Disney’s “Frozen
2” might have lost its top spot at the box office, but the Mouse House has
claimed its sixth 2019 film to have hit over the billion-dollar mark out of
eight films. That’s two very remarkable records, and the sequel might surpass
the original which grossed $1.28 billion worldwide when it opened in 2013.
Kristen Bell (Princess Anna) and Idina Menzel (Queen Elsa) reprise their leading voice roles for the sequel. The characters from the original movie embark on a new journey that goes beyond their homeland of Arendelle, only this time Anna joins Elsa for the adventure. Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, and Santino Fontana also return from the first film, while new cast members include Evan Rachel Wood and Sterling K. Brown.
Overseas, China
leads all markets with $111.5 million, followed by South Korea ($85.4 million)
— where “Frozen 2” is now the top-grossing animated title of
all time — Japan ($67.3 million), the U.K. ($49.6 million), Germany ($39.9
million) and France ($37 million).
The other
2019 members of the billion-dollar club are “Avengers: Endgame” (the
top-grossing film of all time, with $2.79 billion globally), “The Lion King” ($1.65 billion), “Spider-Man: Far From Home” ($1.31 billion), “Captain Marvel” ($1.12 billion), “Toy Story 4” (1.07 billion), “Joker” ($1.06 billion), and “Aladdin” ($1.05 billion). All but Sony’s “Spider-Man” and Warner Bros.’ “Joker” were released by the Disney empire.
“Frozen 2’s” latest milestone was achieved a
week after Disney announced it has amassed more than $10 billion in total
worldwide ticket sales this year. The studio also set the previous industry
record of $7.6 billion in 2016, when it had four $1 billion babies.
“Jumanji:
The Next Level” puts “Frozen 2” on second-place ice, while Clint Eastwood’s
“Richard Jewell” opened with one of the worst box office debuts for the
director. The sequel was getting some whispers claiming that it would bomb
after initial reviews were lukewarm, but Dwayne Johnson is now in the biggest
movie in North America for the second
time this year. After “Hobbs & Shaw,” he’s proving his mettle hasn’t
changed at the box office.
The Sony film starring
Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart brought in $60.1 million in the U.S. and Canada
to break a three-day record for a comedy in December for the production
company. The sequel is a follow-up to 2017′s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,”
which grossed $962 million worldwide.
A week before it opened in
North America, Sony’s “Jumanji: The Next Level” debuted in 18 international
countries where it made $52.5 million. The film was Hart’s first movie release
since the actor-comedian suffered a serious back injury after his vintage
muscle car he was riding in crashed in California in September.
“People were like ‘Another
reboot’ of a well-known franchise, but the movie delivered so well on the
promise of the marketing, and the whole concept
of the movie just resonated with audiences,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior
media analyst for the box office tracker Comscore. “It’s going to play well in
the long haul.”
“Frozen 2” dropped to
second place with $19.2 million domestically after claiming top box office spot
for three
straight weeks, earning $367 million since its Nov. 22 release. The animated
film following the adventures of Anna and Elsa crossed the $1 billion mark
globally to become Disney Animation’s third billion-dollar project along with
“Frozen” and “Zootopia.”
“Richard Jewell” landed at
No. 4, bringing in $5 million. The film took aim at the media and federal
investigators for what he sees as a rush to judgment after the 1996 Olympics
bombing in Atlanta. While many will pounce on it being a bomb, this was a hard
film to sell as darker fare doesn’t always bring out audiences when there’s a
dark political tone going on in the country. Lighter fare always sells much better
when times aren’t so great, and with America being so divided, going out to be
reminded of that, isn’t such a big thing to do.
The 89-year-old Eastwood
calls Jewell’s story “a great American tragedy.” The docudrama focuses on
Jewell, who was initially hailed as a hero for finding a bomb at the event held
at Centennial Olympic Park and clearing bystanders from the area.
One person was killed and
111 were injured when the bomb exploded.
Jewell likely helped
prevent many more casualties, but within a few days was reported to be the
focus of the FBI investigation, and the public quickly turned on him. He was
cleared three months later after his life had been upended by the investigation
and public scrutiny.
The film fell under
immense scrutiny from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution which objected to
the movie’s portrayal of the late journalist Kathy Scruggs, who seemingly sleeps
with an FBI agent.
Olivia Wilde,
who plays Scruggs, posted a series of tweets on Thursday that she does not
believe the real-life journalist “traded sex for tips” despite the insinuation
in the movie.
Despite the low numbers,
Dergarabedian believes “Richard Jewell” could build a larger audience
over time.
“If history tells us
anything, movies like this generally are a slow burn at this time of the year,”
he said. “But also, let’s think about this too. Because it’s Clint Eastwood,
there’s always a certain level of expectation placed on any movie. Often those
expectations are overblown a bit. Given the subject matter, it’s aimed at a
mature audience. I don’t know if you could expect like ‘Richard Jewell’ to open
$20-$30 million. It’s what you should expect from an adult drama.”
Eastwood’s drug smuggling
drama “The Mule” debuted with more than $17.2 million late last year.
Along with “Richard
Jewell,” Paramount’s “Black Christmas” put up sub-par debut numbers to open at
No. 5. The 1974 slasher film remake from Universal pulled in only $4.42
million.
“It’s a very crowded
marketplace right now,” Dergarabedian said. “Obviously, ‘Jumanji’ had so much
broad-based appeal that it cut into everybody’s audiences.”
The Rian Johnson-directed “Knives Out” continues to lean on strong social media buzz to land at No. 3, bringing in $9.2 million. The well-reviewed, innovative whodunit film starring Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis and Chris Evans has earned back its budget last week and now has grossed $78 million.
Next weekend, the box office is expected to be significantly busier with the release of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” “Cats” and the expanded release of “Bombshell,” starring Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie.
“Uncut Gems,” starring
Adam Sandler, will also expand nationwide next week, but opened in a select
five theaters Friday to earn more than $525,000. The thriller focuses on a
charismatic New York jeweler, played by Sandler, who is looking for the next
big score in a series of high-stake bets.
Yet, another big awards hopeful, Lionsgate’s “Bombshell,” kicked off in limited release. The drama, based on female Fox News anchors who went public with sexual harassment allegations against Roger Ailes, ignited with $312,000 from four screens, translating to $78,000 from each venue. Women represented nearly 60% of ticket buyers, while 86% of audiences were over the age of 25.
Bombshell, Jumanji: The Next Level, Uncut Gems, Richard Jewell
North America Box Office
Estimated ticket sales for
Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore.
Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are
also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Jumanji: The Next
Level,” $60.1 million ($85.7 million international).
2. “Frozen 2,” $19.1
million ($55.7 million international).
3. “Knives Out,” $9.2
million ($13.6 million international).
4. “Richard Jewell,” $5
million.
5. “Black Christmas,”
$4.42 million ($3.1 million international).
6. “Ford v Ferrari,” $4.1
million ($5.1 million international).
7. “Queen & Slim,”
$3.6 million.
8. “A Beautiful Day in the
Neighborhood,” $3.3 million.
9. “Dark Waters,” $2
million.
10. “21 Bridges,” $1.1
million ($1.4 million international).
Last week’s “Supernatural” was the first written by Jeremy
Adams, who I thoroughly
enjoyed spending time with at Comic-Con last summer. He’s a great guy and a
big fan of the show and the genre, and his enthusiasm for what he was writing
came through in the episode – and was largely what I liked about it. The
episode was split between more serious moments and pure fun, and it was the fun
parts that will be most memorable about it for me.
Episode
1507
Let me talk about that first because that’s what I enjoyed the most. The episode wasn’t actually a meta episode, but I don’t know that I’ve ever watched an episode thinking more about what was happening in “real life” and less about the characters and the story. To the extent that I couldn’t see Dean singing with Lee as much as Jensen Ackles singing with his old friend Christian Kane. Usually, that wouldn’t make me happy, because it’s the characters and the story that I love with all my heart.
But it’s the last season, the last chance that this cast has to do some of the things they’ve wanted to for a long time, and it was infectiously joyful to see Jensen so happy to be able to finally have Kane on his show – both of them were clearly having the time of their lives. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Jensen sing live, and some of those little mannerisms of seeming indecision were definitely his, and it made me smile.
I was oddly nostalgic myself about Jensen and Christian
singing together on “Supernatural”, because one of the first times I saw Jensen
sing (not in person, I wasn’t that lucky, but god bless the fans who filmed it)
was at a Kane concert for Christian’s birthday. It was so rare and so special
to see Jensen sing back then – and I must have watched that little clip… well,
probably a lot. So seeing them perform together on the actual show was a
reminder of how long they’ve known each other and how long I’ve been watching
this show!
It’s rare we get to see Dean Winchester that happy, which was
another reason it kept looking like Jensen to me instead of Dean – at first.
Toss in a few little meta commentaries about lip-synching Eye of the Tiger and that whole first scene in Swayze’s Bar was all about reality instead of fiction. (If that was all the episode was, I would’ve been sorely disappointed, though).
