Image courtesy 20th Century Fox.

Hidden Figures reigned again over Martin Luther King Day weekend, with Golden Globe champion and Oscar favorite La La Land storming up the charts behind it. Of the new releases, it was cheap-looking STX horror flick The Bye Bye Man that performed way over industry expectations, finishing fifth behind Sing and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with an expected $15 million over the four-day weekend, about $6 million ahead of where industry analysts expected. Other new and expanding releases Patriot’s Day, Monster Trucks and Sleepless all flopped hard, with favorite directors Ben Affleck and Martin Scorsese’s expanding efforts, Live by Night and Silence, not even breaking the top 10- Box Office Mojo

The problem with these outings could have to do with too much adult content on the market and a lack of interest in 1920s rum-running or 17th century persecution, according to box office pundits- The Hollywood Reporter

As it dances through the American awards season, La La Land has received government approval for a Valentine’s Day release in China- The Hollywood Reporter

Following the movie’s massive, ongoing success, Hollywood is investing more into original musicals- The New York Times

Did La La Land inspire you to get into Jazz? Here’s what the movie gets wrong about the music- Vulture

In other overseas news, Passengers has knocked Rogue One off the top of the Chinese charts after just one week of release in the country. The Star Wars movie fell 71 percent in its second weekend- The Hollywood Reporter

This comes in the context of Star Wars’ continued unpopularity in the country, despite casting decisions specifically to get Chinese viewers. Here’s why the franchise is still struggling in the world’s fastest growing market- The Wrap

Looking to the coming weeks, social media tracking is looking very, very good for Valentine’s Day sequel Fifty Shades Darker- Variety

Lucasfilm has announced they will not digitally recreate the recently deceased Carrie Fisher for any future Star Wars project. Almost as if it would be terribly disrespectful to her memory, or something- Variety

The pressure is mounting on Luc Besson’s upcoming sci-fi epic Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The most expensive movie ever made outside of Hollywood at an incredible $200 million, the movie poses a huge risk to Besson’s EuropaCorp studio- The Hollywood Reporter

Two pieces of film and comic book history will be available Jan. 26 when Michael Keaton’s costume from Batman Returns and Christopher Reeve’s outfit from the original 1978 Superman go up for auction. Bidding starts at a paltry $35,000 and $40,000, respectively- The Hollywood Reporter

In other memorabilia news, Star Wars collector surprised Mark Hamill in a clip released last week with his lightsaber prop from Return of the Jedi-

The Producers’ Guild of America Award nominees are out- Empire

The Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Guild released their nominations as well, with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them leading the way- The Hollywood Reporter

Disney has announced a sing-along version of Moana will hit theaters Jan. 27- Den of Geek

Arianna Grande and John Legend are set to re-record the classic title track for March’s Beauty and the Beast- The Wrap

Embattled actor Johnny Depp has now filed suit against his management company, The Mandel Co., seeking at least $25 million in damages for “gross misconduct-” Variety

Hollywood’s loud, frequent disavowals of Donald Trump weren’t enough to stop his campaign, but they might be enough to stop the entertainment industry-obsessed Trump himself- Vulture

After Writers’ Guild of America and Producers’ Guild of America nominations and a strong media presence following the Golden Globes, could Deadpool be a new Oscar contender?- Indiewire

The studio is certainly aware of their film’s momentum, which means we get more marketing from the production-

University of Pennsylvania media analysts have released a three-year study concluding that movies rated PG-13 actually have more gun violence than R-rated movies, and could possibly be more damaging due to their erasure of the consequences, as the only real difference between the ratings is that PG-13 movies don’t show the blood or other aftereffects of violence. For a followup, they plan to spend the next three years of their lives researching whether or not bears shit in the woods- Los Angeles Times

The folks at Film School Rejects put together a whole bevy of essays this week, including one on the value of human life in the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men- Film School Rejects

breaking down what makes M. Night Shyamalan’s twist endings so potent- Film School Rejects

the lack of success for recent movies based on documentaries- Film School Rejects

the use of water as a symbol in the work of Soviet filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky- Film School Rejects

and starting up a series on often-ignored low-budget filmmakers- Film School Rejects

And finally, Indiewire has several Awards Season breakdowns this week as well, exploring how Academy voters separate directing and editing, two intrinsically linked art forms- Indiewire

discussing biopics Jackie and Neruda with director Pablo Larraín- Indiewire

walking us through the year’s potential sound mixing and editing leaders- Indiewire

and looking at surprise Director’s Guild nomination Lion, bringing it into a conversation with the year’s four biggest heavyweights. Could the film start picking up steam?- Indiewire

Leopold Knopp is a journalism student at the University of North Texas. If you liked this post, you can donate to Reel Entropy here. Like Reel Entropy on Facebook and reach out to me at reelentropy@gmail.com.