• The Simpsons Get an Oscar Nomination 
,
"The Longest Daycare" is a four-and-a-half-minute-long 3D short that was released, Pixar-style, in theaters in front of "Ice Age: Continental Drift." The film tells the story, sans dialog, of how Maggie attempts to save a butterfly from her unibrowed nemesis Baby Gerald during their daily stay at the Ayn Rand School for Tots.  

• • The 5 Biggest Disappointments at the 2012 Specialty Box Office 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  | Considering "Atlas Shrugged, Part I" wasn't exactly a big hit -- grossed $4.6 million on its $20 million budget -- it shouldn't come as a surprise that its sequel did so poorly as well. What should come as a surprise is that it was even made at all.  

• Liz Lemon is No Longer Television's Favorite Workaholic Singleton 
,
[I]n the ceremony [...], "30 Rock" presented a nice callback to Liz's long-established Leia prediliction by having her show up in the only white dress she owned and demonstrating that there are many ways to be a princess. Tony Bennett, Jack in a tuxedo reading Ayn Rand, Criss' police auction-obtained wedding grill and the forever douchey Dennis Duffy (Dean Winters) [...].  

• Was The Sarah Palin Documentary Actually a Hit? 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  | Perhaps [an] appropriate comparison is the similarly right-wing pandering “Atlas Shrugged, Part I,” which debuted on a far wider 299 screens and managed a similar $5,640 average. While that was a respectable debut for a film a release of that size, the film dropped off sharply in its second weekend and was generally perceived as a disappointment.  

• • Mid-Year Box Office Report: 2011’s Winners and Losers So Far 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  | Loser: Atlas Shrugged, Part I. Another big literary adaptation came care of Rocky Mountain Pictures’ take on Ayn Rand “Atlas Shrugged, Part I.” The $15 million-budgeted film received significant backing by Tea Party groups, with FreedomWorks, the Tea Party-allied group headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R), among the groups supporting the film. While its first weekend found a respectable $1,676,917 gross from 299 screens, the film failed to hold on past its core audience. It dropped 48% in its second weekend, despite adding 166 additional screens, and was out of theaters by week five with a disappointing final tally of $4,563,873.  

• • Box Office: 3-D ‘Dreams’ Gives Werner Herzog His Best Debut 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  | Rocky Mountain Pictures’ Ayn Rand adaptation, “Atlas Shrugged, Part I,” continued to fail through its expansion. Though its producers suggested it would hit 1,000 screens after its somewhat promising debut, the film went from 465 screens down to 371 in its third frame. The result was a 54% drop in grosses, taking in $402,535 for a per-theater-average of $1,085. The $20 million-budgeted film has now grossed $3,881,789.  

• • iW Daily Recaps | 5 Stories Not to Miss for Wednesday 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  | “Atlas Shrugged” producer John Aglialoro is looking to throw in the towel on expanding his planned three-part Ayn Rand saga, reports the L.A. Times. Originally intended to move to 1, 000 screens before adapting the other two thirds of Rand’s epic tale of ultra-capitalism gone right, the producer tells the publication that he’s considering calling it all off.  

• • Box Office: Sony Duo ‘Incendies’ and ‘Greatest Movie’ Top Debuts; ‘Atlas’ Shrugs In Expansion 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  | The weekend’s other big story was the expansion of Rocky Mountain Pictures’s Ayn Rand adaptation “Atlas Shrugged, Part I,” which last weekend found respectable numbers from its first frame. This weekend, it went from 299 screens to 465 in an aggressive expansion, but failed to connect to audiences. It dropped 48% despite the expansion, grossing $879,000 and averaging only $1,890. The film’s total now stands at $3,094,000.  

• • • “Atlas Shrugged”: Rotten reviews, but it’s no. 1 on Google 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Egoism  | Just before noon Friday, when “Atlas Shrugged Part I” was screening for the first time in 300 theaters across America, the film had a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 6%—and “Atlas Shrugged” was the nation’s number-one Google Trends keyword. (“Ayn Rand” held the no. 11 spot.) According to Atlas Society executive director David Kelley, who served as a consultant on the film, Ayn Rand couldn’t have written it better herself. “I’m not surprised at all,” he said.  

• Critical consensus: Danish doc ‘Armadillo’ tops criticWIRE this week 
,
Atlas Shrugged movie  | Two classic tales of conflicting values and political upheaval hit theaters this weekend, although you’re probably better off sticking with the contemporary options. While “Atlas Shrugged (Part 1)” returns to the iconoclastic novel and “The Conspirator” studies the death of Abraham Lincoln, neither has garnered much praise for pulling off these lofty goals. Reality check: New stories often service contemporary audiences better than any effort to dip into the past.  

•Ham-fisted: Bent Hamer’s “Factotum” 
,
Movie review.
[Henry Charles Bukowski] doesn't weather the inflation to cultural avatar well -- a man who, by his admission, "wrote the same thing over and over again," he pounded out short, easily navigable sentences and outlined his dropout ethos in triplicate, a formula ensuring that copies of Ham on Rye could pass between generations of zitty 9th graders as readily as a well-thumbed copy of Oui, and be received as scripture. Better that Bukowski should break them in than Ayn Rand, but is this it..?