The other part of the episode that worked for me was Dean’s
journey from apathy and feeling mostly hopeless to rediscovering his “always
keep fighting” determination. The classic hero’s journey, with Dean coming out
on the other side of his trauma and hopelessness, realizing who he is and what
he wants and resolving to go after that. Lee is a mirror for Dean, at one point
even saying “I am you – I just woke
up and saw that the world was broken.”
That’s what Dean was on his way to becoming, to giving up
just like that. But faced with who he would be if he did give up, Dean finds
his motivation to keep going. Yeah, the world is seriously effed up, and it
would be tempting to give up like Lee did and just look out for yourself. But
that’s not Dean Winchester.
Dean: Then you fix it! You fight for it!
And that’s exactly what he’s now determined to do – or at
least I’m hoping that’s where he is now and that he’ll stay there. I liked the
way the character of Lee, a gifted hunter and fierce fighter who had gone dark
side, provided the spark for Dean to make a decision about how he wanted to end
up – a hunter, now and always. That’s my Show.
After
all, as he says, someone’s gotta kill the bad guys.
Sam and Eileen had some cute moments, especially their post-Margaritas breakfast extravaganza and Sam’s embarrassing admission when Dean asks if they’re hung over.
Eileen clearly really cares for Sam, and hey, who can blame
her for wanting to “do something fun”? That would definitely be fun. I’m still
scratching my head that a romance for Sam in the middle of the last season is
where we’re going but at least Eileen isn’t dead and Shoshannah is still
gracing my tv screen!
And Castiel got to be the badass version of Cas that I like
best – in fact, he was downright scary in this episode. I never knew Misha
Collins could look quite that pissed off at the world, but damn, he really did.
Cas seems to have come back from his clear-his-head time alone with a renewed
determination to do what needs to be done in order to defeat Chuck (and Lilith
now that he knows she’s back on the playing field).
Some of the rest of the episode didn’t work quite as well for
me. Let’s recap. Drunk girls, one disappears – but the car too? Drunk girl
thinks they were Raptured because it happened so fast, but really, how did Lee
pull that off so silently and quickly? Was Sally THAT drunk and puking THAT
long?
Dean is clearly desperate for a distraction, which isn’t
unusual for Dean when he doesn’t feel like he’s able to do much or to go after
who he really wants to go after (Chuck and Lilith). I do think it’s odd that he
wants to go alone, when Sam and Eileen are ready and willing to back him up. He
says it’s so they can have time to fool around if they want, but that seemed
odd with so much going on right now. Anyway, he teases Sam about putting a sock
on the door, which – what door? The front door? Sam’s bedroom? Does Dean
regularly barge in there?
I don’t know, but Sam acquiesces to Dean leaving alone oddly
easily, later saying uncertainly to Eileen that “his leaving, that’s a good
sign, right?” In what universe is that a good sign? Dean leaving to “take a
drive” is never a good thing. How can
Sam think he’s okay when he just turned down a heaping plate of real bacon?? I’m not sure, but I guess we’re meant to think
of it as a good sign since Dean left his room at least.
Dean’s idea of taking a drive is going all the way to Texas
to work a case. Without telling Sam that he’s going all the way to Texas to
work a case. It’s an odd time for Dean to lie to Sam, when he has a god wound
in his shoulder and Lilith is on the loose. Not the best of ideas and you’d
think Dean would know better by now. But they split up anyway, even though
everyone should know that because they’re split up something bad is going to –
oh boy, yep. Something very bad happens. To both of them.
Dean first checks in with the local sheriff. Put Sheriff
Dillon on the good side of the episode, because I very much enjoyed his few
minutes. In fact, I kinda wanna know more about his “whole month in Hollywood
in which he could’ve been the next Denzel”. And I have to agree with his
parting shot to Dean.
Sheriff: Hollywood ain’t that far. You could
give show biz a shot for yourself. You’ve got the look.
Ain’t
that the truth.
It was another little sorta-meta moment, but the Sheriff made
it work.
Swayze’s Bar was a Jerry Wanek masterpiece, complete with
Family Business Beer shout outs and lots of neon. Baby looks pretty as hell
pulling into the parking lot.
One of my biggest WTF moments happened in this scene, though,
when the manager lady told Dean he had to hand over his phone (“This is Texas,
sweetheart, you can keep your gun”.)
I find it hard to believe that Dean would hand over his phone
for hours on end when Sam has a wound that ties him to Chuck and Lilith is back
on the board. I also was jarred by all
the yay for guns stuff. I mean, this is “Supernatural” and they all use
weapons, but the real life Texas commentary was a little too real in the midst
of what’s happening all too often in the real world. Anyway, Dean recognizes
his old buddy Lee, and Lee calls Dean “my boy” and they catch up over LOTS of
alcohol. We get some interesting back story about Dean hunting with Lee while
Sam was away at college, and how much John Winchester liked him, and that all
sounds like a whole bunch of fics I’ve read so I enjoyed it. They drink to
John, and Lee tells Dean he wanted out of the life and he doesn’t regret it –
that he’s “living the dream”.
It’s an instant mirror for Dean, whose idea of living the
dream was pretty similar when he was trapped in his fantasy world by Michael –
running a bar alongside a comely bar manager. It’s what Dean has wished for, so
it’s compelling for him, and here he is confronted with the evidence that maybe
he could indeed have it. It makes the eventual realization of the price Lee
willingly paid to get that dream, and how much arrogance and selfishness it
took for him to decide he “deserved it,” all the more hard hitting for Dean
when it all goes down. I thought that was very well done, so kudos, Jeremy.
Meanwhile, Sam and Eileen are researching, and then Eileen
suggests a break and having some fun, with an adorable eyebrow cock from Shoshannah,
and Sam reaches over…
And
holds her hand, and…
Castiel bursts in! I had to laugh when that happened.
Cas to Eileen: I thought you were dead.
Eileen (wryly): Yeah. I got better.
Again, I laughed out loud. If you haven’t watched Shoshannah
in “This Close,” you need to. She is just
as gifted at comedy as she is at drama.
Cas explains that the Equalizer fired a piece of Sam’s soul –
so there may be some of Sam inside Chuck.
Eileen: (making a face) Ewww.
Me: lol
Cas decides to probe Sam’s wound.
Sam: Probe it?
Me: lol
Eileen: Is this dangerous?
Cas: Probably.
Sam pulls his shirt aside, which is a very attractive thing to behold indeed, and Cas starts “probing” him, and Sam is fine until… he’s not. In fact, he gets catapulted off the bed and smashes against the wall, and Jared Padalecki’s stunt double earned his salary that day for sure.
Cas calls Dean, frantic, but (inexplicably) Dean is still not
even checking his messages let alone insisting he get his phone back. WHAT?
Cas, desperate, calls someone else. I actually shouted
“Sergei? REALLY??” I mean, did anyone
think that was a good idea?
Cas
is taking no shit though.
Cas: If you don’t help me, I’ll find you
and burn you alive.
Sergei: My, how your negotiation skills have
improved.
Back at the bar, Dean and Lee get drunker and reminisce about the time they had a – fivesome? – with triplets, with Lee making sure to note that “we split ‘em up fair and square” and if you do the math on that you get some very interesting pictures of what went down that night. Fanfic, anyone? Also, Dean has a real thing about sleeping with twins and triplets.
It doesn’t take long before most of us realize that Lee isn’t
the “good old boy” he claims to be. He claims not to recognize the missing girl
in the photo, and the bar manager instantly calls him on it, saying “that’s
Angela, she’s in here all the time.”
Everyone (except Dean Winchester): Shit.
For some reason, Dean doesn’t get that same vibe. Maybe he’s
too drunk? Or too lulled by his past with Lee to be suspicious?
Lee tries to talk Dean into getting out of hunting, saying he
deserves a break…or two.
Dean: Who’s gonna kill the bad guys?
Lee then distracts him with an invitation to come sing the
song that John used to play them before a hunt to psych them up, calling Dean
onstage with a “Come on, boy, you can’t just sit around lip synching Eye of the
Tiger”. Another meta-ish moment, and
then we get Jensen and Christian and a whole song.
What made it an even nicer moment was that the band that’s backing them up is made up of actual crew members, who also got a chance to be onscreen and immortalized on this show they’ve worked on for so many years. This crew is special, and the relationship between cast and crew is special, and I love that they got to shine like this. Members of the crew band “The Impalas” include Perry Battista, Tracy Dunlop, Chris Glyn Jones, Dave Weber, and Cam Beck.
Lee and Dean team up to toss out some drunken bullies too, cementing the “still got it” teamwork vibe, so that it’s all the more heartbreaking when Lee breaks ranks completely. There’s another totally suspicious moment when Lee tries to talk Dean out of looking for the missing car at the scrapyard and Dean once again misses the clear suspiciousness. He insists on going, and we get a beautiful scene of Dean walking up the aisle, looking smaller and smaller as he goes. Maybe a way to anticipate how lost he’s about to be when Lee turns on him.
