Trolls

This time it’s called ‘Trolls Band Together.’

30 guests, 40 titles to choose from, all for $150.

You have to see the footage.

The broad success of Netflix animated series like Voltron and Trollhunters will give way to a whole new power in 2018. Not only is a She-Ra reboot on deck for next year, but also new animated iterations of The Boss Baby, Captain Underpants and more.

DreamWorks and Universal’s surprise animated hit is — unsurprisingly — getting a sequel. The news comes on the heels of Justin Timberlake’s charismatic opening number at the 2017 Oscars earlier this week — something most of you probably forgot all about at least two hours before Envelopegate even happened, somewhere between candy parachutes and that weird tour bus interlude.

It’s a big year for the Oscars, and not just because of the movies. 2016 brought us a record-breaking 27 animated films eligible for Best Animated Feature, and today the Academy announced that there is a whopping 91 tracks eligible for Best Original Song.

The aesthetic of the Trolls movie that debuted earlier this year could be fairly described as “everything all of the time.” It’s a whirling hurricane of Day-Glo colors and candy farts and peppy pop tunes and endless Pixy Stix buffets. It plays like the EDM sugar rush of an eight-year-old off his meds, and audiences responded in kind with a massive box-office return. (The #1 FM radio single from Justin Timberlake didn’t hurt matters, either.) Still cruising from his child-geared hit’s success, Trolls director Mike Mitchell has now taken his next project, and it looks like he’s going to be trading the kid-approved MDMA for something a little more… herbal.

It looks like the general public reacted to one of the most stressful weeks in living memory by flocking to the movies for a few hours of escape. Both Doctor Strange and Trolls, which debuted to solid numbers last week, held on strong. Arrival, the biggest newcomer of the bunch, also opened well, proving that it’s entirely possible to open in third place and still be a winner at the box office.

Since the introduction of the Best Animated Feature Oscar at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002, we’ve seen a steady exponential increase in animated movies over the years. Pixar, and, by extent, Disney, has usually dominated the competition, with eight wins out of ten nominations, followed by DreamWorks and Disney’s animation studio. This year, we have a record 27 movies eligible for the award, and while the Academy can pick only five to nominate, for now it’s anyone’s game.

Like any new Marvel Studios movie, Doctor Strange was destined to take the number one spot at the box office  —  it was really just a question of how much it would make. Ultimately, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sorcerer Supreme surpassed expectations, topping the charts with an exceptional $84 million. But this was a strong weekend in general, with Trolls and Hacksaw Ridge performing well in second and third place.