The Box Office Has a New Apex Predator in Freddy Fazbear
This is the scoring recap for Week 11 of Vulture’s Movies Fantasy League. If you want to compete for pride and prizes against more than 19,400 other film buffs, there’s still time to join: Visit the league hub for information on how to play, and/or click the button below to submit an entry.
Love ’em or hate ’em, the Golden Globes remain the highest-profile non-Oscars event in awards season, and appropriately, their decisions carry a lot of weight in the Movies Fantasy League. With nine nominations (tied for third-most ever), One Battle After Another was the top earner, picking up 100 points and further extending its lead over all other MFL films. As of right now, OBAA has earned 510 awards points, far ahead of second-place Sinners with 345.
Sinners did well at the Globes too, with seven nominations, good for 80 points, though none of its contenders in the Supporting Actor/Actress categories made it through. That was not the case for Sentimental Value, which rode four acting nominations (Renate Reinsve in Lead; Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in supporting) to eight noms and 90 points.
Better-than-expected showings for The Secret Agent (40 points), No Other Choice (40 points), Blue Moon (30 points), and The Smashing Machine (20 points) were notable, as were seal-breaking first points for The Voice of Hind Rajab (a Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language nominee) and Song Sung Blue (Kate Hudson nommed for Best Actress – Musical/Comedy). Meanwhile, Wicked: For Good picked up five nominations (for stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, both of its original songs, and the ever-dubious Cinematic and Box-Office Achievement category), but none were for Best Picture. A bad omen?
The full tally of Golden Globes points:
One Battle After Another: 100
Sentimental Value: 90
Sinners: 80
Hamnet: 70
Frankenstein: 60
It Was Just an Accident: 50
Wicked: For Good: 50
The Secret Agent: 40
Bugonia: 40
Marty Supreme: 40
No Other Choice: 40
Blue Moon: 30
KPop Demon Hunters: 30
Nouvelle Vague: 20
Zootopia 2: 20
Sirât: 20
The Smashing Machine: 20
Train Dreams: 20
Jay Kelly: 20
Weapons: 20
F1: 20
Avatar: Fire and Ash: 20
Arco: 10
Elio: 10
The Voice of Hind Rajab: 10
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere: 10
Die My Love: 10
After the Hunt: 10
Hedda: 10
Sorry, Baby: 10
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You: 10
The Testament of Ann Lee: 10
Song Sung Blue: 10
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning: 10
I Love L.A. (Awards)
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association convened to vote on its yearly awards. Like its compatriots in the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review, its pick for Best Film was One Battle After Another. Paul Thomas Anderson was also named Best Director, and Teyana Taylor got one of two prizes for Best Supporting Performance, giving OBAA a total of 40 points on the day.
Otherwise, the L.A. critics spread the love around, with no other film winning more than one award. Rose Byrne continued her sweep of the critics awards with another win for her lead performance in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. The other Best Lead Performance award went to Ethan Hawke for Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon. Alongside Teyana Taylor in Best Supporting Performance was Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value.
The full list of LAFCA points:
One Battle After Another: 40 [Best Film, Best Director, Best Lead Performance]
Blue Moon: 10 [Best Lead Performance]
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You: 10 [Best Lead Performance]
It Was Just an Accident: 10 [Best Screenplay]
Marty Supreme: 10 [Best Editing]
Sentimental Value: 10 [Best Supporting Performance]
Sinners: 10: [Best Production Design]
Sirât: 10 [Best Music Score]
Sorry, Baby: 10 [New Generation Award]
The Secret Agent: 10 [Best Foreign Language Film]
Train Dreams: 10 [Best Cinematography]
Box Office
Last week, Zootopia 2 rained on Wicked: For Good’s parade, limiting its run at No. 1 to just one week. Hopefully the fuzzy denizens of Zootopia didn’t get too comfortable at the top, because the horror sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 made their stay very short. With a $63 million opening weekend, the Emma Tammi–directed film based on the video game of the same name became the eighth MFL-eligible movie to score No. 1 in box-office points this year.
It was a smaller debut number than the first Five Nights at Freddy’s pulled two years ago when it topped the late-October box office with an $80 million bow. But considering the competition it was up against this year — Zootopia 2 added $43 million to its $220 million total, while Wicked: For Good picked up around $16 million for a total of $296 million — it’s a very strong showing. For the 2,462 people who drafted Freddy’s 2, the fact that they paid only $10 to draft it has to feel pretty good.
While the cumulative totals are gaudy for Wicked: For Good, the film is lagging well behind the pace of last year’s Wicked box-office totals. This time last year, Wicked had brought in $322 million total. For a movie that is trying to build on the momentum of last year’s run and get another Best Picture nomination or a Supporting Actress win for Ariana Grande, the perception that the series is losing steam is exactly what the folks at Universal don’t want.
Other box-office earners of note (numbers are cumulative box office to date):
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t: $55m
Eternity: $9m
Hamnet: $4m
Predator: Badlands: $88m
The Running Man: $36m
Rental Family: $8m
Nuremberg: $13m
Sentimental Value: $2m
You can visit the MFL landing page to scope out the full leaderboard with information on mini-leagues — and join us on Discord for expanded stats and discussions.
Release calendar
Ella McCay: December 12
Goodbye June: December 12
Scarlet: December 12
Silent Night, Deadly Night: December 12
Atropia: December 12
The Voice of Hind Rajab: December 17
Avatar: Fire and Ash: December 19
Is This Thing On?: December 19
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants: December 19
The Housemaid: December 19
Cover-Up: December 19
Zero A.D.: December 19
Upcoming awards
Oscars shortlists: December 16
Questions? Feedback? Can’t find your team or mini-league on the leaderboard? Drop us a line at moviesleague@vulture.com.