by Stephen Milek

Well we are through the early award season and lots of critic associations have spoken. We also have the SAG Awards and the Golden Globes opinions. So we would expect the Oscar race starting to become clearer.  Well this year that isn't the case.  Nominations are all over the place and hard to say what will sustain the momentum till the Oscar Nominations.   Now I have never been good at predicting Oscars so what this is just the movies that so far seem to be getting the most praise.  This is  based on current trends and a lot can change very quickly.  The biggest surprise so far is the amount of love that Mad Max: Fury Road is getting. While it was a very well-liked movie action movies don’t tend to get the end of the year love.  Also, there are a few movies that haven’t come out and don’t have critical consensus.  It is hard to tell where they fall so they are not listed in any category but could very well become front runners. 
 
            The Hateful Eight – Possible for picture, director, supporting actress, screenplay
            The Revenant – Possible for picture, director, actor, screenplay
            Joy – Possible for picture, director, actress
            The Big Short – Possible for picture, director, screenplay, supporting actor 
            Star Wars: The Force Awakens – possible for Best Picture.
           
Of course many people think this is the year the Leo could win Best Actor so some consider him a front runner but at this point still hard to tell so I have left him off that category for now.  

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that Star Wars will be playing around the clock in some theatres something unprecedented for a December release. And it will also have all the IMAX Screens to itself.  
Also we are talking about  just U.S. Domestic opening weekend (Friday to Sunday).

​Star Wars: The Force Awakes is hitting theatres is just over a week.  There are lots of questions surrounding it but one of the biggest is how much will it make opening weekend?  

Here at MMT we have differing opinions.  But it's pretty clear it will break some records.  But by how much.  For reference here are the Biggest Opening Weekends of all time. Notice only 2 movies have ever broke the $200 million mark. 

Jurassic World (2015) - $208,806,270
The Avengers (2012)- $207,438,708
​Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - $191,271,109
Iron Man 3 (2013) - $174,144,585
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011) -  $169,189,427

Also something to think about is that December has never had a movie open with more than $100 million.  Here are the biggest opening weekends in December. 
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - $84,617,303
I am Legend (2007) - $77,211,321
Avatar (2009) - $77,025,481
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)- $73,645,197
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) - $72,629,713

​With that info let us know below what you think The Force Awakens will make.  And if you plan on seeing it opening weekend.