He finds the dead girl in the trunk, and there’s a click – a
gun at his head.
Boom, Lee knocks him out and hooks him up to the bloodletting
contraption to feed the monster.
Meanwhile,
Sergei arrives at the bunker.
I was gobsmacked that Castiel brought Sergei TO THE BUNKER to
heal Sam. Why didn’t they move him somewhere else? Sergei, of all people, could
make use of a billion dangerous and precious things that the Men of Letters
have there, and they bring him right in the front door? Not even blindfolded?
Sergei tells Cas and Eileen that Sam is dying (very
prettily). That his god wound stretches down to his very soul and also out into
the world, connected to…someone.
Of course, this isn’t much of a reveal, because we the
audience already know that.
Sergei also says that Castiel’s probing is killing Sam. So
Dean is tied up being bled to death in a basement and Sam is dying from a wound
probe. Yet next week, the Winchesters are apparently going to split up yet
again!
Anyway, Sergei double-crosses them (shocking absolutely no one – and trying to bargain for the key to Death’s library that he knows is in the bunker). Instead of helping Sam, Sergei hastens his demise. As he does, Sam’s connection to Chuck allows him to see and hear Chuck, and so he knows that Chuck isn’t at full strength and also that he cannot see Sam and Dean anymore. Helpful, but again, not a revelation to all of us.
Interestingly, Sam clearly sees the part of the story Chuck
typed out that became that iconic ending to Swan Song – the one that I loathe
seeing in a different light now because it’s one of my favorite moments in the
entire series. What does it mean that he saw that so clearly? I shudder to
think.
Eileen throws herself at Sergei and chokes him when he
refuses to help Sam, which was pretty badass.
Castiel also has a pretty vicious threat – if Sergei doesn’t
help Sam, Cas will tell AU Bobby to kill his niece.
Cas: Fix Sam. NOW.
I have to say, I was shocked by this. Kill an innocent girl who has nothing to do with this? Would Cas really have done this? He sure as hell seemed like he would, but it was kinda horrifying. Maybe just a very good bluff? At any rate, Cas (and Misha Collins) pulled it off.
Look at that glare!
Sam wakes up with a gasp.
Caps by @kayb625
Dean wakes up with a gasp.
Nice
symmetry.
Lee explains that to a bound Dean that he became demoralized
and cynical after realizing that so much evil existed, that they would never
win – so he might as well have a little fun. He feeds the Marid fresh blood and
it gives him money and good health in return. Livin’ the dream.
Lee: Aren’t we owed a little happiness?
No one cares, Dean.
Dean: Well I do.
Lee starts the blood drip, patting Dean on the shoulder as he
leaves. (Ackles’ expression on Dean’s face as he does that is priceless. It’s
the little things).
You would think Lee would have done a better job trussing Dean up – he knows what a hunter can do – because it takes Dean about 0.3 seconds to break free. It takes the monster about 0.3 seconds to break free too, so Lee also didn’t do a bang up job with that monster cage either. There’s noises coming from the basement and upstairs Lee cocks his gun.
The door opens – and the Marid’s severed head rolls out.
Followed by Dean Winchester, big damn hero. That was a really well directed
moment, so kudos to Amyn Kaderali.
There’s a nicely choreographed gun fight followed by a nicely choreographed fist fight (which Jensen and Christian did some of – Jeremy Adams was nice enough to share some behind the scenes video of their practice sessions on set). Dean Winchester has been an epic badass in Season 15, I will say that! (Thanks, Rob Hayter!)
Lee
suggests that Dean just walk away.
Dean: I can’t do that. I kill monsters.
Lee hits him with a pool cue (which unfortunately for Jensen
didn’t break in real life when they were filming that) then tries to stab him
with it, and Dean grabs it and stabs Lee instead. They freeze there, the cue
embedded in Lee the only thing keeping him still alive. It’s an intimate moment,
full of pain of all kinds, and Christian and Jensen killed it, showing us ALL
the emotion.
Lee: Why do you care so much, Dean?
Dean: Because someone has to.
Lee: Well then, I’m glad it was you.
Dean pulls out the cue and Lee collapses, dead. Dean looks down,
clearly sad, throws the pool cue down in disgust. Ackles makes it hurt.
In the last scene, they all come together again for two
minutes at the bunker. Dean finds Cas there and they have an entirely awkward
conversation because both are still angry. And they both suck at talking about
it. The distance between them is clear from the blocking.
Dean: Hey. Sam, is he?
Cas: He’s fine.
Dean: Good. That’s good.
Cas: Yeah. (walks away)
Dean: (silently) Okay then.
Sam shares what he now knows, that we’ve known for a while.
Sam: I was in Chuck’s head. He’s weak. I
think we can beat him. I think we can beat God.
It would have had more impact if that was a revelation to the audience too, but it gives them a good set up for going into the mid-season finale.
Final
Thoughts
This was a pretty brutal episode, with Dean killing his old
friend (also killing a human) and Castiel threatening to kill an innocent young
girl. By the end, though, they’re all in a better position to be both determined
and hopeful as we head into the mid season finale. The very last mid season
finale….
I so want to be blown away by it, but I’m keeping my
expectations tempered. There’s a lot happening this season because it’s the
last, and cast and crew and producers and writers all have things they want to
have happen before the show ends. Some of those will (hopefully) be the things
I love about the Show and some won’t. There’s no way to please everyone, and
I’m just one of those ‘everyones’, so I’m trying to take the moments that bring
me joy and cherish them and shrug off the things that don’t.
I’m also dealing with a painful back injury, so even crossing
my fingers hurts right now. Fingers still crossed though for “Supernatural,”
this is important…
With the mid-season finale hitting Thursday, we’ll have a good month to wait for the final 12 episodes of “Supernatural” to hit. We’ll be waiting anxiously.
Jim Mickle slowly
but surely established himself as one of the most interesting directors in
contemporary US horror, from his rat zombie 2006 debut “Mulberry St” to his
acclaimed 2010 apocalyptic vampire tale “Stake Land”. As a result, the announcement
that his follow-up to the amazing “Stake Land” was to be a remake of Jorge
Michel Grau’s Mexican cannibal family saga “We Are What We Are” came as a bit
of a surprise. Actually, it was a big surprise.
The on-going horror remake trend of that time had long outstayed its welcome with genre fans and critics. Thankfully, his version of the film is that rare thing indeed; a remake that stays true to the basics and themes of its source material, while adapting it to a different culture and landscape, offering something new and thoughtfully constructed in the process. The DVD release comes with a variety of the usual extras, including a making-of documentary.
The plot relocates the flesh-eating from Mexico to a rundown rural community in the US heartlands, currently in the grip of a torrential rainstorm and dangerous flooding. Kicking off with the death of their mother, the film follows two young girls, Iris and Rose Parker (Ambyr Childers and Julia Garner), who live with their younger brother Rory and father Frank (Bill Sage) in the trailer park he runs. An odd family, kept at arm’s length by the local community due to their strange fundamentalist religious beliefs, the Parkers are harboring a macabre secret, which is slowly revealed after the storm and the efforts of coroner Doc Barrow (Michael Parks) bring to light the reason behind a string of disappearances in the surrounding area.
It’s really a bit unfair to call “We Are What We Are” a remake, as the associations the term conjures definitely do a disservice to what Jim Mickle and regular co-writer Nick Damici have achieved here. While the two films do share the same basic premise, this new version differs in a number of ways, from the structure of the family through its rural rather than urban setting. The changes feel natural and entirely appropriate, and without being overly ponderous or symbolic, the film does a great job of exploring themes of religion, family and American culture and decline.
There’s a lot more going on here than in the average genre film, and as with “Stake Land”, one of Mickle’s greatest talents is to take a potentially outlandish fantasy scenario and to make it believable. Though this is certainly a film about cannibalism and madness, it’s also an emotionally grounded story about family and adolescence. This elevates it several notches above most other cannibal outings, and like Antonia Bird’s sadly under-seen 1999 opus “Ravenous”, it works on many levels.
There’s certainly plenty
of horror here, both of the subtle, understated kind and of the Grand Guignol.
Mickle allows things to build patiently throughout, and the film is in its
early stages a highly effective piece of brooding, ramshackle Gothic, with some
magnificently moody cinematography and a great eye for small but sinister
details. A few well-judged jump scares aside, the first half of the film is
very much focused on atmosphere, with most of its violence kept half-seen and
in the shadows. This sits well with Mickle’s overall approach, slowly pulling
the viewer in before unleashing some full-on gruesomeness towards the
conclusion.
Things do
get very bloody before the end, and the gore has a real gut-punch impact,
thanks in no small part to some excellent work from the cast, Ambyr Childers
and Julia Garner both convincing as the two girls, and Bill Sage on impressive
form as their deteriorating but dangerous father. Kelly McGillis, becoming a
Mickle regular after her appearance in “Stake Land” is also solid, though it’s
the always likeable Michael Parks who steals most of the scenes as the coroner,
taking on the film’s detective role and essentially driving the narrative.
