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Five Things to Watch for at the Oscars

Michelle Yeoh attends the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California, US, February 26, 2023. (Reuters)
Michelle Yeoh attends the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California, US, February 26, 2023. (Reuters)
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Five Things to Watch for at the Oscars

Michelle Yeoh attends the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California, US, February 26, 2023. (Reuters)
Michelle Yeoh attends the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California, US, February 26, 2023. (Reuters)

The 95th Academy Awards take place Sunday, with wacky multiverse movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once" leading the nominations with 11.

Late night funnyman Jimmy Kimmel returns to host the Oscars for a third time. His first stint ended with the infamous mix-up that saw "La La Land" accidentally named best picture in 2017.

Assuming the correct envelopes are handed out this year, here are five other things to watch out for on Hollywood's biggest night:

Rihanna and 'RRR' but no Gaga

All five best song nominees are invited to perform live at the Oscars.

That means pop superstar Rihanna will grace the stage, just weeks after her long-awaited Super Bowl halftime show, at which she revealed she is pregnant.

She will sing "Lift Me Up" from "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," while Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and "Everything Everywhere" star Stephanie Hsu will perform "This Is A Life."

Perhaps the biggest spectacle will be "Naatu Naatu," the infectious showstopper from India's "RRR," which has recently had audiences dancing in their seats in Hollywood movie theaters.

Sadly, there will be no Lady Gaga. Nominated for "Hold My Hand" from "Top Gun: Maverick," she is unavailable as she is "in the middle of shooting a movie," Oscars producers say.

Lenny Kravitz will bring further stardust to the gala, performing music to accompany the annual "In Memoriam" tribute.

Best actress history?

This closely fought category is likely to buck tradition and break records.

If Michelle Yeoh ("Everything Everywhere") beats Cate Blanchett ("Tar"), she will become the first Asian woman to claim the best actress prize.

Should Blanchett win, she will become just the eighth actor in history to win three Oscars.

Meanwhile, Andrea Riseborough would surely be the most unlikely ever winner, having earned her nomination for obscure indie film "To Leslie" thanks to a controversial campaign by celebrity pals of the film's cast and crew.

Finally, there is the question of who presents the award.

Traditionally, it is the previous year's best actor winner.

Given Will Smith is serving a decade-long Oscar ban (see below), that doesn't seem very likely.

Slap chat

Just as it is impossible to write an Oscars preview this year without mentioning "The Slap," expect the ceremony to address the incident.

For those living under a rock, Will Smith assaulted Chris Rock on stage during last year's Oscars for cracking a joke about his wife.

Rock himself got the ball rolling last weekend, joking in a live Netflix special that he recently rooted for the slave master who beats Smith's character in his latest movie "Emancipation."

Oscars organizers say the plan is to "acknowledge it" -- presumably in Kimmel's opening monologue -- and then swiftly "move on."

But will the various presenters and winners be able to keep Smith's name out of their mouths?

Marvel-ous Bassett

Will Angela Bassett "do the thing?"

Before she became the subject of a viral meme -- courtesy of Ariana DeBose's cringeworthy rap lyrics at the BAFTAs -- Bassett was best known for her enviable acting CV.

With acclaimed films like "What's Love Got to Do with It" and "Boyz n the Hood," to name a few, it is surprising she has never won an Oscar.

It would be even more surprising if her first win came for a superhero movie.

But that appears a likely outcome, after her role as Queen Ramonda in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" earned the first-ever Oscar acting nomination for a Marvel film.

She will have to see off Jamie Lee Curtis ("Everything Everywhere") and Kerry Condon ("The Banshees of Inisherin") to pull off the win.

'All Quiet' makes noise

Karl Marx said history repeats itself -- the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.

He probably wasn't talking about the Oscars, but if "All Quiet on the Western Front" wins best picture, it will be the first film to essentially win Hollywood's biggest prize twice.

The original, English-language screen adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's anti-war novel won top honors way back in 1930, at just the third-ever Oscars.

