Welcome again to We Have Always Lived in the Kraken, a pop culture blog transmitted directly to you from the belly of the beast. Here in the Notes we’ll show you this week’s posting schedule, but first, a little Seafood for Thought.
You may have thought you had escaped the Star Wars, but you should just accept by now that there is no escape. In my latest edition of The Anticipated, I discussed the box office bonanza Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakening has been, but over Christmas weekend I realized that while I spent quite a bit of time talking about the worldwide box office, I neglected to go into enough detail about the domestic box office. Why is this important? Well, Star Wars is having quite the effect on not just its own box office, but the total domestic box office for the year as a whole. First, in its release weekend Star Wars helped set the all-time total weekend ticket sales record with $313 million, albeit aided heavily by Thursday previews. This Christmas weekend got no such bump, but still went to even higher levels with a $320 million+ weekend. Aided by six new films opening on Christmas Day, it was a box office bonanza that according to Deadline is likely to make 2015 the highest grossing film year of all time, beating out 2013’s $10.919 billion box office, and probably climbing all the way to 11 billion. This is all kinds of crazy, and Star Wars‘ success makes it even crazier that Disney is still far from the most successful studio this year, with Universal still laying claim to that crown. I can only imagine how much it ticks Disney off that the year it releases the new Star Wars, Avengers 2, two new Pixar films, and so much more, it didn’t just fall short, it fell short of Universal, who used dinosaurs, acabellas, Vin Diesel, The NWA, way too many shades of grey, and little yellow minions to dominate the box office in a way we have never seen before from one studio both domestically and worldwide.
But I digress, because like most things now, this is about Star Wars. As of this current writing, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is looking at an estimated $546 million box office. That is absurd. The film become the fastest film to reach a billion dollars worldwide as it did so in 12 days (a bit longer than some had expected, but still the fastest). The reason this is important is that, while there are still some doubts about where it may land in terms of overall worldwide box office, there is almost no question this film is going to break all domestic records. Avatar is still holding strong at $760 million, but for only so long at this point. Star Wars is likely heading to the $800 million mark at least, with the distinct possibility that it will be the first movie ever to gross a billion dollars domestically. This also means that there is a chance that this will allow Disney to claw its way past Universal in overall domestic box office (right now Universal stands at roughly $2.4 billion domestically compared to Disney’s $2 billion), which would make the the loss worldwide a bit more palatable. So while worldwide there is still a question about how far Star Wars can rise, at least one thing is for sure–domestically Star Wars is unstoppable, and I, for one, welcome our new Star Wars overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted blogger I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground lightsaber crystal mines, or wherever else the House of Mouse deems worth toiling!
David Robertson
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
We who have always lived in the Kraken are pleased to announce that a new person will have always lived there! Amy “Atomika” Davidson, previously a guest poster, will be joining the staff as a full contributor. We look forward to seeing more regular content from Amy, who brings an exciting and unique voice to our little blog. This is tremendously thrilling for all of us and we can’t wait to see what she’ll come up with. As befits any new resident of the great beast from whose depths we cry, Amy will receive a company t-shirt, a small room in the monster’s aorta, half off Fritata Fridays, and her very own nightmare worm.
Welcome, Amy!
Our holiday slow-down continues. In this last week of 2015, we have two posts scheduled for your reading pleasure:
Wednesday:
- TV Roulette is still in rerun limbo, but it ventures forth this time with CBS’s Scorpion. Look, this is a show whose pilot episode had people connect a LAN cable from a speeding convertible to a flying airplane, so who the hell knows what is happening at this point.
Saturday:
- Baturdays continues with Detective Comics #37, where Batman saves America from the furr’ners, by building a wall made of his FISTS and making them pay for it (“it” being CRIME). USA! USA! USA!
Stay tuned next week for a week-long examination of the Best of… 2015!
Spotlight on Blogs Past:
This particular feature is going away for a while; our old archives are running low. That said, there will be more archive spotlights in the future when appropriate, so watch this space!
Catch of the Week:
Each and every week the residents here in the Kraken will offer one recommendation for the week that we think you all would enjoy. It might be a movie. It might be a book. Who knows? This is your… Catch of the Week.
David: Look, everyone, I am still in a bit of a Christmas food coma, so I don’t know… wait, I can’t do that? Fine. In that case, read Adrian Tomine’s Killing and Dying. This collection of short graphic novel stories is just the right level of sadness and existential angst to bring everyone down from their (and my) unnaturally good mood from the Christmas season.
Kyu: As December comes to close, so too does my run of podcast recommendations. This week I’ll go with one of the first podcasts I ever listened to, Maltin on Movies. This gentle, entertaining ‘cast is as pleasantly old-fashioned as its host, film critic Leonard Maltin. (Full disclosure, I took Maltin’s class at USC as many times as they would let me. He’s great.) Each week Maltin and his younger, jokier foil, comedian Baron Vaughn, talk movies, recommending a sleeper and a mainstream film and dis-recommending a turkey, all along a similar theme (musicals, “based on a true story,” movies featuring a particular actor, etc). It’s like a warm, friendly conversation about movies right from their living room to your ears. What more could you ask for?
That’s it for this week. We hope you continue to find the Kraken to your liking, and that you enjoy your holiday. We here in the belly of the beast have no reprieve, but you do. Make the most of it.