Though “We Are What We Are” does have its flaws, most notably a few clumsy plot developments and lines of ripe dialogue, it’s another top draw piece of contemporary genre film making from the extremely talented Jim Mickle. One of the best cannibal films of recent years, it’s a rich and poetically realized effort, which will hopefully avoid being tagged as a mere remake and which should have lifted his name up onto the horror A-list where it belongs.
While Mickle
has gone on to direct “In the Shadow of the Moon,” which was well-received, I
think that “We Are What We Are” shows a wonderful progression of an indie horror
writer/director who has been underrated.
Jim Mickle (director) / Jim Mickle, Nick Damici (screenplay) CAST: Kassie Wesley DePaiva … Emma Parker Julia Garner … Rose Parker Ambyr Childers … Iris Parker Jack Gore … Rory Parker Bill Sage … Frank Parker Kelly McGillis … Marge
Sometimes we all feel pressured
to get people Christmas gifts because of the social stigmas, but you might also
be a bit short on money. While I’m not a big believer in automatically buying gifts
for people who I assume will be buying me gifts, guilt is a big thing for many,
so there’s no need to break your budget reciprocating This can be a stressful
time because you’re trying to figure out how to afford all of these gifts while
also affording things like necessary bills.
You don’t have to show up empty-handed
or suffer embarrassment from not being able to afford a decent gift for
someone. There are many options for gift giving on even the tightest budget.
Cookies
If you have a favorite recipe for
desserts, you might want to create a wonderful homemade gift that your
recipient will love. There are tons of great recipes out there and you can
present it in a cute, holiday container that won’t cost more than a few
dollars.
You might things like fudge or
cookies – something they can share with their friends and family. No matter
what you make, they’ll be sure to appreciate the time and effort you put into
it, and it’s also very cost-effective. Luckily, you can find great deals if you don’t have time for baking
right here. There are some great holiday cookie baskets for less than $25
that will make a great gift.
Affordable Prints
For a simple and cheap version of
décor, you can get someone a simple print or poster and put it in a nice-looking
frame that’s budget-friendly. Prints are almost always far less expensive than
the original artwork, and you can get them for next to nothing.
This will always make for a great addition to a household. Just make sure you know their personal preferences for decorating and then try to find similar designs or prints in that same style. You can find amazing art pieces that will bring so much life to someone’s wall without spending a fortune or even a small fortune. Prints are something that many people don’t think about giving during the holidays, so your gift will truly stand out while finding amazing deals right here.
Candles
If you’re buying for someone who always
seems to have a scented candle lit, then a little aromatic diffuser can bring
down the cost for them quite a bit by allowing them to get many different
scents without spending a lot on a constant supply of candles.
Edens Garden has a great array of
candles to fit everyone’s smell taste, and luckily, they’ve got some amazing
holiday deals going on right here. While
it may seem simple, but we all have those days where the right scented candle
can bring your mood right up.
While some essential oil
diffusers can be pricey, we’ve found a great
set that has great deals for under $20 and some even under $10 with the
oils included.
Jewelry makes for a great gift, but it’s pretty pricey when you get down to it. With readily available kits online, you can make your own jewelry for a fraction of the cost, and you’ll be adding a personal flair to it. We found some amazing deals that can get you creating for the holidays right here.
Finally, nothing can replace a
fine book. It doesn’t have to be a rare copy or a first edition print, but a
nice looking hardback of a classic can become a great addition to their
bookshelf and give them a nice read that can entertain them for hours on end,
all at an affordable price right here.
For friends that really love
reading, you might consider a Kindle
Unlimited membership that gives them a wide array of choices to always have
at hand in their own personal library.
Giving gifts when you’re on a
budget doesn’t have to be stressful for you. First, consider the interests of
the person you’re buying for. Then think of all of the accessories and items
they use on a regular basis. Look for budget-friendly options that align with
that and they’ll be grateful for the gift, regardless of the expense. You can check
out all of our Holiday Gift Guides here for every person on your list.
Amazon is
stepping up things with President Donald Trump, stating that his “improper
pressure” and behind-the-scenes attacks harmed its chances of winning a $10
billion Pentagon contract. Trump has been very vocal about wanting to harm the
internet retail giant, even going so far as to call the Post Office to raise
postage rates on them.
Amazon argues in a lawsuit unsealed Monday in the U.S. Court of
Federal Claims that the decision
should be revisited because of “substantial and pervasive errors” and Trump’s
interference.
Amazon and its founder
Jeff Bezos have been a frequent target of Trump, even before he became
president. Bezos personally owns The Washington Post, which Trump has referred
to as “fake news” whenever unfavorable stories are published about him.
Personal Vendetta
Amazon said it lost the
deal due to Trump’s “personal vendetta against Mr. Bezos, Amazon, and the
Washington Post.”
Pentagon spokeswoman
Elissa Smith said in a statement Monday the decision to select Microsoft “was
made by an expert team of career public servants and military officers” and
without external influence.
Formally called the Joint
Enterprise Defense Infrastructure plan, or JEDI, the military’s computing
project would store and process vast amounts of classified data. The Defense
Department has said it will help speed up its war planning and fighting
capabilities and enable the military to advance its use of artificial
intelligence.
Amazon and Microsoft
became the finalists after Oracle and IBM were eliminated in an earlier round
of the contract competition. Oracle had also sued,
arguing the bidding was rigged in Amazon’s favor. Trump publicly waded into the
bidding process over the summer, saying he heard complaints and wanted the
Pentagon to take a closer look.
“The department is
confident in the JEDI award and remains focused on getting this critical
capability into the hands of our warfighters as quickly and efficiently as
possible,” Smith said.
White House, Microsoft Quiet
The White House didn’t
immediately return an emailed request for comment Monday. Microsoft also didn’t
immediately return a request for comment but is intervening in the court case
to defend its contract win.
Charles Tiefer, a
government contracting law professor at the University of Baltimore, said it
would be “an uphill battle” for Amazon to win the lawsuit.
The company must prove
real influence by the president beyond his tweets and campaign speeches. Emails
and other documents would have to prove that Trump’s views toward Amazon were
on the mind of officials in charge of awarding the contract.
“That’s hard to show,”
Tiefer said. “But it’s not impossible.”
Amazon makes the case in
the lawsuit that its cloud services were a better fit for the project because
of its speed, efficiency and experience securely handling classified government
data. It says the Defense Department made errors in the procurement process
that make little sense without taking into account Trump’s antipathy toward
Amazon. Some of the lawsuit’s details are redacted for proprietary or security
reasons.
“Basic justice requires re-evaluation of proposals and a new award decision,” the lawsuit says. “The stakes are high. The question is whether the President of the United States should be allowed to use the budget of DoD to pursue his own personal and political ends.”
AWS
Amazon Web Services has
been the industry leader in moving businesses and other institutions onto its
cloud — a term used to describe banks of servers in remote data centers that
can be accessed from almost anywhere. But Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform has
been steadily catching up, as have other providers such as Google, in both
corporate and government settings.
Mike Hettinger, a tech
industry lobbyist focused on federal contracting, said a strong case could have
been made for either Amazon or Microsoft winning the contract but it is hard
for an outside observer to know what went into the government’s technical
evaluations and whether Trump’s comments or actions influenced the outcome.
Amazon is likely to use the case to seek more internal documents from the
government.
“I don’t think anybody
knows what happened behind the scenes,” Hettinger said. “I think that’s what
this lawsuit is intended to find out.”
Marvel is figuratively entering the world of Hogwarts where witches, mages, spellcasters, and sorcerers will be brought together into a school of magic recruited by Doctor Strange. Thus, the name “Strange Academy” which will have an assortment of characters larger than either “Avengers” and “X-Men.” Doctor Strange will be opening up his own supernatural training facility in March to school the next generation in the comic book series.
The city known for 19th-century Voodoo queen Marie Laveau and for the tarot card readers who tell fortunes in its historic French Quarter is about to play host to a different kind of sorcerer — at least in the Marvel comics universe.
Marvel announced plans
Thursday to debut a new comic book, “Strange Academy,” in March. Described as a
supernatural coming-of-age saga, it’s set at a New Orleans school for teenagers
from across the universe who have a variety of mystical powers.
The youngsters, facing
typical adolescent anxieties and atypical creatures from other dimensions, will
be new characters. But they’ll be under the tutelage of some Marvel stalwarts,
including the school’s flamboyant caped namesake, Doctor Strange.
Marvel writer Skottie Youn, asst editors, Danny Khazem, Kathleen Wisneski, Executive Editor Nick Lowe (left to right) researching in New Orleans for Strange Academy.
Veteran Marvel writer and
artist Skottie Young is working with longtime Marvel artist Humberto Ramos on
the project. In an interview this week, Young said he and co-workers first
thought about setting the story in New York, where the Doctor Strange character
resides.