Should this year's German-language version win, it will be Netflix's first best picture win -- just a year after Apple pipped it to become the first streamer to collect Hollywood's biggest prize.

If there is any film that can stop the "Everything Everywhere" juggernaut on Sunday, it's probably this one.

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‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator’ Make Gravity-Defying Theater Debuts

People wait to watch a screening of the film "Wicked" at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
People wait to watch a screening of the film "Wicked" at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator’ Make Gravity-Defying Theater Debuts

People wait to watch a screening of the film "Wicked" at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
People wait to watch a screening of the film "Wicked" at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California, US, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)

With a combined $270 million in worldwide ticket sales, “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” breathed fresh life into a box office that has struggled lately, leading to one of the busiest moviegoing weekends of the year.

Jon M. Chu’s lavish big-budget musical “Wicked,” starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, debuted with $114 million domestically and $164.2 million globally for Universal Pictures, according to studio estimates Sunday. That made it the third-biggest opening weekend of the year, behind only “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Inside Out 2.” It’s also a record for a Broadway musical adaptation.

Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II,” a sequel to his 2000 best picture-winning original, launched with $55.5 million in ticket sales. With a price tag of around $250 million to produce it, “Gladiator II” was a big bet by Paramount Pictures to return to the Coliseum with a largely new cast, led by Denzel Washington and Paul Mescal. While it opened with a touch less than the $60 million predicted in domestic ticket sales, “Gladiator II” has performed well overseas. It added $50.5 million internationally.

Going into the weekend, box office was down about 11% from last year and some 25% from pre-pandemic times. That meant this week's two headline films led a much-needed resurgence for theaters. With “Moana 2” releasing Wednesday, Hollywood might be looking at historic sales over the Thanksgiving holiday.

“This weekend’s two strong openers are invigorating a box office that fell apart after a good summer,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment.

The collision of the two movies led to some echoes of the “Barbenheimer” effect of last year, when “Barbie" and “Oppenheimer” launched simultaneously. The nickname this time, “Glicked,” wasn’t quite as catchy and the cultural imprint was also notably less. Few people sought out a double feature this time. The domestic grosses in 2023 – $162 million for “Barbie” and $82 million for “Oppenheimer” – were also higher.

But the counter-programming effect was still potent for “Wicked” and “Gladiator II,” which likewise split broadly along gender lines. And it was again the female-leaning release – “Wicked,” like “Barbie” before it – that easily won the weekend. About 72% of ticket buyers for “Wicked” were female, while 61% of those seeing “Gladiator II” were male.

And while “Barbenheimer” benefitted enormously from meme-spread word-of-mouth, both “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” leaned on all-out marketing blitzes.

Both movies pulled out all the stops in global advertising campaigns that spanned everything from “Wicked” Mattel dolls (some of which led to an awkward recall) to an Airbnb cross-promotion with the actual Colosseum in Rome. For “Gladiator II,” Paramount even took the unusual step of simultaneously running a one-minute trailer on more than 4,000 TV networks, radio station and digital platforms.

Though “Wicked” will face some direct competition from “Moana 2,” it would seem to be better set up for a long and lucrative run in theaters. Even at 2 hours and 40 minutes, the film has had mostly stellar reviews. Audiences gave it an “A” on CinemaScore. The reception for “Wicked” has been strong enough that Oscar prognosticators expect it to be a contender for best picture at the Academy Awards, among other categories.

Producers, perhaps sensing a hit, also took the step of splitting “Wicked” in two. Part two, already filmed, is due out next November. Each “Wicked” installation cost around $150 million to make.

“Gladiator II” has also enjoyed good reviews, particularly for Washington's charismatic performance. Audience scores, though, were weaker, with ticket buyers giving it a “B” on CinemaScore. “Gladiator II” will make up for some of that, however, with robust international sales. It launched in many overseas markets a week ago, earning $87 million before landing in North America.