February 5, 2017 – The world according to Dan.

Directors Guild of America Awards 2017: Damien Chazelle (‘La La Land’) wins on way to making Oscar history

Oscar frontrunner Damien Chazelle (“La La Land”) became the youngest winner in the history of the Directors Guild of America Awards on Saturday (Feb. 4); the writer/director turned 32 on Jan. 19. The record had been held by Francis Ford Coppola, who was 35 days shy of turning 34 when he won in 1973 for helming “The Godfather.”

However, Coppola had the misfortune of being one of the seven DGA champs that did not repeat at the Oscars since the guild aligned itself with the academy calendar in 1950. While he lost the Oscar to “Cabaret” director Bob Fosse, Coppola did come back to win both the DGA and the Oscar two years later for “The Godfather: Part II.”

Should Chazelle prevail at the Oscars as predicted, he’ll also be the youngest winner there at age 32 years and 38 days; Norman Taurog was 32 years and 267 days when he won this award in 1931 for “Skippy.”

For the second time the DGA presented an award for Best First-Time Director, which went to Garth Davis for “Lion.” While Davis had also contended here in the top category, he was bumped by the directors branch of the academy in favor of past Oscar champ Mel Gibson (“Braveheart”) for “Hacksaw Ridge.”

The prize for Best Documentary Director went as expected to Ezra Edelman for the Oscar frontrunner “O.J.: Made in America.” This doc also won last week at the producers guild.

On the TV side, “Veep” won Best Comedy Directing for the “Inauguration” episode directed by Becky Martin. Fellow HBO series “Game of Thrones” took Best Drama Directing, repeating its Emmy win last fall in the same category for the episode “Battle of the Bastards” by Miguel Sapochnik.

HBO’s “The Night Of” won Best TV Movie/Miniseries, but both variety awards went to broadcast TV: Variety Series Directing was awarded to NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” while the 70th Tony Awards took Variety Special Directing for CBS.

Finishing out the races, the award for Children’s Programming went to “An American Girl Story,” “American Grit” earned the prize for Best Reality Program, and Derek Cianfrance won Best Commercial.

Box office report: Split slices competition, spends third week on top

No matter how you slice it, Split is a bonafide hit for M. Night Shyamalan.

Squaring off against a new entry in the aging Ring franchise that once competed against his former hits like Signs and Unbreakable as early-2000s genre juggernauts, Split has threepeated atop the North American box office, adding an estimated $14.6 million to its ballooning total, according to data compiled by analytics company comScore.

Split marks the first Universal release to have held the No. 1 domestic position for three weeks in a row since the studio debuted Straight Outta Compton in 2015. On a modest $9 million budget, the James McAvoy-fronted thriller has earned $98.7 million after 17 days in the U.S. and Canada thus far, with another $44 million coming from international territories ($14.6 million of which comes from 41 markets this weekend). The film still has 24 major markets on deck in the months ahead, including Mexico, France, and South Korea through the end of February.

Bowing at No. 2 nearly 12 years after the last installment in the iconic horror series opened to an astounding $35 million, Rings opens to an estimated $13 million at 2,931 locations — just about halving its reported $25 million production budget. Around 46 percent of Rings‘ audience was male, meaning young women (54 percent female, 67 percent under the age of 25) drove its ticket sales.

International grosses bring the movie’s global total to a healthy $28.2 million, with a stellar $2.7 million pouring in from Brazil, where, according to the studio, the film outperformed its pre-tracking numbers by 83 percent for a premiere gross above similar horror entries like Woman in Black, Mama, Lights Out, and Don’t Breathe. The film notches the second largest genre opening of all time in the country, falling short of 2016’s The Conjuring 2.

Rings, directed by F. Javier Gutierrez, is poised to take a steep dive across its second three-day frame in the coming days, as polled moviegoers on CinemaScore gave the picture a lowly C- grade.

Coming in at No. 3 is the controversy-laden family title A Dog’s Purpose, which dips around 40 percent for a sophomore frame finish of $10.8 million.

Spending their fifth consecutive week inside the domestic top five, best picture Oscar nominees Hidden Figures and La La Land — which won Damien Chazelle a best director victory at Saturday’s DGA Awards — round out the first half of the weekend chart, occupying the No. 4 and No. 5 slots with $10.1 million and $7.5 million respectively. La La Land, which scored a record-tying 14 Oscar nominations on Jan. 24, has quickly cemented itself as the best picture frontrunner, with massive worldwide box office numbers ($268.3 million and counting) likely fueling its good standing with Academy voters. The film is now the highest-grossing title in Ryan Gosling’s filmography and the eighth highest-grossing movie musical of all time.

After expanding its theater count by 830 on Friday, Garth Davis’ awards contender Lion grows 70.6 percent to an estimated $4 million at No. 8 this weekend, followed by the new Robert De Niro/Leslie Mann vehicle The Comedian, which pulls in a disappointing $1.1 million from 848 locations at No. 20.

Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary I Am Not Your Negro impresses on the limited market, posting a solid $709,500 at 43 theaters for an estimated per-screen average of $16,500.

Per comScore analysis, overall box office is down around 2.8 percent from the same frame last year. Check out the Feb. 3-5 box office estimates below.

1. Split – $14.6 million
2. Rings – $13 million
3. A Dog’s Purpose – $10.8 million
4. Hidden Figures – $10.1 million
5. La La Land – $7.5 million
6. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter – $4.5 million
7. Sing – $4 million
8. Lion – $4 million
9. The Space Between Us – $3.8 million
10. xXx: Return of Xander Cage – $3.7 million