Young, however, had
recently visited New Orleans for the first time, celebrating his 40th birthday.
“It just kind of occurred to me that there’s a nice history and folklore about magic and the mystic arts and the dark arts and things like that kind of surround the mythos of New Orleans,” Young said. “Having just gone there myself for my 40th, I thought that would be a great place to set it. And that it would be awesome just to go back again and do a nice little research trip.”
Marvel editors accompanied Young on a return trip. Visits to a French Quarter Voodoo museum, a 280-year-old candle-lit bar on Bourbon Street, courtyards with rusty gates and untamed greenery — all will inform the storylines and art of the new publication.
Young and said the series
is aimed at a broad comic book audience but also will appeal to young adult
readers who in the past might have been fans of the Harry Potter novels or
similar works.
“What we’re really trying
to do is tell those classic coming of age stories that we’ve seen in so many
other properties or other projects out there in the world whether it be TV or
film or novels or comics,” Young said. “Whether it’s kids running around mazes
or kids at a magic school or people running around trying to survive a
post-apocalyptic landscape.”
Ramos, perhaps best known
among comic fans for his work on Spider-Man comics, said in an emailed
statement that Young pitched the idea to him more than a year ago.
“I told him I have and
always will love Spider-Man, but I wanted to try something new and exciting
with my friends and my Marvel family. He began to pitch me on an incredible
project for the rest of the weekend,” Ramos said.
Not that the new project
will necessarily keep Ramos from drawing Spider-Man. As any fan of Marvel
comics or the Marvel Studios movies knows, characters from one series often pop
up in another. Doctor Voodoo and Scarlet Witch are Marvel characters who will
teach at Strange Academy.
“It would not be out of left field for us to throw Spider-Man into an issue if we wanted, or have Wolverine come in,” Young said. “For a while, Wolverine ran a mutants’ school. So he understands the ins and outs of teaching kids with this level of power.”
The new Marvel series follows young student Emily Bright who possesses powerful magical skills since being born. Along with her, students from Asgard, the Dark Dimension along with Doyle Dormammu, the illegitimate son of longtime Doctor Strange Villain will also be accompanying her. The preview copy will be action-packed from the start with “Strange Academy” bringing together supernatural antics with coming-of-age tropes set at the heart of the Marvel Universe.
More box
office movie history was made as Disney’s “Frozen 2” continues dominating the theaters
while “Playmobil: The Movie,” ranked as one of the biggest wide-release flop
films ever. The animated family film failed to break into the Top 10 despite
playing at over 2,300 locations. “Frozen 2” had little competition to keep it
from keeping it’s top slot while blanketing multiplexes for the third
straight weekend, continuing its reign at No. 1 with $34.7 million in
ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The Walt
Disney Co. animated sequel has already grossed $919.7 million worldwide. It
will soon become the sixth Disney release this year to cross $1 billion, a record
sure to grow to seven once “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” hits theaters
later this month. Early next week, Disney will cross $10 billion at the global
box office this year.
But the weekend overall at
the box office was yet another disappointing one for the movie industry. A
handful of under-performing releases and a relatively thin wide-release
schedule hasn’t helped the 5.6% slide in domestic ticket sales from last year,
according to data firm Comscore.
The first
weekend of December is historically slow, and this year was no different with
only one new nationwide film opening.
This weekend produced an
outright flop in “Playmobil: The Movie,” the week’s only new wide release. The
STX Films release was never expected to do well, but it bombed so thoroughly that
it will rank among the worst-performing
wide-releases ever. It grossed $668,000 in 2,337 venues, giving it a
per-theater average of just $286.
A handful of companies
combined to produce the $75 million French film, including Wild Bunch and
Pathe. STXfilms, which acquired domestic rights to “Playmobil” after Open Road Films imploded, doesn’t have
any equity in the family pic and kept the marketing spend to roughly $3
million, according to insiders. A slew of companies were involved in making the
film, including Wild Bunch, Pathe and the Paris-based On Animation. In the
U.S., almost every chain save for locales such as the ArcLight and Pacific
Theaters offered the discounted price of $5.
“We are in a business that
focuses on growing box office gross. But in this case we were looking beyond
that. We were working closely with our exhibitor partners on a strategy to
stimulate not only gross but growth within our business,” STXfilms
distribution chief Grayson said in a statement. “We have many challenges
these days with growing attendance and this was an attempt at stimulating
growth through experimentation with a value pricing model.”
“Playmobil’s” voice cast includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Jim Gaffigan, Kenan Thompson, Meghan Trainor and Daniel Radcliffe. The movie has already played overseas, where it has earned less than $13 million.
The top five films were
almost unchanged from last weekend.
Rian Johnson’s acclaimed,
star-studded whodunit “Knives Out” remained in second place with $14.2 million,
declining a modest 47% in its second week of release. With $63.5 million
cumulatively and $124.1 million worldwide, the Lionsgate release has been one
of the season’s bright spots.
So has James Mangold’s
“Ford v Ferrari,” which stayed in third place with $6.5 million over its fourth
weekend. The racing drama, starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale, has sped to
a global take of $168 million for Disney, which acquired the film’s original
studio, 20th Century Fox, earlier this year. The film cost about $100 million
to make.
Melina Matsoukas’ outlaw
romance “Queen & Slim” moved up to fourth in its second week with $6.5
million, swapping places with Marielle Heller’s Mister Rogers drama “A
Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” ($5.2 million in its third weekend).
Todd Haynes’ true-story
legal drama “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as a defense attorney who
takes on the DuPont chemical company, expanded nationwide from 94 to 2,011
theaters. The Focus Features release made $4.1 million Friday through Sunday.
That puts
“Dark Waters” in sixth place — a modest result given that it was critically well-received
(it holds a 93 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and has
recognizable stars in Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway and Tim Robbins.
A handful of other
holdovers competed for the sales not claimed by “Frozen 2,” before the biggest
December releases (like “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”) arrive later in the
month.
Celine Sciamma’s acclaimed
period romance “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” opened at two locations with a very
strong $33,552 per-theater average. Neon will release the French film wider in February.
Some of the weekend’s most
widespread movie watching may have been on Netflix, though the streaming
service doesn’t disclose viewership tallies or box-office receipts.
After a three-week
theatrical run, Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” one of the year’s most
critically acclaimed films, began streaming Friday. On Friday, Nielsen said
Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” last weekend drew an average audience of 13.6
million viewers from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1. Netflix has said Nielsen numbers, which
only estimate U.S. viewership, reflect an incomplete picture.
Amazon likewise didn’t
release ticket sales for “The Aeronauts,” which opened in 52 theaters over the
weekend. Tom Harper’s film, which cost $40 million to make, stars Eddie
Redmayne and Felicity Jones as 19th century balloonists.
Amazon Studios likewise released “The Aeronauts” in 52 theaters, but isn’t reporting grosses since the film is getting a truncated release, much like Netflix titles do.
A week before it opens in
North America, Sony’s “Jumanji: The Next Level” debuted in 18 international
countries where it made $52.5 million. The sequel to 2017′s “Jumanji: Welcome
to the Jungle,” which grossed $962 million worldwide, is expected to lead the
box office next weekend.
Frozen 2, Playmobile: The Movie
North American Box Office
Estimated ticket sales for
Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore.
Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are
also included.
1. “Frozen 2,” $34.7
million ($90.2 million international).
2. “Knives Out,” $14.2
million ($18 million international).
3. “Ford v Ferrari,” $6.5
million ($8.3 million international).
4. “Queen & Slim,”
$6.5 million.
5. “A Beautiful Day in the
Neighborhood,” $5.2 million.
For years, the online gambling industry has
been holding its breath while riding the ocean waves of proposed legislation,
lawsuits, and lobbying over the legality of online gaming. Far from beginner’s
luck, progress has been hard-won and extremely hard-fought to bring us where we
are today. And friends, the future is looking bright. Let’s recap where we’ve
come from and examine where we’re going.
Long, Long Ago
June 2013, summertime. Just as the world was
getting ready to launch into summer gaming campaigns and take those hard-earned
vacation days, the online gambling industry was dealt a significant blow.
Sheldon Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate, came out in favor of banning
online gambling.
He launched a website to promote his views and
began to lobby congress. In his efforts, Adelson cited the danger of online
gaming for children and those who find the draw of internet betting
irresistible. At the end of the year, his official appeal before congress fell
flat.
The Wire Act
A bill from 1961, it was generally thought the
Wire Act would have no bearing on internet gambling. But soon, opponents called
for a restoration of this act. Through the years, anti-gaming lobbyists tried
to get this act, which could severely restrict internet gambling, passed through
congress. The Department of Justice eventually issued an opinion that the Wire
Act could be used to limit all forms of internet gambling.
New Hampshire for the Win!
Almost immediately, lawsuits poured in with New Hampshire leading the way. After a rather lengthy and drawn out process, the final decision handed New Hampshire the win. What does this mean for you? It means you can now access sites like All Bets and place your favorite online gambling bids to your heart’s content! Read on for specifics regarding jurisdiction and a state-by-state breakdown for where you legally can play.
