Wednesday night’s box office is in, and Disney is back on top with the much praised “Moana.” A $15,680,000 take pre Thanksgiving indicates a possible record for the holiday weekend.

By contrast, the Brad Pitt- Marion Cotillard World War II romantic thriller “Allied” is a bomb. Despite a surprise positive review in the New York Times, “Allied” made just over $2.7 million last night. Its per screen average isn’t very good either. Oh well, this one was tough since Pitt is in the middle of his divorce scandal and couldn’t do much PR. That fell to the very pregnant Cotillard, who was a trooper on TV shows. The whole movie is a curiosity, really, a heads scratcher from the reliable Robert Zemeckis.

But not to fear– really terrific films are here. “Manchester by the Sea,” an Oscar certain drama–is in theaters. “Lion” — a must see, also Oscar bound — opens Friday with Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel. “Moonlight” is playing, as well as “Loving,” “Rules Don’t Apply,” “Arrival” and “Bleed for This.” “Nocturnal Animals” is also sensational. That’s 7 films for the weekend! Get busy, kids!

And so we wait til December 8th to see “Silence.” Let’s look at what we’ve got as of tonight. Of course “Silence” can change all of this, in a minute. But for purposes of the Critics Choice Awards– which may not get to include “Silence,” this is what it seems we’re working with. Stay tuned. A long weekend of screening DVDs is at hand. (PS the names are in order at all). THURS. 11PM UPDATE Michael Keaton is so good in “The Founder” you will never eat at McDonald’s again without thinking of him as Ray Kroc.

BEST PICTURE
Manchester by the Sea
La La Land
Lion
Fences
Moonlight
Arrival
Sully
20th Century Women
Jackie
Hell or High Water
Loving

BEST ACTOR
Denzel Washington– Fences
Casey Affleck– Manchester
Ryan Gosling– La La Land
Tom Hanks–Sully
Warren Beatty– Rules Don’t Apply
Mark Wahlberg- Patriots Day
Michael Keaton– The Founder

BEST ACTRESS
Emma Stone– La La Land
Annette Bening- 20th Century Women
Meryl Streep– Florence Foster Jenkins
Natalie Portman– Jackie
Ruth Negga– Loving
Amy Adams– Arrival

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Dev Patel– Lion
Lucas Hedges– Manchester
Mykleti Williamson– Fences
Stephen Henderson– Fences
Mahershala Ali– Moonlight
Michael Shannon– Nocturnal Animals

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Nicole Kidman– Lion
Viola Davis– Fences
Helen Mirren– Collateral Beauty
Naomie Harris– Moonlight
Michelle Williams– Manchester
Elle Fanning– 20th Century Women
Greta Gerwig– 20th Century Women

If it ever comes up, this is the trailer for Martin Scorsese’s “Silence,” releasing December 23rd. Scorsese’s passion project stars Liam Neeson, Adam Driver, and Andrew Garfield. No one’s seen it yet except the National Board of Review, and they probably didn’t understand it since neither George Clooney nor Clint Eastwood is involved. (The NBR will give it their Special Award for Things We Can’t Fathom.)

Anyway, keep refreshing:

With a total shut out at the Independent Spirit Awards, the long strange saga of Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” comes to an end. An ignominious end.

At $17 million, “Birth” set a Sundance record for sales last January after winning the grand jury prize. Everyone wanted it, even Harvey Weinstein. But Fox Searchlight, so successful with “12 Years a Slave,” was the natural winner of the auction. “Birth” was tipped for Oscars galore and big box office.

But now, the movie that wasn’t has made just $15.8 million and is about to exit theaters. There is no foreign release. The Spirit Awards snub is just the beginning. “Birth” will be absent from all awards mention.

It wasn’t Fox Searchlight’s fault. They had no idea that the director and star of the film, Nate Parker, was carrying grenades in his “baggage.” His background included a college- years acquittal on the charge of rape. His screenwriter was found guilty, overturned on appeal and not re-tried. Then the young women in question turned out to have committed suicide years later.

Parker was not contrite, or sorry. Instead of trying to smooth out the situation, he made it worse, reignited it, lied by omission, and demonstrated tremendous insensitivity. It wouldn’t have mattered how good the reviews were. He did himself in. It may take a decade or more to repair his career damage. And don’t get me started about the victim in the rape case.

I guarantee you that come this January at Sundance, any new or unknown filmmaker will endure a background check before anyone writes a check. They may even be asked to indemnify the buyer of their film should something unexpected hinder the release.  And the movie “Birth of a Nation”? It should be seen by students. I just hope it won’t take a decade for that to happen, too.

Peter Berg’s “Patriots Day” starring Mark Wahlberg is the unlikely first film of the Trump era. The very powerful movie, about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, is pro-police, anti-Muslim and totally populist, all in a good way. Berg and Wahlberg certainly didn’t make it as a Trump era movie– after all, we could have been in the Clinton era. And set in Massachusetts, the demo’s weight on the Democratic side.

But timing is everything, and there will be a lot of people who read into “Patriots Day” a reaction to immigration, terrorism and their consequences. Think of it as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” released as it was in the Reagan era. Art is open to interpretation.

I mean it, when I say all this in a good way. The Boston Marathon bombing may not be detailed in your mind if you’re not from Beantown. But it was catastrophic, with 28 victims, many of whom lost limbs. Detailed here for the first time, the bombing– really two occurrences– will literally blow you away. The movie is good, but it’s great when it comes to the actual moment when life exploded unexpectedly on Boylston Street. That set piece, and the chase to arrest the Tsarnaev brothers who perpetrated the crime, are just terrific, edge of your seat episodes.

Most of “Patriots Day” is true. In writing the screenplay, the creators imagined a central cop and his wife played by Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Monaghan to carry the story. In reality, they say they blended a couple of cops into one so that Wahlberg’s Tommy Saunders stands in for them. It doesn’t matter because the device works, and Wahlberg is really great as Tommy (Monaghan also, although her part is small). He could be getting some serious awards action.

The rest of “Patriots Day” is very well cast with a collapsed John Goodman (after stomach band surgery), Kevin Bacon. and JK Simmons as standouts. Nat Wolff and Themo Melikidze are exceptional as psychopathic terrorist brothers who blew up the city. But I was really fascinated by a standalone scene with Khandi Alexander as a CIA interrogorator and Melissa Benoist as Kathleen Russell, the American Tsarnev wife who is still being investigated for helping her husband and brother-in-law.

“Patriots Day” is the story of a small city rallying together during an unexpected terrorist attack. I’ve lived there, and it’s insular place. As Wahlberg said in tonight’s Q&A, I’m paraphrasing, they’re big hearted people, but don’t mess with them. Berg conveys this brilliantly. As far as the Trump reference– this is an ode to the police, and a warning to outsiders. They’re not making it up. This is what happened. I’m curious to see if it isn’t a huge, huge hit on the par of “American Sniper.” Just to give you an idea, a random retired Marine who served in Afghanistan after 9/11 stood up during the Q&A and said he loved it. I think there will be a huge response.