Golden Globe nominations: A whole lot of 'Whaaat?'

By Sarah Sluis

So maybe this hasn't been the strongest year for movies. But does that really justify the Hollywood Foreign Press nominating the flop The Tourist in three categories? When I outlined the film's dismal box-office prospects the Friday it opened, I wondered if Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp would be enough to save the film. Well, it earned just $17 million opening weekend, but the star wattage of Jolie and Depp was enough to blind the Foreign Press Association to its negative reception stateside. I imagine the dialogue going something like this--"We need Depp and Jolie on the red carpet--we can't disappoint the people running E!'s Red Carpet show!" How big of a joke were The Tourist's nominations? They "drew audible laughter from the crowd of press and publicists assembled at the Beverly Hilton for the pre-dawn announcement," according to THR.

The other big "What" came from the HFPA's total shut-out of The Coen Brothers' True Grit. I don't see the movie until tomorrow, but it's currently tracking at 93% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. The Tourist? 20%.

Another big shut-out, but one that will receive less attention, was Sofia Coppola's Somewhere, which received zero nominations. Perhaps they didn't like the movie's jabs at press conferences and foreign awards shows? Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning both turned in solid performances, but at the very least a writing or directing nomination was deserved. Never Let Me Go didn't receive any nominations (though it was better than many nominated films), but that's less of a surprise as its early, October release shows that Fox Searchlight wasn't putting too much faith in it for awards season.

The Hollywood Foreign Press did make a couple of good decisions. It nominated Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine, one of the best movies I've seen all year. Jennifer Lawrence also got a nod for Winter's Bone, an Ozarks drama that's quietly powerful. But really, a lot of these nominations are a joke. The silver lining? The star power will make for an entertaining broadcast, and smart people betting on winners in awards pools may just get lucky.

'Marley' & 'Bedtime' top two at family-oriented box office

By Sarah Sluis

Compared to the top ten films this weekend in 2008, the January 2-4, 2009 weekend earned $10 million more, $122 million. The extra $10 million came from the performance of top three films, Marley & Me, Bedtime Stories, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. While most films fall 50% in their second week, the holiday season softened the drop to the 20%-30% range for all top ten films, as moviegoers extended their cheer by catching a family crowd pleaser or Oscar contender.

Marley & Me continued to dominate at the box office. With the midweek boost of New Year's, the film crossed the $100 million mark, making its cumulative gross $106 million in just two weeks. Slightly behind the lovable Labrador, Adam Sandler's fantasy picture Bedtime Stories earned $20.3 million, with a cumulative of $85 million; the film should cross $100 million within the next two weeks. Benjamin Button,

the highest ranked film of the Awards crowd, made off with $18.4 million while showing on fewer screens, and in more packed theatres.

Below Valkyrie, Yes Man, Seven Pounds, and The Tale of Despereaux, all of which earned in the $7 - $14 million range, Doubt came in at number 10 with $5 million. The Meryl Streep/Philip Seymour Hoffman/Amy Adams picture, now showing on over 1,000 screens, has earned $18.7 million in its four weeks of release.

Of the "for your consideration" films, all of which were shown in just a handful of theatres, Defiance had the highest per-screen average, earning $60k per theatre during its two-screen premiere weekend. Gran Torino (84 screens) earned $33k per screen, followed by Revolutionary Road (38 screens, $25k per screen) and The Wrestler (18 screens, $24k per screen).

With the winter holidays over, the first few weeks of January 2009 will see a deluge of films that, to put it lightly, will benefit from lack of competition (warring brides! mall cops! horror fill in the blanks! dog hotels!). Use this time wisely to brush up on the awards contenders, and you may end up on the winning side of an Oscar pool.

Full studio estimates available here.