Where Can you Play?
The past few years have seen slow progress in
individual state adoption of online gambling legislation. Here are the few
places where you can play poker, blackjack, and slots online.
Delaware: Online Casino and Poker
Nevada: Online Poker
New Jersey: Online Casino, Poker, and Online Sportsbook
Pennsylvania: Online Casino, Poker, and Online Sportsbook
West Virginia, Rhode Island, Oregon, and Indiana: Online Sportsbook
The catch: If you want to jump into the world of online gambling, you have to be physically present inside state lines to play. You don’t have to reside within the state, but you most prove presence at the time of gameplay.
Every online gambling app and website has
geolocation software, ensuring you are, indeed, located inside state lines.
And be aware! If you try and to access online
gambling sites with a VPN when you are not in a legal state, you could get
yourself banned for life. VPNs are strictly prohibited, and many online
gambling sites will automatically reject your IPN from their server if you try.
When, not if you get caught, the penalty can
range from severe fines to lifetime banishment from online gambling sites. So,
take our advice and carve out a few vacation days if you are dying to play in
Pennsylvania but reside in California.
More States Jump Onboard
Six states are on tap to approve legislation
that will legalize internet sports betting or improve current offerings. Here
is the latest on what you can expect soon.
Illinois:
Though embattled over legislation to allow legal
internet gambling, it seems proponents see a shift in favor of the industry.
With the introduction of sports betting into the legislative conversation, the
total freeze of internet gambling appears to be thawing.
Indiana:
With the introduction of online legal sports betting
in October of this year, this is a state to watch. Once one form of online
gambling is legalized, other types are sure to follow!
Massachusetts: Massachusetts is a baby state when it comes to the gambling scene. But while their brick-and-mortar casinos are only a few years old, online gambling is already being discussed in the political circles. Online sports betting could be the first foothold for this state with other options to follow. Keep an eye on Massachusetts, and we will too!
Michigan:
In 2018, a bill legalizing online gambling in all
forms – poker, sports, and casino – was passed. The governor quickly vetoed the
measure, but with legislation already drawn up, it’s likely to make a
recurrence.
New
Hampshire: While you can play the online lottery here,
there are no other forms of legalized internet gambling. However, plans are
being constructed to put through an initiative for online sports betting. As
we’ve seen with other states, once online sports betting takes off, other
opportunities are usually right around the corner.
New
York: Of all states to consider passing legislation to
legalize online gambling, New York is the least likely to do so. Several
reasons place New York in the “least likely” category, but perhaps the most
significant is the fact their brick-and-mortar casinos are not turning enough
profit.
General opinion stemming from this realization
leads to the idea that opening internet gambling will take what little revenue
is available away from land-based casinos. To navigate around the
profit-sharing issue, lawmakers are looking at a different avenue for online
gambling: the sports industry.
While sports betting is allowed in commercial
casinos, online sports betting is still a subject for debate.
Initial progress for online gambling has been slow but steady. In the next year, be on the lookout for new legislation to pass through any number of the states listed above.
After years
of users complaining that they can’t easily transfer their pictures out of
Facebook and onto other platforms like Google Photos, the social media giant is
now changing all that. It’s not doing it to be nice, but with ongoing
investigations into Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, they are trying to be
more proactive than reactive in this area.
So, the
social media titan began testing a tool on Monday that lets users move their
images more easily to other online services, as it faces pressure from
regulators to loosen its grip on data.
The social network’s new
tool will allow
people to transfer their photos and videos directly to competing platforms,
starting with Google Photos.
The company said it will
first be available to people in Ireland and will be refined based on user
feedback.
The tool will then be
rolled out worldwide in the first half of 2020.
U.S. and European
regulators have been examining Facebook’s control of personal data such as
images as they look into whether the tech giant’s dominance is stifling
competition and limiting choice for consumers. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has
reacted by calling for new rules to address “data portability” and other
issues.
Facebook said that as it
worked on a new set of data portability tools, it had discussions with
policymakers, regulators, and academics in the U.K., Germany, Brazil and
Singapore to learn about which data should be portable and how to protect
privacy.
“At Facebook, we believe that if you
share data with one service, you should be able to move it to another,” said
Steve Satterfield, Facebook’s director of privacy and public policy, in a blog post. “That’s the
principle of data portability, which gives people control and choice while also
encouraging innovation.”
The company is developing
products that “take into account the feedback we’ve received and will help
drive data portability policies forward by giving people and experts a tool to
assess,” Steve Satterfield, director of privacy and public policy, said in a blog post.
This announcement came just two months after they published a white paper to address key issues around making data portable between online services. Tech geeks have created their own tools to move their pictures around easily, but the average user has no idea how to do this. Last year, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter created the open-source Data Transfer Project (DTP). Apple joined in just a few months ago.
Banks Jumping Into Product Offering Game
There’s a
powerful new player watching what you buy so it can tailor product offerings
for you: the bank behind your credit or debit card.
For years, Google and
Facebook have been showing ads based on your online behavior. Retailers from
Amazon to Walgreens also regularly suction up your transaction history to steer future spending and
hold your loyalty.
Now banks, too, want to
turn data they already have on your spending habits into extra revenue by
identifying likely customers for retailers. Banks are increasingly aware that
they could be sitting on a gold mine of information that can be used to predict
— or sway — where you spend. Historically, such data has been used mostly for
fraud protection.
Suppose you were to treat
yourself to lunch on Cyber Monday, the busiest online shopping day of the year.
If you order ahead at Chipotle — paying, of course, with your credit card — you
might soon find your bank dangling 10% off lunch at Little Caesars. The bank
would earn fees from the pizza joint, both for showing the offer and processing
the payment.
Wells Fargo began
customizing retail offers for individual customers on Nov. 21, joining Chase,
Bank of America, PNC, SunTrust and a slew of smaller banks.
Unlike Google or Facebook,
which try to infer what
you’re interested in buying based on your searches, web visits or likes, “banks
have the secret weapon in that they actually know what we spend money on,” said
Silvio Tavares of the trade group CardLinx Association, whose members help
broker purchase-related offers. “It’s a better predictor of what we’re going to
spend on.”
While banks say they’re
moving cautiously and being mindful of privacy concerns, it’s not clear that
consumers are fully aware of what their banks are up to.
Banks know
many of our deepest, darkest secrets — that series of bills paid at a cancer
clinic, for instance, or that big strip-club tab that you thought stayed in
Vegas. A bank might suspect someone’s adulterous affair long before the
betrayed partner would.
“Ten years ago, your bank
was like your psychiatrist or your minister — your bank kept secrets,” said Ed
Mierzwinski, a consumer advocate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
Now, he says, “they think they are the same as a department store or an online
merchant.”
The startup Cardlytics,
one of the field’s pioneers, runs the offer programs for Wells Fargo, Chase and
other banks. Though these partnerships, Cardlytics says it gets insights on
about $2.8 trillion worth of annual consumer spending worldwide.
A Cardlytics rival named
Augeo runs a similar program with other banks, which it declined to name.
American Express has an in-house program for its cardholders. Visa targets
offers on Uber’s app for credits toward rides and food delivery.
Even though banks only
know where you’ve shopped — and not specifically what you bought — they’re
often able to make educated guesses. After all, it’s not likely you’re at a
liquor store for the potato chips.
The bank can then infer
other things you may like. It would have a pretty good idea that you’re about
to travel if you’ve charged a flight or hotel stays. HSBC is looking into using
that data to set up automatic alerts, so that it wouldn’t decline your card use
as fraudulent when you start charging for meals in Kathmandu or Karachi.
The next step is to make
location-specific offers, perhaps for a car rental, as soon as you land. Marcos
Meneguzzi, HSBC’s U.S. head of cards and unsecured lending, said cardholders
will welcome such offers, at least when they’re relevant. But he warns that
banks could easily overstep and lose their customers’ trust.
Many of these efforts
remain in their infancy, and it’s not yet clear how well they’ll catch on. The
Cardlytics programs, for instance, don’t push offers through notifications. You
have to look for them in your banking app or website.
Abeer Bhatia, an executive
with Chase’s credit-card business, said commissions barely cover operational
costs. To Chase, the program is more important for incentivizing
rewards-conscious consumers to use its cards. If a Chase card gets you an extra
10% at Rite Aid, why pull out your Citi card?
As far as these companies
are concerned, Americans have repeatedly demonstrated that they value freebies
and discounts more than intangible privacy concerns.
“Consumers understand the
banks are giving them ways to save money based on how they shop,” said Scott
Grimes, CEO and co-founder of Cardlytics.
But banks often don’t
explain clearly what they’re doing with your data, even though they sometimes
share your transactions with outside data companies such as Cardlytics to
process offers. And many banks don’t seek explicit consent, instead including
these programs by reference in general agreements for the card or online
banking.
