Boyhood, Still Alice and Birdman triumph at 2015 Golden Globes

The first of the three major awards ceremonies dished out its accolades at last nights Golden Globes. So far Boyhood, Birdman, The Imitation Game, Gone Girl and The Grand Budapest Hotel seemed to be leading the way but this’ll set the town for the rest of the awards season to come.

Best Motion Picture – Drama:

Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical:

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Birdman
Pride
St Vincent
Into the Woods

Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama:

Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo – Selma

Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama:

Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy:

Michael Keaton – Birdman
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Bill Murray – St Vincent
Joaquin Phoenix – Inherent Vice
Christoph Waltz – Big Eyes

Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy:

Amy Adams – Big Eyes
Emily Blunt – Into the Woods
Helen Mirren – The Hundred-Foot Journey
Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
Quvenzhane Wallis – Annie

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture:

JK Simmons – Whiplash
Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture:

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods
Emma Stone – Birdman

Best Director – Motion Picture:

Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay – Selma
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Birdman

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture:

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaries, Armando Bo – Birdman
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Graham Moore – The Imitation Game

Best Original Score – Motion Picture:

Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Trent Reznor – Gone Girl
Antonio Sanchez – Birdman
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

Best Original Song – Motion Picture:

John Legend/Common, “Glory” – Selma
Lana Del Rey, “Big Eyes” – Big Eyes
Patti Smith/Leonard Kaye, “Mercy Is” – Noah
Greg Kurstin/Sia Furler/Will Gluck, “Oppurtunity” – Annie
Lorde, “Yellow Flicker Beat” – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

Best Animated Feature Film:

How to Train Your Dragon 2
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Lego Movie
The Boxtrolls

Best Foreign Language Film:

Leviathan
Force Majeure
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Ida
Tangerines

Boyhood’s victory, as well as Linklater, Keaton, Adams, Simmons and Arquette’s wins, was easily predictable but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t any surprises. Three of the four leading categories were wide open an last night put Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore and Amy Adams into the lead. Wes Anderson’s whimsical caper The Grand Budapest Hotel toppled dark comedy Birdman in the Comedy/Musical category but Inarritu’s film bounced back for Screenplay. The night’s biggest loser is The Imitation Game, hotly tipped with five noms but not a single win.

Here’s the winner’s list in full:

Boyhood – 3
Birdman, The Theory of Everything – 2
Big Eyes, The Grand Budapest Hotel, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Leviathan, Selma, Still Alice, Whiplash – 1

In TV, the likes of Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, True Detective and The Missing lost out to Fargo, Transparent, The Honourable Woman, House of Cards and The Affair.

You can find our official Oscar predictions (first nominees, then winners) here very soon.

Selma, Pride and Grand Budapest Hotel surprise at Golden Globe nominations

The first of the three truly major awards ceremonies, the other two being the BAFTAs and the Oscars, has at last pushed its cards from its chest. Unsurprisingly, the likes of Boyhood, Birdman, Foxcatcher, The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game and The Grand Budapest Hotel feature prolifically but there’s a few unexpected mentions for the films Selma, Pride, Annie, St Vincent, Nightcrawler and Into the Woods and the stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Murray, Naomi Watts, Jennifer Aniston and Meryl Streep. A phenomenal nine Brits have cropped up in the acting nominations (Benedict Cumberbatch, David Oyelowo, Eddie Redmayne, Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Rosamund Pike, Emily Blunt, Keira Knightley and Helen Mirren). Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will host the ceremony next Spring.

