Surprised since they already started their marketing campaign, though summer does seem like a more prime date for it. October's also very crowded with releases this year, and it'd have only had 2 weeks before having to deal with steeper November competition (Predator, Running Man, Wicked, Zootopia).

Mufasa did manage to be profitable, even if it made less than half what the 2019 Lion King did. The same cannot be said for Alice Through the Looking Glass and Maleficent 2 though...

Can we look forward to a Season 2 review in the future?
variety.com/2025/tv/news...

I was on vacation in Tokyo recently and we stayed at the Toy Story Hotel- complete with Lotso's Garden Cafe. They sell soooo much merch of him, still wrapping my head around the disconnect!

I still think Anora is the frontrunner, though Conclave is the likeliest alternative. Emilia Perez is 0 for 4 with the major guilds and couldn't even win Picture at the BAFTAs, so I think we're safe from that worst-case scenario (it'll win Supporting Actress and maybe Song, but that's likely it).

I saw it last week, it was rad! A real step up from the first one, especially animation-wise.

We'll see what ends up taking the top prize at SAG this weekend, as that will likely be Anora's biggest challenger. No movie in the past 30+ years has won Best Picture without taking at least one of the big 4 guild prizes along the way (PGA, DGA, SAG, WGA).

That's 3 of the 4 big Guild prizes for Anora, gonna be pretty tough to beat at this point!
No movie in the past 30 years has won the Best Picture Oscar without taking at least one of the 4 top guild prizes (PGA/DGA/SAG/WGA), so all eyes on SAG next week to see what may be Anora's biggest challenger.

Worth noting that voting for the PGAs closed just before the big Emilia Perez racism scandal broke, so even without that it still lost!
(Also good for Anora! Was worried that one was getting pushed to the wayside, it'd be a great BP winner)

1917 won both in 2020, only to lose Picture and Director at the Oscars to Parasite (that movie did win at SAG first, so we'll need to see what comes out on top there)

Holy cow, do we finally have a frontrunner?!

Ooh, a very nice surprise! Between this and Critics Choice, Anora's really getting a much-needed shot in the arm for its campaign.

Sweet, I'm Still Here won't be out in my city until next weekend, need to catch up on that and Nickel Boys.
Gotta say we have a really strong Best Picture lineup this year, Emilia Perez notwithstanding (though recent controversy might thankfully prevent that one from winning now, fingers crossed).

I think it'll be between Conclave and The Brutalist at this time, Emilia Perez is likely too divisive to win out on the ranked choice ballot (that and the Academy has been averse to giving BP to Netflix for years now). A Complete Unknown did surprisingly well though, so that could be a spoiler too.

Pleasantly surprised that Bailey got in, since no one had him pegged to be nominated before now. Supporting Actress is wildly different from the Globes, weird that Rossellini didn't make the cut. This is also a big boost for A Complete Unknown, I think Barbaro will make it into the Oscar lineup now.

This is the hardest Baz Luhrmann ever cooked, nothing to apologize for.
Curious to see how the stage musical is.

I actually think they could pull off this 5, the Academy in recent years has proven that they won't automatically nominate Disney if the movie isn't glowingly reviewed (Frozen 2, Strange World, Wish). If anything we may get a Robot Dreams-style spoiler in spot 5 that's under the radar right now.

My partner and I loved it, it's both a gripping cerebral thriller with real ideas on its mind AND a fun mystery movie with catty, power-hungry cardinals spilling tea on the regular. Excellent ensemble cast too, undoubtedly one of Ralph Fiennes' best performances.