This year’s Sundance Film Festival was more diverse than it usually is in every way one might imagine. Sure, there were the usual crop of independent films and documentaries, but the predominance of women and people of color and queer voices was more notable than ever. In fact, female filmmakers took home most of the festival’s top prizes.

Sundance also proved to be a feeding frenzy for independent distributors with Amazon swooping in to spend more money than any other studio has ever spent during a single year at the festival. Usually, if one selection sells for over $10 million it makes headlines. This year there were at least three films that fell into that category.

Meanwhile the Super Bowl weekend proved to be a bust both at the box office, which was reached a 20-year-low, as well as on television, where the broadcast of the big game fell to a 10-year-low.

Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary, Hulu raises its prices and Spotify turns on a feature that allows users to turn off artists.

ICE Apprehends 21 Savage, Claims Rapper Is British and Overstayed Visa

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ice-apprehends-21-savage-claims-rapper-is-british-and-overstayed-visa-789370/

Comscore Announces Official Worldwide Box Office Results for Weekend of February 3, 2019

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/comscore-announces-official-worldwide-box-office-results-for-weekend-of-february-3-2019-300788750.html

CinemaCon Shake-Up: Sony Sitting Out Annual Gathering

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cinemacon-shake-up-sony-sitting-annual-gathering-1178819

Viacom CEO Bob Bakish’s Annual Pay Falls Slightly

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/viacom-ceo-bob-bakishs-annual-pay-falls-slightly-1171011

Australia Box Office Recovers, Grows 3.6% in 2018

https://variety.com/2019/film/asia/australia-box-office-recovers-in-2018-1203113594/

Japan Box Office Dips 3% in 2018, Holds Above $2 Billion

https://variety.com/2019/film/asia/japan-box-office-down-in-2018-1203121975/

Another Record Year for Polish Cinema

http://filmneweurope.com/news/poland-news/item/117534-another-record-year-for-polish-cinema

International Box Office Top 100 of 2018: Another Record Year, but Rise Is Slight

https://variety.com/2019/film/box-office/avengers-infinity-war-2018-international-box-office-1203112626/

Netflix Becomes First Streamer to Join the Motion Picture Association of America

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflix-advanced-talks-join-mpaa-1177926

SAG Awards Winners: Complete List