looks to me, they pretty much buried it. And I still have no idea why. I was never expecting $100m, but always thought an OW in the upper teens and a total over $50m, or, if it's lucky, $60m could be on the table with a release in 2700+ theaters.

KTS will probably be more divisive than Jesse, too. There is so much in the latter that it's very possible to enjoy at least various parts of it, even if not the whole. KTS will either fire on all cylinders or it won't deliver at all (sure, I think most will agree that it's well-shot and Pitt is as charismatic as ever, but it's the way the story is told and the idea is expressed that will either work for you or it won't). Fortunately, I found myself being along for the ride from the very first minute.

For me it's in the same ballpark, although it's not easy to compare a 160-minute period Western epic and a 97-minute crime thriller. I'd say Jesse James is more of an achievement considering just how much went into it; KTS is a lot more slight, but it also accomplishes everything it sets out to do and it packs more of an immediate punch. Both are excellent, and Chopper (Dominik's first film) is up on that level too, I'd suggest everyone to see that one if they haven't. Eric Bana is incredible in it, and it somewhat resembles KTS in its length (less than 100 minutes) and its very dark humor.

1. Killing Them Softly2. Moonrise Kingdom3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower4. Dredd5. Holy Motors6. The Grey7. Marley8. Cosmopolis9. Tabu10. The Avengers

Hell, if that was for lead actor, he'd pretty much be THE youngest. Adrian Brody, who holds the record, won for The Pianist mere weeks before turning 30.Obviously you can remember the whole "old men" thing and guess that them old pervs love themselves their young actresses, envying the young actors at the same time. But the acting branch must be fairly diverse, and, well, it's true that there are fewer truly remarkable performances by actors under 30 than by actresses, plus a good part of those are in extreme indies (JGL in Mysterious Skin, Hardy in Bronson or Fassbender in Hunger would never get nominated no matter how great they were). Probably not as many good parts, too... in a way it's like a vicious circle.This all reminded me of how I loved Eisenberg in The Social Network but wasn't sure he'd get a nomination until he won a bunch of critics' awards and the film started to look more and more like a real contender in all major categories. And he (Eisenberg) was still the exception more than the rule. Same with Brody and even decades-old nominations like Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire.

In the past 15 years, only three times did they give it to an actress older than 35. That happened with Mirren, Bullock, and Streep.

Oh yeah. It's pretty ridiculous. The government certainly isn't out to solve any real problems so, among other things, it comes up with the "protection of the children" law that's groan-worthy and has no positive effect on anything or anyone whatsoever. Anyway, now all Hollywood PG-13 blockbusters are rated 16+, pretty much all other American and European films, big and small, with the exception of family films, are rated 18+, all the Russian films without obvious and pervasive adult content get 12+, and the family/animated films are 6+ (yep, that's right). There's also an age disclaimer before every single fucking trailer they show in the cinemas. Embarrassing.

Skyfall, despite the hype, might not yet beat QoS' total here. First, it's got a 3-day OW, and second, while QoS came out almost completely alone, Skyfall has Silent Hill 2 and Asterix & Obelix on its back, both in slightly less than 1000 theaters. I think, given the circumstances, it will be a big winner if it crosses $20m and ends up in the TASM/Prometheus/Battleship/WOTT/Inception ballpark. And, well, it certainly needs to outgross RE4 ($16,8m), Ted ($16.9m), TDKR ($17.5m) and TE2 ($17.9m), and, finally, QoS itself ($18.1m) if it wants to be considered a winner at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX-24Zm0bjk

I saw Holy Motors earlier today and if there was any justice, Denis Lavant would win all the awards in the world for his work there.

Agreed. They would've awarded Tarantino or even Reitman before they awarded Cameron again.

So Sinister is going to approach, if not cross $10m this weekend which would mean a sub-50% drop and a possible $55m finish. There is even an outside chance of it ultimately outgrossing PA4, which would be a really amazing repeat of a PA/Saw VI or Insidious/Scream 4 situation.Taken 2 will have a sub-40% drop, Seven Psychopaths a sub-30% one and Hotel Transylvania a sub-25% one.Perks looks like it's going to increase from last weekend in both PTA and gross, despite adding only 19 theaters.The Sessions will need to have amazing PTA holds in order to stick around for the awards race. For such a hyped, praised film, a $9k OD PTA in 4 theaters is very underwhelming.

I'll provide some of the much-needed Big Trouble in Little China love.

The Sessions is adapted, too.

Hitchcock's adapted, yeah.

I'd agree if there was any competition. But besides Moonrise, Master, Django, Amour, ZDT, Promised Land and Looper I can't come up with any potential nominees. All right, The Impossible maybe. That's still 8 movies for 5 noms. Moonrise definitely seems like the one to beat for a nomination to me, it's one of the most acclaimed films of the year and Anderson has already been nominated in the category before. Tarantino, likewise, has been very successful in the category before and the Django script was acclaimed by pretty much everyone - unless the changes he's been forced to make to the story during production are disastrous, he's getting his third nomination.

Looking at Inception and District 9 (adapted, but it doesn't matter), I think it's definitely possible. The field isn't that strong, and the film has definitely made itself visible. I think The Master, Django and Moonrise are almost locked, and then you've got Promised Land, Amour and Looper for the other two spots (plus maybe ZDT, but I'm not a believer yet). I'd say Looper has a good chance to get in.

Doesn't matter to me as long as he continues to deliver good work and his movies aren't flops. Same goes for Hardy, Fassbender, Gosling, Garfield, etc. Sure it'd be great if they managed to make it as movie stars as well, but if audiences don't like them well enough for that, it's the audiences' loss. And Looper only took a hit this weekend because of Argo going for the same adult audience. It might easily rebound yet and reach $65-70m.

I chose alive human psychopath, ghost and beast/demon/devil. Was thinking of possessing spirit too, but that'd be too much, plus I like ghosts and demons better.Definitely not zombies, children or mutants. Doesn't mean the films with them are bad, they just don't make for compelling villains 99% of the time.

If it's someone we already know well, than easily either Fassbender or Tom Hardy. But plenty of other options might come up by the time it's 2017, since that's the earliest the producers will need to look for the next Bond.

I think Bardem, Ledger and Waltz have played the three definitive, iconic post-2000 villains that there are so far. Gotta love how each of them did it one year after the other and all three took very much deserved BSA Oscars.And yeah, Perks is just another Hurt Locker / Ghost Writer for Summit. It won't even do $20m, now that's a fuck-up by a distributor if I ever saw one.

Leave it to Summit to take a perfectly crowd-pleasing and relatable PG-13 teen comedy/drama and turn it into another Hurt Locker / Ghost Writer / Into the Wild box-office wise.

Yeah, I love Fargo too.