“It’s totally long, and
people don’t read that,” said Saisattha Noomnual, a graduate student in Chicago
who gets targeted offers through her Chase and Bank of America cards.
Under federal law, banks
merely have to let you withdraw from marketing, or opt out. That’s difficult to
do if you’re not aware it’s happening.
Noomnual said she can only
guess she gets more offers for Starbucks because she visits Starbucks a lot.
She reasons that based on how well banks analyze her spending for fraud alerts.
While she said she doesn’t mind that, she wishes banks were more forthcoming.
Bank of America declined to comment. Chase said it tries to keep disclosures simple and understandable without overwhelming consumers.
Banks insist they don’t
share personal information with other companies because they replace names with
anonymous ID numbers. Privacy researchers, however, have shown that such data can
be “de-anonymized” under the right conditions.
It came as no surprise to anyone that “Frozen 2” rode high on the holiday box office Thanksgiving weekend setting another record. “Frozen 2” pushed “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” which pulled in $109.9 million in 2013 or around $122.8 million in today’s dollars down one spot. After only 12 days in international release, the Disney film has sold $739 million tickets worldwide. This will quickly become the sixth Mouse House film to cross the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office.
Adding to its slew of box office records, “Frozen 2” is already the highest-grossing animated movie in history in Indonesia and the Philippines. It also surpassed the lifetime haul of its predecessor in 11 territories including China ($90.5 million). Other top markets include Korea ($61.2 million), Japan ($38.3 million) and the United Kingdom ($35 million).
“Frozen 2”
kept a wintry wind at its back in its second week, setting a Thanksgiving
record with a whopping box office bounty, while newcomer “Knives Out” found its
own broad audience.
Disney’s new
set of adventures for Anna, Elsa and Olaf brought in $85.3 million in the U.S.
and Canada over the weekend and earned an unprecedented $132.7 million for the
holiday frame of Wednesday through Sunday, according to studio estimates.
“Frozen 2” marks the biggest
Thanksgiving showing ever for a Disney animated film after taking the crown
from the first “Frozen,” which earned $93.7 million for the five days in 2013. The
follow-up’s performance is all the more impressive given that it opened last
weekend, while “Frozen”didn’t unfurl nationwide until the Wednesday before the
holiday.
The first
“Frozen” opened on Thanksgiving in 2013, but the sequel opened
a week prior to the holiday, making it poised for a huge second week, with
out-of-school kids happy to see it a second or a third time.
“Having the
opening weekend falling a few days ahead of Thanksgiving really set it up
perfectly,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the box office
tracker Comscore.
That came on top of a record-burying opening weekend of $127 million debut domestically and $350.2 million worldwide that made it the highest-grossing global debut for any animated film globally, and the largest opening for any Walt Disney Animation Studios release.
The original
film and its world-making song “Let It Go” became a pop-culture phenomenon,
earning $1.27 billion worldwide and selling countless Elsa and Anna dresses.
The sequel
has more than showed that the six years since has brought no thaw. It has
already earned $739 million globally and should certainly surpass the
original’s totals.
“Disney is usually immune to the waning interest that audiences have with some sequels,” Dergarabedian said.
“Knives
Out,” the innovative whodunit from writer and director Rian Johnson, rode great reviews and
strong social media buzz to a $27 million weekend and a five-day domestic total
of $41.7 million that easily earned back its budget.
The film’s vast and eclectic cast included Ana de Armas, Christopher Plummer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, and Chris Evans.
Johnson, the
director of “Looper” and “The Last Jedi,” had been the target of some Twitter
fanboy outrage for the direction he took the second episode in the newest “Star
Wars” trilogy, whose final chapter opens next month.
The “Knives
Out” opening showed his name value was unharmed and might even have been
strengthened by the online noise, and its reception could mean awards season
consideration for Johnson and the cast.
“First and
foremost, this starts with Rian Johnson,” said David Spitz, president of
domestic distribution for Lionsgate. “He wrote a screenplay we all loved and
executed it to perfection.”
In response
to the strong showing, Johnson on Sunday morning tweeted “Wow – THANKS to
everyone who came to #KnivesOut this weekend, and for all the lovely tweets,
you guys are the best.”
While put on
the calendar to draw in adults while kids were watching and re-watching “Frozen
2,” “Knives Out” proved to be more than a niche picture.
“We set it
with the counterprogramming expectation, this is a good adult dramedy,” Spitz
said.
But, he
said, it turned out younger audiences had even better reactions than older
ones.
“It’s
playing to everybody,” Spitz said.
While the
weekend showed that there is nothing like a franchise to bring in blockbuster
bucks, it also reflected that tentpoles aren’t the only means to attract
audiences.
“When it
comes to adult fare, it seems that audiences want more originality,”
Dergarabedian said.
“Knives Out”
also opened strong internationally with a weekend of $28.3 million.
The
weekend’s other newcomer, “Queen & Slim,” finished down in fifth with $11.7
million, but with a limited number of screens and a modest reported budget of
about $20 million, it was still a successful opening for the
Bonnie-and-Clyde-meets-Black-Lives-Matter story.
“Ford v
Ferrari” rolled
along in its third weekend of release, finishing in third place with $13.2
million.
Tom Hanks’
Mister Rogers story “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” also hummed along in
its second weekend, earning $11.8 million to put it fourth at the domestic box
office.
Among other holdovers, “21 Bridges” collected $7.9 million for the five days for a 10-day domestic total of $20.5 million for STX Entertainment.
At the
specialty box office, Focus Features and Participant’s “Dark Waters” expanded to a total of 94 locations in
its second weekend, grossing $860,000 for the five days for a cume of $977,000.
The pic is set to roll out nationwide next weekend.
While this Thanksgiving didn’t beat last year’s $315 million mark, the holiday is already helping offset what has otherwise been a bleak November at the box office. Heading into the long weekend, overall ticket sales were behind over 7%, according to Comscore. Now, box office receipts are down by 5.6%.
Frozen 2, Knives Out, Queen and Slim
North American Box Office
Estimated
ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according
to Comscore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday
through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released
Monday.
1. “Frozen
2,” $85.3 million ($163.8 million international).
2. “Knives
Out,” $27 million ($28.3 million international).
3. “Ford v
Ferrari,” $13.2 million ($10.2 million international).
4. “A
Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” $11.8 million.
5. “Queen
& Slim,” $11.7 million.
6. “21
Bridges,” $5.8 million ($1.9 million international).
7. “Playing
with Fire,” $4.2 million.
8. “Midway,”
$4 million ($2.7 million international).
9. “Joker,”
$2 million ($4.6 million international).
10. “Last
Christmas,” $1.99 million ($8 million international).
After only two
months as a judge on NBC’s hit talent competition, “America’s Got Talent,”
actress and producer Gabrielle Union found herself in a rather uncomfortable
meeting with Simon Cowell. He had a very simple message for her; if she had any
issues with the show, come directly to him, not NBC.
Her concerns were brought up regularly after joining the show in February. These included Cowell’s smoking inside and alleged racist incidents which had mainly been addressed with NBC executives. She heard the same response that they would look into her concerns, but nothing ever came of it.
When it came
time for the new judge and Cowell to meet, she felt very frustrated and concerned
with the workplace environment of “America’s Got Talent.” His words felt like a
pressure tactic to the actress and left her feeling that both he and the
network were covering up some major issues.
Last Friday,
Union found out from NBC that she was being let go after one season. She felt
that Cowell “perceived” her as “difficult” and prematurely ended her
three-contract with the show. The network had even added in a clause for her
option to be extended for subsequent seasons. Production ‘sources’ have stated
that both Union and Julianne Hough were being rotated out, it is noticeable
that past judges Mel B and Heidi Klum were kept for more than one season before
being ‘rotated out.’
Union
thanked supporters for defending her amid reports she was fired from “America’s
Got Talent” after complaining about racism and other alleged on-set issues.
“Just when you feel lost,
adrift, alone… you got me up off the ground. Humbled and thankful, forever,”
the actress tweeted Wednesday night. She didn’t directly address her status
with NBC’s talent show, and her representatives did not respond to requests for
comment Friday or previously.
According to reports, Union
and Julianne Hough have been dropped as “America’s Got Talent” judges after a
single season.
Union, who is African
American, reportedly sought network action to address a workplace environment
that allegedly allowed racist jokes and comments and other troubling behavior,
including judge-producer Simon Cowell’s smoking indoors in violation of state
law.
Union’s husband, former
NBA player Dwyane Wade, also weighed in Wednesday on Twitter, saying he’d yet
to hear a good reason why his wife was being fired.
In a statement, NBC and
series producer Fremantle defended what they called the show’s “long history of
inclusivity and diversity.”
“The judging and host
line-up has been regularly refreshed over the years and that is one of the
reasons for AGT’s enduring popularity. NBC and the producers take any issues on
set seriously,” the companies said.
The judging panel has changed since the show’s 2006 debut, but most judges’ tenures have lasted at least several years, including that of Sharon Osbourne, Mel B, and Howard Stern.
