Once again, M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass took the No. 1 spot at a sleepy domestic box office last weekend with just over $19 million in sales. In just 10 days the film already has brought in $74 million in the U.S. and $162 million worldwide, completing Shyamalan’s comeback tour.

Ten or so years ago, in this very column, I suggested that Shyamalan was a talented director who would perhaps be better off directing other writer’s scripts. I still think that’s right, but, with the success of his last three films, it’s safe to say that maybe M. Night still has a little gas left in the tank.

Also at the Box

Buddy comedy The Upside took the No. 2 spot at the box, selling another $12 million, upping the flick’s 17-day domestic sales total to just over $63 million despite receiving some notably tough criticism.

Next up at the No. 3 spot was Aquaman, which sold $7.3 million during its third weekend of release, bringing the movie’s worldwide sales total to just under $1.1 billion. Kids these days and their comic book films, I tell ya.

The Kid Who Would Be King and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse took the No. 4 and No. 5 spot, respectively, at the box office with $7.2 and $6.1 million in sales. I’m trying to remember a time in which there wasn’t at least one comic book film in the Top 5. I can’t.

New this Week

This is the worst time of the year for movie releases. By far. It’s trash time, and the studios (and the industry as a whole) are focused on trying to win Oscars with the films they released in 2018. So maybe go see one of those movies?

Or you can go see the only true wide new release that comes out this week, a thriller called Miss Bala. It stars Gina Rodriguez and Anthony Mackie and was directed by the forever underrated Catherine Hardwicke. Could be good. Probably not great, though.

Screen Rant: The oscars

The Oscar nominations have been announced and they could be worse. Weirdo cult flick Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite somehow managed to get 10 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Whoa. It’s both strange and brilliant, and hardly the kind of film that tends to have this degress of success. I don’t think it’ll win big, but it’s a great gesture for such a film to get this degree of recognition.

A Star Is Born, BlacKkKlansman, Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, Roma, and Vice all also got Best Picture nods, making for one of the most diverse sets of Best Picture contendors of recent memory.

I’ve seen all of said films and, while I don’t share everyone’s enthusiasm for Black Panther, the only movie in this year’s crop that I don’t believe to be worthy of a Best Picture nomination is Bohemian Rhapsody. I get that it’s making a lot of money and the general public loves it, but it’s not a good movie. It gets almost everything wrong about its subject, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, and the performances are so over the top and strange.

I could write a whole column about what’s wrong with Bohemian Rhapsody, but instead I’ll suggest that you watch First Reformed if you’ve not yet seen it. It’s one of the best movies of last year and, in my opinion, should be a Best Picture frontrunner and a lock for Best Actor for Ethan Hawke (who wasn’t even nominated despite winning basically every critics award). Stay tuned for more on the Oscars in the coming weeks!