Best Picture – Drama:

Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Best Picture – Musical or Comedy:

Birdman
Into the Woods
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Pride
St Vincent

Best Director:

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay – Selma
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood

Best Actor – Drama:

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo – Selma
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

Best Actress – Drama:

Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Actor – Musical or Comedy:

Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Bill Murray – St Vincent
Joaquin Phoenix – Inherent Vice
Christoph Waltz – Big Eyes

Best Actress: Musical or Comedy:

Amy Adams – Big Eyes
Emily Blunt – Into the Woods
Helen Mirren – The Hundred-Foot Journey
Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
Quvenzhane Wallis – Annie

Best Supporting Actor:

Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
JK Simmons – Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress:

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

Best Screenplay:

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl
Alejendro Gonzalez Inarritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Graham Moore – The Imitation Game

Best Original Score:

Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross – Gone Girl
Antonio Sanchez – Birdman
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

Best Original Song:

Big Eyes – Big Eyes – Lana Del Rey
Glory – Selma – John Legend, Common
Mercy Is – Noah – Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye
Opportunity – Annie – Greg Kurstin, Sia Furler, Will Gluck
Yellow Flicker Beat – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Lorde

Best Foreign Language Film:

Force Majeure
Gett: The Trial of Vivianne Amsalem
Ida
Leviathan
Tangerines

Best Animated Feature:

Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie

Here’s the list of the biggest nomination holders:

Birdman – 7
Boyhood – 5
The Imitation Game – 5
Gone Girl – 4
The Grand Budapest Hotel – 4
Selma – 4
The Theory of Everything – 4
Big Eyes – 3
Into the Woods – 3
St Vincent – 3
Foxcatcher – 3

Weekend box-office – 13th to 19th of September 2014 – can Guardians continue box-office reign?

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy completely conquered the fairly barren month of August and is now continuing its run into the early autumn. This week the sci-fi phenomenon is competing for its fourth week on top of the box office and once more there’s very little competition. To its credit it’s capitalising on a surprising financial slump. Meanwhile in the UK, comedic box-office disappointment Sex Tape makes its debut, hoping for a much needed recovery. Find last week’s predictions here.

US:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – Director: James Gunn – $10.2 million
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman – $6.5 million
3. If I Stay – RJ Cutler – $5.7 million
4. Let’s Be Cops – Luke Greenfield – $5.4 million
5. The November Man – Roger Donaldson – $4.2 million

UK:

1. Sex Tape – Jake Kasdan – £1.4 million
2. Lucy – Luc Besson – £1.2 million
3. Before I Go to Sleep – Rowan Joffe – £0.8 million
4. The Hundred Foot Journey – Lasse Halstrom – £0.7 million
5. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – £0.7 million

The Guardians have done what no film this year has done: four weeks at the number one spot at the US box office, defying the worry that it’d be Marvel’s undoing. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is continuing impressive form while Let’s Be Cops is proving to be a sleeper hit. Pierce Brosnan’s spy thriller The November Man was intended to be a franchise starter but these numbers go against its favour. The UK saw three new entries, of which Sex Tape is number one. The film’ll be pleased with these statistics but it’ll hardly lift the spirits of a dismal box-office run. Star studded drama thriller Before I Go to Sleep has received a fairly mediocre reception also. This week I’ve scored a disappointing 3/10.

US:

1. Dolphin Tale 2 – Charles Martin Smith
2. No Good Deed – Sam Miller
3. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman
5. If I Stay – RJ Cutler

UK:

1. The Boxtrolls – Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi
2. Pride – Matthew Warchus
3. Sex Tape – Jake Kasdan
4. Lucy – Luc Besson
5. A Most Wanted Man – Anton Corbijn

Zoe Saldana and Benicio Del Toro in Guardians of the Galaxy, this week’s US number one.

Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel in Sex Tape, this week’s UK number one.

Weekend box-office – 16th to 29th of August 2014 – will TMNT deem Stallone and co Expendable?

As you may know, we’ve been away a little while so for this week’s box-office scoop we’ll have to cover the past two weeks of ticket sales.

The beginning of the summer season of film produced hit after hit: Captain America 2, Spider-Man 2, Maleficent, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Godzilla and X-Men 7 all greatly impressed. The second half of it has had the odd exception such as Guardians of the Galaxy or Dawn of the Planet of the Apes but has generally underperformed. This week’s attempt at ending a disappointing summer is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, dim in prospect but the fans of the cartoon are in legion. Last week we predicted it’d top the chart but let’s find out how it really did.

