Is it me or is this upcoming Christmas movie season looking really poor? This is typically when all the big Oscar contenders appear. What's going on?

The Hobbit
Unbroken

A lot of stinkers coming up too like Annie.

I bet you Annie makes $100 million. Not that it will be good, but I think it's going to make a lot of money.

I don't know if this is the worst-ever, but I agree there's not a lot of 'tentpole'-type films coming out this holiday season. Next year will be a blast, though (Star Wars, James Bond, Peanuts, Hunger Games, Mission Impossible 5, and a few more we probably don't know about yet).

Night at the Museum is also coming out. Not that huge but the other two were released around the holiday, but I wouldn't put Unbroken up there with The Hobbit, at least for box office potential.

But like Shannon said, pretty much everybody is saving their shit for 2015.

2015 promises to be EPIC compared to 2014. If it wasn't for Guardians I'm not sure I could have made it through...

I mention it because this is Oscar Bait season and yet it looks to be the only piece of Oscar Bait being released.

Hobbit
Unbroken
The Imitation Game
Inherent Vice
American Sniper
A Most Violent Year
Mr Turner
Wild

Theres still some pretty good looking stuff coming out. Maybe a little underwhelming though.

Eh...I'm kinda sorta looking forward to The Gambler.

The 1982 Annie was actually a bomb, or at least it didn't make as much money as was hoped. A small-town theater I used to work at paid a lot of money to get it upon release, as they often would wait and get movies a few weeks after they'd been out, but then they ended up paying the studio more money so they could stop showing it earlier than they were contracted for!

Oh in that case hell yeah. Certainly looks like bait.

Is Unbroken anticipated to make big money? I've only seen the trailer and it looks very cable TV to me. Actually it reminded me of The Great Raid or Windtalkers, lotta good looking spectacle, but zero heart.

I am excited for The Hobbit and American Sniper, thats about it.

I haven't seen it yet, but I hear Saving Christmas is pretty good.

Going back to England this weekend for Christmas and a friend told me yesterday he bought me a ticket to a one off showing of Blade Runner at a big snazzy local cinema. So thats made my cinema viewing this holiday season perfect.

I'm sure Into the Woods will do pretty decent business.

Nope, looks about the same as every year. Big budget spectacles (Exodus, The Hobbit), Family movies (Into the Woods, Annie, Night at the Museum 3), R-rated comedies (Top Five, The Interview), the thriller (The Gambler), the Oscar movies (American Sniper, Unbroken, Big Eyes, Selma, Leviathan, A Most Violent Year, Mr Turner)

2013: Big budget spectacles (47 Ronin, The Hobbit), Family Movies (Justin Bieber's Believe, Walking with Dinosaurs, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), the comedies (Madea Christmas, Grudge Match, Anchorman 2), the oscar movies (American Hustle, Wolf of Wall Street, Labor Day, Her, Lone Survivor, August: Osage County)

This year actually seems like a step up Sure, the oscar movies aren't as good this year (I hated American Hustle but saw its quality, Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Lone Survivor, etc; were solid) but most of those are limited release in December to begin with, and most of the oscar bait this year has already been released.

Inherent Vice, American Sniper, Unbroken, and Wild are must-sees for me. Will be my first visit to a theater since Guardians of the Galaxy, so this is a strong season, IMO.

Jingle All the Way 2 just came out, how can this be the worst ever?

And it stars a current star and not that old guy. And so good they said "Fuck theaters, lets get this to the people ASAP" AND it only needed a 30 second trailer to sell it:

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Damn, it does look pretty amazing.

I've never even heard of Wild, A Most Violent Year, Mr. Turner, or Leviathan. For someone who spends half his day wasting time on a movie forum you'd think I'd at least have seen the titles mentioned before.

Leviathan? Isn't that the 80s movie with the sea creature starring Robocop?

And Winston from the Ghostbuster!

A Most Violent Year - set in 1981 NYC, crime drama. - written/directed by J.C. Chandor (All Is Lost) (94% on Rotten Tomatoes, 18 reviews)

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Wild - Greasy Reesey goes hiking - directed by the Dallas Buyers Club guy (93% with 110 reviews)

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Mr Turner - Eccentric painter way back when, adapted into a 10 hour movie. - Directed by Mike Leigh (96% with 54 reviews)

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Leviathan is Russian, from director Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return, Elena) about a guy trying to save his house from demolition. (100% with 28 reviews).

Mr Turner and Wild I'm more interested by who directed the films than the actual subject matter which I can take or leave. But I'll see anything Mike Leigh and Jean Marc Vallee is someone who's just starting to earn that status. As I've really enjoyed most of his films.

A Most Violent Year and Leviathan piqued my interest through very good trailers and good word of mouth/critcal reception.