Leonardo DiCaprio Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File

When It Comes to the Oscars, the Nomination Is as Good as a Win

Research suggests that an Oscar nomination helps boost sales revenue in the weeks following the announcements. 
From left: Star Wars movie poster 1977, Star Wars: Phantom Menace movie poster 1999, Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie poster 2015

The War On Star Wars

The force isn't for everyone.
The iconic clock scene from Safety Last! (1923)

When People Talked at the Movies

Being silent in a movie theater is a learned habit.
The many faces of James Bond. From the top left: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, David Niven, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.

Sean Connery - By Mieremet, Rob / Anefo [CC BY-SA 3.0 nl], via <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>

George Lazenby - via jamesbond.wikia.com/wiki/James_Bond_(George_Lazenby)

David Niven - "David Niven 4 Allan Warren" by Allan warren - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Niven_4_Allan_Warren.jpg#/media/File:David_Niven_4_Allan_Warren.jpg" target="_blank">Commons</a>

Roger Moore - By Allan warren (Own work) [<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0" target="_blank">CC</a> BY-SA 3.0 or <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html" target="_blank">GFDL</a>], via Wikimedia Commons

Timothy Dalton - By Molendijk, Bart / Anefo [<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en" target="_blank">CC</a> BY-SA 3.0 nl], via Wikimedia Commons

Pierce Brosnan - Georges Biard [<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0" target="_blank">CC</a> BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Daniel Craig - Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daniel_Craig_-_Film_Premiere_%22Spectre%22_007_-_on_the_Red_Carpet_in_Berlin_(22387409720)_(cropped).jpg#/media/File:Daniel_Craig_-_Film_Premiere_%22Spectre%22_007_-_on_the_Red_Carpet_in_Berlin_(22387409720)_(cropped).jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>

Did James Bond Invent Globalization?

Ian Fleming may have understood international relations better than academics.
Photo of Carmen Miranda published by the New York Sunday News in 1943.

From Vaudeville to Hamilton: Racial Minorities in Musicals

Hamilton, the Lin-Manuel Miranda play, is taking Broadway by storm. Its use of a "race-blind" cast has been unprecedented in modern theater.
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
Jon Heder and Efren Ramirez  
Credit: Paramount Pictures/Courtesy Neal Peters Collection

Napoleon Dynamite & the Neo-Western Film

The western genre is engrained in American film from its roots to today. Jared Hess' Napoleon Dynamite revises this legacy in a surprising way.
Lorne Malvo

From Twain to Fargo: the Outsider in American Storytelling

The Lorne Malvo character on the new Fargo TV series, is like the character Satan in Mark Twain's final novel, The Mysterious Stranger.
A black and white still from Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy

The Apu Trilogy Revisited

The Apu Trilogy of films has been newly restored and re-released
View from the back row at the movies

Why Go to the Movies?

In 2014, attendance at the movies hit its lowest level in two decades.