Before awards madness and the holiday season, studios are calming down their release schedule and simply expanding a number of recently released films.

Only two movies will open, but they will only receive limited releases.

Before looking at the new releases, the weekend will offer expansions of Saban Film's western "The Homesman." The movie has been playing to solid results and will continue to expand and try and generate awards attention from pundits and audiences. Open Road Films will reopen "Nightcrawler" after a series a nominations at the Independent Spirit Awards and Gotham Awards nominations. The movie's great reviews are generating awards buzz and Open Roads hopes it can improve its disappointing box office.

Other holdovers that are sure to continue to play solidly are "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1," "Interstellar," "Big Hero 6" and "Penguins of Madagascar ." "Horrible Bosses 2," "Dumb and Dumber Too" will also continue at the box office.

Awards contenders "The Theory of Everything" and "The Imitation Game" will not expand but will likely continue to play to solid results.

For those who don't care much for any of these holdovers or have already seen them here are the newest releases:

Wild

Reese Witherspoon returns to the screen in the Oscar contender by Jean-Marc Vallee. Based on the acclaimed novel by Cheryl Strayed, the film chronicles the story of Strayed's 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent catastrophe. The movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival where it received praised especially for Witherspoon. Latin Post stated that "Reese Witherspoon gives her Best Performance to Date in an Introspective & Effective Film." Fox Searchlight is doing a slow roll out hoping to bank on awards season. Witherspoon is a hopeful for Best Actress and will likely garner Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations next week.

The Pyramid

Originally, Fox intended to release the horror picture in wide release, but backed out after obtaining horrible tracking. The movie tells the story of an archaeological team that attempts to unlock the secrets of a lost pyramid only to find themselves hunted by an insidious creature. The film stars Ashley Hinshaw and Dennis O'Hare and is opening in 550 theaters. The movie has not been screened for critics and will likely get bad reviews. With an overemphasis on awards contenders and blockbusters, this film is likely to leave cinemas very quickly.

Other than these two releases, Sony Pictures Classics will release "Still Alice" in a one-week qualifying release for the Academy Awards. The movie is sure to get Julianne Moore her first Oscar as she has already won awards at the Gotham and National Board of Review. However, New York audiences will not get a chance to see the film until January as it is only playing in L.A and most of the screening are posed for Academy voters. "Still Alice" has garnered rave reviews, which makes it all the more odd that Sony would even try this strategy for a film with so much buzz.

Meanwhile, Magnolia will unveil "Life Partners," which has been playing on demand for a number of weeks to solid results. However, theatrical release will be affected by VOD and by its mixed reviews. IFC Films will release "Comet" starring Emmy Rossum and Justin Long while Zeitgeist films will release the Tribeca Film Festival winner "Zero Motivation." The Israeli film was posed to be an Oscar contender, but Israel failed to submit and, as a result, the film will not generating attention.

Abramorama will release "The One I Wrote For You," starring Cheyenne Jackson, while International Film Circuit will unveil the documentary "She's Beautiful When She's Angry."

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