Big winners at the Golden Globes could indicate this week’s Oscar noms

With the Academy’s nominations voting opening today, the results of the Globes might signal the direction of certain Oscars categories (statistically speaking).

Millie Giles

Awards season is now well and truly underway, and the 83rd Golden Globe Awards last night gave credence to much of what the Critics Choice Awards had indicated the week before.

Stars aligning?

Having scooped trophies for Best Picture at both ceremonies, things are looking good for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” for the honors circuit ahead; meanwhile, despite losing out on the top prizes, fan favorite “Sinners” has won in some adjacent categories, including the award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement at the Globes.

In acting categories, Jessie Buckley has now won best actress for “Hamnet” at both the Globes and Critics Choice, as Timothée Chalamet also picked up acting awards at both ceremonies for his work in “Marty Supreme” — furthering his lead in the race toward the Best Actor Oscar against Leonardo DiCaprio, another top pick.

Gong show

For those whose eyes are planted firmly on the Academy Awards — which will see nominations voting open today, before results are announced on January 22 ahead of the ceremony on March 15 — the Globes have historically proved a useful indicator to predict the sway of Hollywood’s most prestigious awards show.

With data compiled by Statista, alongside results from the last decade across both awards shows, it’s clear that Best Actor and Best Actress winners at the Globes go on to have a good chance of scooping gold at the Oscars — even accounting for the former’s quirk of splitting major awards into “Drama” and “Musical or Comedy” (which can dilute the awards’ predictive power, per Numlock News analysis).

On the other hand, wins for Best Picture and Best Director at the Globes don’t make for surefire Oscar win indicators in quite the same way. Prediction markets, however, already seem pretty certain about their front-runners in both categories at present.

Millie Giles1/9/26

Tamagotchis are making a comeback, 3 decades after first becoming a global toy craze

If you were a ’90s kid, you might remember the craze around little egg-shaped toys with an 8-bit digital screen, displaying an ambiguous pet-thing that demanded food and attention.

Now, on the brand’s 30th anniversary, the Tamagotchi — the Japanese pocket-sized virtual pet that launched a thousand cute and needy tech companions, from Nintendogs to fluffy AI robots — is making a minor comeback.

Tamagotchi Google Search Trends — Sherwood News

Looking at Google Trends data, searches for “tamagotchi” spiked in December in the US, up around 80% from just six months prior, with the most search volume in almost two decades.

While the toys are popular Christmas gifts, with interest volumes often seen ticking up in December each year, the sudden interest might also have something to do with the birthday celebrations that creator and manufacturer Bandai Namco are putting on, including a Tokyo exhibition that opened on Wednesday.

Game, set, hatch

More broadly, modern consumers appear to have a growing obsession with collectibles (see: Labubu mania), as well as a taste for nostalgia (see: the iPod revival, among many other trends).

But, having finally hit 100 million sales in September last year, the brand itself is probably just glad to exist, giving a whole new generation the chance to experience the profound grief of an unexpected Tamagotchi death.

Millie Giles

PANDORA’S BOX OFFICE

1/5/26

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” surpasses $1 billion globally after 18 days

James Cameron is now the first director in history to have four consecutive movies gross over a billion dollars.

$5.6B

Max Knoblauch12/23/25

Disney could be well on its way to its third billion-dollar film of the year following a $345 million opening weekend for “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” The film’s opening gross puts the “Avatar” franchise’s total box office earnings at $5.6 billion — and counting.

The latest film, the second “Avatar” entry under Disney’s tent, earned about 75% of its total box office gross internationally — in line with previous movies in the (as of now) trilogy. Domestically, this one earned $88 million, falling short of expectations.

“Fire and Ash” was the widest Imax release ever, debuting on 1,703 screens globally and earning $43.6 million through the format. The $345 million “Fire and Ash” opening weekend was the second-highest of 2025, behind Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” which recently passed the $1 billion mark, globally.

Year to date, Disney has earned $5.8 billion globally at the box office.