Jacob Hall

After the jam-packed month of December, with its huge family-friendly blockbusters and awards season Oscar bait, we have arrived in the month of January. Formerly a dumping ground for mediocre films, the month has taken on a new identity in the past few years as a testing ground for unique genre films (think ‘Cloverfield’) and a solid place to release a horror movie, which seems to do quite well right around New Year’s for whatever reason. This year, we have ‘The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death,’ which had a fairly solid opening. Not solid enough to topple the Christmas Week champions, but no one is complaining too much.

The Sony hacking scandal has proven to be a massive headache for a company that’s already been having a rough few years. And now, this increasingly weird story has taken an even darker turn: the hackers are threatening to launch terrorist attacks against theaters showing ‘The Interview’ this Christmas. Seriously.

The showdown between 'Interstellar' and 'Big Hero 6' has got to be one of the most interesting things to happen to the box office in 2014. After all, it would be tough to find two movies that are simultaneously so different and so alike. Both are pro-science adventures that are all about using your intelligence to save your friends and family. However, one is an animated, family friendly release from Disney and the other is a three-hour epic from the ever-serious Christopher Nolan. In other words, they represent opposite ends of the blockbuster spectrum.

Although 'Nightcrawler,' the only new wide release of the week, did end up taking the top spot at the box office this weekend, it did so in one of the tightest races we've ever seen. The top six films all came within $3 million of each other and the order could have radically changed by a stiff breeze for all we know. Heck, some titles may get swapped around by tomorrow when the studios release some more official numbers.

It feels like common sense: of course the horror movie released a week before Halloween is going to win the weekend war at the box office over the action movie. And yet, most horror movies continue to get released as far away from the season of the witch as possible. Can the recent success of 'Annabelle' and this weekend's 'Ouija' change that?

A few weeks ago, this column was skeptical that Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy' could reach $300 million. Now, it seems impossible that it won't. Thanks to ecstatic word of mouth, killer marketing and only one genuinely successful box office challenger (that would be 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'), Marvel's oddball space opera has managed to spend three of the past four weekends at the number one spot at the box office, giving it enough momentum to officially become the highest grossing film of 2014.

The 2014 Emmy Awards skewed a little hipper this year, with host Seth Meyers and his army of comedically inclined friends providing more laughs than your average stodgy awards show. However, the ceremony went full internet-friendly when Weird Al Yankovic, hot off the first number one album of his lengthy career, took to the stage to provide your favorite TV shows with the one thing they so desperately need: lyrics.

You can tell the summer movie season is coming to an end because the weekend box office has stopped being exciting and has starting becoming sad and weird. The past two weeks have seen several major movies bomb, but nothing could have prepared us for 'Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.'

There are a few things that will probably run through your head while you watch the 'Camp X-Ray' trailer. First, you'll think, "Whoa, this looks really good, and it's about time more filmmakers started to take a serious look at the past decade of American international affairs." Then you'll think, "Man, Kristen Stewart really wants us to forget about those 'Twilight' movies."

Mike Tyson is one of the most controversial and bizarre figures to emerge out of the sports world in the past few decades, so it's not surprising that a biopic about his life is finally being made. What is slightly surprising is the amount of talent backing the project. Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx signed on to play the former boxing heavyweight champion and Terrence Winter, fresh off an Oscar nomination for writing 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' is set to pen the script.