Scouting Hollywood: Dec. 21-27

A roundup of news, gossip and history of the entertainment business brought to you from Hollywood, Calif.

Photo by Latrach Med Jamil on Unsplash

In the traditionally slow period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, two films from Japan took first and third place at the North American box-office: The Boy and the Heron, a supernatural anime was number one at $12.8 million and Godzilla Minus One, in its second frame, was third at $8.3 million. These imports bookended The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, which added $9.4 million. This sequel will finish last in the Hunger Game series but still has pulled a respectful $135.6 million gross which is better than many high profile franchise film sequels out earlier in the year.

For decades, a select group of reporters and critics known as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association handled the Golden Globe awards. That was until 2021 when the 70 odd members were deemed too white, too old and too out of touch with modern standards. Now, under new ownership (media companies) the Golden Globes are back with what has been deemed the “most culturally diverse major awards body” making their choices on nominees and ultimately awards. The group, expanded to 300 members from 75 nations, has nominated for 72 of the 90 performance slots non-Hispanic white people. And, in a nod to how the Globes have traditionally worked, they again honored big name stars; all the better to drive TV ratings if they show up to accept. This year’s awards will be on CBS Sunday, Jan. 7, at 7 p.m. CST.

Netflix has finally released viewership data on thousands of projects. Prodded by the recent labor settlements, the streamer will now release a list every six months showing the number of viewer hours each project was streamed. Topping this first list is the series The Night Agent, season one, which garnered 812 million hours. The shows at the bottom were in the 4 million hour range. The list includes projects available in limited and worldwide markets.