Reel Facts & Opinions: Oscar and the Popular Film

One of the most surprising, if not the most bizarre bits of film news this summer came from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which announced a new Oscar category last week. The Academy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film will have its debut at the upcoming 91^st Oscars. This is the first new category created since Best Animated Feature in 2001.

The announcement was one of several changes the Academy is making to the annual broadcast, aimed at increasing ratings which hit an all-time low this past year. Anytime a new category is created, there is a guaranteed blowback and analysis, and this new category overshadowed all the other changes. The announcement has been met with mostly negativity from journalists, fans, and even Academy members. Many view it as an attempt to pander to mainstream audiences, in the hope of boosting ratings. The Academy it seems, is damaging the integrity of the awards in place of ratings. The category has also been criticized for diminishing the chances that a blockbuster film might have at scoring a Best Picture nomination, even though the Academy has confirmed that films nominated for Best Popular will still be eligible for Best Picture. AMPAS wants those popular blockbuster films, which rarely seem to win Oscars, to have a place in the broadcast and bring new viewers in…and therein lies the rub.

The line between popular blockbuster films and Oscar winners has never been thicker. At one point in history, big money-makers such as TITANIC (1997), GLADIATOR (2000), and THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003) were winning Best Picture. But in recent years, relatively small-budgeted (and small earners) such as MOONLIGHT (2016), SPOTLIGHT (2015), and last year’s THE SHAPE OF WATER have been the big winners…while big money films such as GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014), and THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015) were banished to the technical categories. If all things are fair and equal, there is no reason why a big-budget, big-earner of a film can’t be considered for Best Picture, and there’s also no reason why a smaller film can’t be considered either. There shouldn’t be a line, but this new category seems to draw it even thicker.

It should be noted that this isn’t the first time the Academy has changed things to include popular films. The decision in 2009 to expand the Best Picture category from five to a maximum of 10 nominees seemed to work, as the wider field allowed “popular” films such as AVATAR (2009), INCEPTION (2010), and FURY ROAD (2015) to earn Best Picture nods. But times seem to have changed again, and last year’s batch of nominees were the lowest-grossing since 2011. In the past 14 years, no box office top 10 movie has won Best Picture.

Time has yet to put the test to this new category, so at present day we can only assume that box office earnings and the contenders/winners of Best Popular will be closely tied together; after all, a film that earns a billion dollars worldwide can certainly be considered popular…if not, where does all that money come from? If this category was in existence in the last five years, the winners would have likely looked like this:

2017:  STAR WARS – THE LAST JEDI

2016: ROGUE ONE

2015: STAR WARS – THE FORCE AWAKENS

2014: AMERICAN SNIPER

2013: THE HUNGER GAMES – CATCHING FIRE

Of those five films, it’s debatable which ones were the “best” at being popular, because being popular and being the best at something are two different things. And box office earners do not always equal quality; if this category had been around since 2007, the critically panned TRANSFORMERS movies would have won four Oscars by now. Here in 2018, the top-earner (so far) is Marvel’s BLACK PANTHER, which is probably a shoo-in for a nomination in Best Popular, and already fans are steaming because such a nod could possibly eliminate it from Best Picture contention (fair enough, but it’s a long shot anyway).

The Oscars have always reflected the industry, and times have certainly changed in Hollywood in the last decade…with studios taking less risks and facing stiff competition from home streaming services. With all these changes, audiences have changed. Gone are the days where deep dramas such as THE GODFATHER (1972) are the big earners; replaced by Jedi and capes and CGI spectacle. Audiences changed what they flock to, the Oscars did not change with that…until now. In the past decade the Academy has veered away from those spectacles in favor of smaller drama…and that’s fine as indie and arthouse films deserve love too. If Best Popular allows what the people love to sneak into the Best Picture race, then this could work.

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The Oscars for 2018 will be awarded February 24^th, 2019.