Among the celebrities who
have rallied publicly behind Union are “Grey’s Anatomy” star Ellen Pompeo,
Holly Robinson Peete and Patricia Arquette.
“I’m just catching up on
this. This is terrible,” Arquette tweeted. “You should not be penalized for
trying to have a workplace that honors the rule of law in the workplace.”
On Thursday, Union posted
a family photo on Instagram to wish her followers a happy Thanksgiving and to
salute “all the friends and family that have my back and all the friends and
family I’ve never met who show love and support when everyone is looking and
when no one is looking.”
Brad Paisley Has A Sense Of Humor
Brad Paisley is perfectly comfortable being the butt of jokes. In his new variety special, “Brad Paisley Thinks He’s Special,” airing Dec. 3 on ABC, the country star allows himself to be the punchline in a number of skits with celeb pals including Peyton Manning, Carrie Underwood, the Jonas Brothers, and Tim McGraw.
“It’s the way I got
everybody to do it. I said, ‘You’re here to roast me,’” he says. “When we were
talking on the phone I said, ‘Guys, no misconception here. You need to realize
this exists for me to be laughed at and I’m good with that.’ So they were like,
‘We’re in.’”
In one highlight,
Underwood takes Paisley mudding in a red truck yelling, “I feel the need for
speed” with Paisley exclaiming, “Jesus take the wheel!” as he tries to hold on.
“There’s a side of Carrie
I’ve never seen before doing this,” said Paisley.
The award-winning musician
has enjoyed showing his comedic side since high school and as his star rose in
showbiz, it caught on that he was always game to play. He’s co-hosted the CMA’s
11 times, had a comedy special on Netflix and stars in a series of Nationwide
insurance commercials with Manning.
“You show up on some of
these late-night shows like ‘Kimmel,’ they’ve figured out a long time ago that
I’m up for anything and so they’ll frequently have me guest and do a funny song
or a skit or a thing. Same with other friends I’ve made. Seth Meyers is a good
friend and people like that that over the years I really enjoy the
collaborative process of doing things outside of my comfort zone.”
Implementing
ideas and turning them into a reality is a thrill for the 47-year-old.
“I love nothing more than
creating and sort of coming up with an idea and seeing it through in this
career. Whether that’s a song that you write, and it becomes a single and a hit
and a video and a thing you do on tour and leads to everything else or it’s a
television show. There’s nothing more satisfying than saying here’s the finish
line and I think if we do all these things right, we can get there.”
Ozuna Has A Mission
Ozuna set a
record for most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Latin albums chart by a male
artist with his 2017 debut album, “Odisea.” The superstar reggaeton and Latin
trap singer, who has sold-out New York’s Madison Square Garden, is also the
first artist to have seven music videos reach a billion views each on YouTube.
Because he wanted to match
his previous success — and reach even greater heights — Ozuna got more involved
in the production process of “Nibiru,” his third full-length album released
Friday.
“I believe this is the
album (that) I have dedicated (the most) time in my career,” Ozuna said in
Spanish in a phone interview from New York City this week. “I feel good (about)
the music … we took things from everywhere to do this.”
The album
features the hit single “Baila Baila Baila,” which earned him his first Latin
Grammy nomination this year (he lost to Rosalía). “Nibiru” also includes
“Reggaeton en Paris,” featuring Dalex and Nicky Jam, and his latest single
“Hasta Que Salga el Sol,” which he said was made “for the disco and the party.”
“It’s a great song with
great energy,” he said. “If you wake up with a song like this, you got to cheer
up that day.”
“Nibiru” also includes
collaborations with high-profile performers such as Diddy and DJ Snake (“Eres
Top”), Snoop Dogg and Anuel AA (“Patek”) and Swae Lee (“Sin Pensar”). The track
“Temporal” features Willy of the Puerto Rican rock band Cultura Profética — a
song that takes the rocker to more tropical grounds.
“I love the style of rock.
I love the electric guitar,” said Ozuna about his relationship with rock music.
Ozuna, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, performed at Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in New York City on Thursday. Last week he was one of the headlining acts at the Coca-Cola Flow Fest in Mexico City, where 75,000 fans attended and Ozuna shined onstage with a bright red jacket and hat.
“It’s out of
respect for my fans, you got to look and dress good,” Ozuna said of his fashion
choices.
He will return to Mexico
for the Machaca Festival next year. His 2020 will be super-busy: He’ll launch
his “Nibiru” world tour and he will appear in “Fast & Furious 9,” which
will hit U.S. theaters on May 22.
Ozuna is ending 2019 on a
bright note. At the beginning of the year, he said he was being extorted over
an explicit video filmed when he was 16 years old.
To those facing similar
challenges, Ozuna said: “Keep going forward.”
“Those are special situations, everyone comes here to learn something, surely they will learn from those situations. It’s just going to be an experience.”
Earlier this
year, Amazon promised one day delivery for Prime members, and they will have to
work overtime to deliver on that with Black
Friday Cyber Monday 2019 being a huge success. Bad weather hitting the
United States may pose a problem, but they’re not the only ones who made the
same promise. Walmart and Best Buy are also under the gun to keep this promise.
This year,
holiday stress may take on a whole new meaning for online retailers.
Amazon, Walmart and others
have
promised to deliver more of their orders within 24 hours of customers
clicking on “Buy.”
The coming weeks will be
the first test of whether they can make that happen during the busy holiday
shopping season, when onslaughts of orders and bad weather can lay waste to
even the best delivery plans.
It’s an expensive feat
that requires not just additional planes and vehicles, but more workers and
reams of data to help retailers prepare and predict what shoppers may buy.
High Stakes Game
And the stakes to deliver
on time are high. A late package can damage a retailer’s reputation, since
shoppers tend to blame them, even if the late arrival is the fault of the
delivery company.
“The store made the
promise,” said Suketu Gandhi, partner in the digital transformation practice at
consulting firm A.T. Kearney.
Amazon learned that six
years ago, when UPS and FedEx were crippled by bad weather and last-minute
online shopping, causing millions of packages to be late for Christmas. Since
then, the online shopping giant has been building its own delivery network to
give it more control over when and how its packages are delivered. It has
leased jets, built package-sorting hubs at airports and launched a program that
lets contractors start businesses delivering packages in vans.
Keeping Up With Amazon
Others are feeling the
pressure to keep up with Amazon. When the company introduced two-day shipping
about 14 years ago, shoppers expected the same from other stores. That appears
to be happening again.
“Customers love two-day
delivery,” said Mark Cohen, a retail studies professor at New York’s Columbia
Business School. “But they like one day better.”
Smaller retailers,
however, will probably be hurt trying to pay for quicker shipping, said Cohen,
who used to be an executive at Sears Canada.
The push for even speedier
delivery comes after Amazon announced in April that it would cut its delivery
for Prime members to one day from two. Walmart
and Best Buy followed with their own announcements. Many smaller retailers
are also trying to deliver quicker, according to UPS, which said it will have
11 more jets flying this year to keep up.
But many eyes will be on Amazon this holiday season and whether it will keep its delivery promises. That’s because 42% of all online sales this holiday season is expected to go to the Seattle company, according to consulting firm Bain & Co.
It says it’s up to the
challenge.
“We deliver for our
customers every day and are confident in our ability to serve customers this
holiday season,” Amazon said in a statement.
Amazon already had a
chance to test out one-day shipping during its Prime Day event in July, which
has become one of the company’s busiest shopping events.
Cash Is King
It has another advantage: lots of cash. Amazon expects to spend about $1.5 billion during the holiday season, partly to move items closer to customers and pay for more worker shifts. It says the cost is worth it since it’s already seeing customers spend more because of the switch to one-day delivery.
The spending starts even
before a package hits the road. Retailers are using machine learning technology
to predict what shoppers may buy and then placing those items in stores and
warehouses closer to them, said Anne Goodchild, the director of the Supply
Chain Transportation and Logistics Center at the University of Washington.
Amazon has more than 100 warehouses around the country to store, pack and ship goods. Walmart is using warehouses and stores near customers to pack next-day orders. Best Buy has opened warehouses near the heavily populated cities of Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Target says more than 90% of online orders are packed at stores.
Target
While Target doesn’t
promise next-day delivery, it says that half of its two-day deliveries are
showing up at customers’ doorsteps the next day. It’s also offering same-day
delivery from stores for an extra fee and, like other retailers, it offers an
option for customers to buy online and pick up from a store.
Shippers say they are
ready for the influx of packages. UPS, which says next-day air shipments jumped
24% in the most recent quarter, has built more package sortation hubs that will
help it process an additional 400,000 pieces per hour. FedEx will again be
offering online retailers a way to ship next day or in two days when orders
come in late afternoon or night. And the U.S. Postal Service says it will be
delivering packages in more cities on Sunday, a change it typically does during
the holidays.
But cities may not be
prepared for the rushed deliveries. Goodchild said places like New York and
Seattle are not built to deal with the vans and cars stopping to deliver,
causing traffic and congestion.