US:

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Director: Jonathan Liebesman – $65.6 million
2. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – $42.1 million
3. Into the Storm – Steven Quale – $17.3 million
4. The Hundred-Foot Journey – Lasse Halstrom – $11 million
5. Lucy – Luc Besson – $9.5 million

UK:

1. The Inbetweeners 2 – Damon Beesley, Iain Morris – £12.5 million
2. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – £3.3 million
3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – £1.7 million
4. Planes: Fire and Rescue – Roberts Gannaway – £1 million
5. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois – £9 million

TMNT hasn’t quite been the smash to elevate this summer from its sunken spirits but it’s still a very impressive debut, similar to this year’s 22 Jump Street and Maleficent. However, it might not have the same legs internationally. Anything over $500 million worldwide may be unlikely. Marvel’s interstellar Guardians have decreased drastically but a half-a-billion gross appears to be on the cards. Disaster thriller Into the Storm has made a fairly modest $20 million while Lasse Halstrom’s latest, The Hundred-Foot Journey, has made a surprise entry in this week’s top 5. In the UK, fans of the hit comedy show The Inbetweeners will likely be thrilled to hear that the second feature spin off of the series now has the title of this year’s highest UK opening weekend, ahead of Transformers: Age of Extinction. This week I’ve scored 8/10.

US:

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman
2. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
3. The Expendables 3 – Patrick Hughes
4. Let’s Be Cops – Luke Greenfield
5. The Giver – Phillip Noyce

UK:

1. The Inbetweeners 2 – Damon Beesley, Iain Morris
2. The Expendables 3 – Patrick Hughes
3. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves
5. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois

For the next week of releases, we’re trying to place three new releases in the US box office, no mean task. The Expendables 3, a sequel to a pair of greatly high grossing films and starring one of the year’s biggest ensembles (Stallone, Snipes, Statham, Schwarzenegger, Gibson, Ford, Banderes, Grammer, Li, Crews, Lundgren, Couture), may be set to flop giving a fighting chance to comedy Let’s Be Cops or drama The Giver.

US:

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman – $28.5 million
2. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – $25.1 million
3. Let’s Be Cops – Luke Greenfield – $17.8 million
4. The Expendables 3 – Patrick Hughes – $15.9 million
5. The Giver – Phillip Noyce – $12.3 million

UK:

1. The Inbetweeners 2 – Damon Beesley, Iain Morris – £4.3 million
2. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn – £2.1 million
3. The Expendables 3 – Patrick Hughes – £1.7 million
4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – Matt Reeves – £1.1 million
5. How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois – £0.6 million

Considering that previous instalments have taken $300 million plus, The Expendables 3 will have to go down as a huge flop. Well publicised pirating may have been its downfall but I’d think the fact that none of the Expendables have had a non-franchise commercial hit in years. The new TMNT instalment has dropped greatly from its opening weekend but that’ll be no worry to an already impressive domestic tally. On both sides of the Atlantic, Marvel’s space opera Guardians of the Galaxy is continuing to impress. British comedy sequel The Inbetweeners 2 has decreased two thirds of its debut taking of £12 million so the first film’s total of £50 million bay be out of reach. This week I’ve scored 6/10.

US:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
2. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For – Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Jonathan Liebesman
4. If I Stay – RJ Cutler
5. The Expendables 3 – Patrick Hughes

UK:

1. Lucy – Luc Besson
2. The Inbetweeners 2 – Damon Beesley, Iain Morris
3. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For – Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
4. Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn
5. What If – Michael Dowse

Megan Fox and Pete Ploszek in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this week’s US number one.

Joe Thomas, James Buckley, Blake Harrison and Simon Bird in The Inbetweeners 2, this week’s US number one