The Oscars

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trueut2003

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Interesting article about how more blockbusters used to get nominated than they do now. In 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark was nominated for Best Picture, a movie that would NEVER get nominated now. Same with Jaws, Star Wars, etc.

Whatta ya think? Have blockbusters become that crappy? Or have the Oscars just ignored them?
 
Most blockbusters just suck now and you don't take anything away from them really as far as innovative film making goes. But, LOTR a few years ago was very strong at the oscars. I would consider those films blockbusters.
 
Most Oscar nominated movies suck nowadays. The Oscars have become more worthless than the Grammys, and that's really saying something.
 
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The Oscars.
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truthfully in general terms, unless you make a statement film about some issue like homosexuality, racial injustice, pro-union/blue collar worker, learning/mental disability, anti-conservative principle, you generally will not get nominated for a best picture unless your name is speilberg, lucas, scorcese, howard, eastwood or reiner.
 
I agree with an Entertainment Weekly column recently that asked, why not at least nominate Bourne Ultimatum this year? It wasn't a brainless action film, it had great performances and direction.

The writer blamed it on Oscar's inability to recognize sequels, but I'd say it also suffered from the blockbuster syndrome.
 
Maybe it could be that popular does not always equal good.
But even if they aren't that good, if they are popular enough, they will get some awards.
 
Simple research says this article is dumb. Oscar winners since 1990 w/ gross over $100 mil.:

The Departed
Gladiator
LOTR: ROTK
American Beauty
Titanic
Braveheart
Forrest Gump
Unforgiven
The Silence of the Lambs

(I didn't check them all; Schindler's List was $4mil short)

Best Picture Nominees of note:
Goodfellas
Beauty and the Beast
A Few Good Men
The Fugitive
Pulp Fiction
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Shawshank Redemption
Apollo 13
Babe
Jerry Maguire
Fargo
1997 was a banner year - winner Titanic, nominees:
- As Good as it Gets
- The Full Monty
- Good Will Hunting
- L.A. Confidential
Saving Private Ryan
The Sixth Sense
Master and Commander
The Aviator
 
The all-time box office figures are absolutely worthless when measuring popularity. Take note, 8 of the top 10 have been released since 1997. It's a basic function of price inflation, as the industry has seen 3%+ price appreciation every year for the past 30. At these rates, a $8 ticket today would've been worth approximately $3 when Star Wars was released - given a 3% discount rate.

To truly measure popularity, you should track attendance. The most popular movies are the most heavily attended. Hollywood doesn't want to track those figures, because it doesn't give the appearance that movies are becoming more popular. In relative terms, the movie industry is much less popular with people than it was two decades ago. (This isn't a function of price elasticity either, because price appreciation has roughly kept pace with the CPI, so on a relative basis, movies are roughly the same cost to movie-goers.)

If you normalize ticket prices, the only movie of late that would still rank as one of the most popular movies of all-time is Titanic (roughly 105 mm tickets sold) - but it would trail both Star Wars (~145 mm) and ET (~ 120 mm). I don't have the figures on me, but I believe Gone With the Wind, Snow White, and the Wizard of Oz were the most attended movies of all time. I could be wrong, because that's just from memory.
 
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