Photo illustration by Gabriella Tutino/The Mirror.
It was an exciting year for the film industry: “Avatar” topped “Titanic” as the highest grossing movie of all-time, Kathryn Bigelow was the first female director to win at the Director’s Guild of America awards (and may do the same at the Oscars), and Sandra Bullock and Mo’Nique surprised everyone with their serious acting chops in “The Blind Side” and “Precious.”
So when the nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards were announced in early February, naturally people were excited. This is the first year the Best Picture category has been expanded to allow ten nominated films instead of five, adding a more diverse group of movies in the mix for the prestigious award.
To some extent, that did happen. Beside the usual suspects of “Avatar” and “Inglourious Basterds,” this year the category includes “The Blind Side” (a sports movie), “Up! “ (Pixar) and “District 9” (a sci-fi). But “A Serious Man” and “An Education,” two films seen almost exclusively by movie critics and Coen brothers’ fans, were nominated while big hits like “Star Trek” were ignored and arguably the funniest movie of the year, “The Hangover” had no nominations at all.
“To get critical success, a film has to be serious and morally challenging,” said film and English professor Elizabeth Haas. Movies that get nominated are dramas and performances that are awarded are serious. It was not always this way: “It Happened One Night” (1934) was a screwball comedy that swept the Oscars, winning all five major categories. But lately the disparity between box office hits and critically acclaimed films has grown.
According to a 2007 Los Angeles Times article, of the top 20 hits in the last 30 years, only two films, ”Titanic” and “Forrest Gump,” won Best Picture. Many box office hits like “Jurassic Park,” “The Dark Knight,” “The Lion King,” and “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” weren’t even nominated for Best Picture. Some of the most admired and influential movies of all time like “Citizen Kane” or Star Wars have not won Best Picture.
“Hollywood, for all its artistic aspirations, is still a business,” Haas said.
In recent years there has been little overlap between box office hits and best picture winners. Only three of the 2009’s top 10 grossing films made it into Best Picture: “Avatar,” “The Blind Side,” and “Up.” Last year’s Best Picture featured zero Top 10 hits. On the 50 All-Time USA Box Office, only “Avatar” and “Up!” made the list, ranking number one and 35, respectively.
Blockbusters like “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” and “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” were ranked in the second, third, and fourth spots on the list of 2009 domestic grosses, but as Film professor Mark Scalese, S.J. said, “Popularity doesn’t always mean quality.” Those movies are made for the young adolescent market, and there lies a problem.
On the other hand, some of the films that the industry is most proud of are met with indifference at the box office. This was especially clear in 2008 when critically acclaimed films like “Rachel Getting Married” and “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” were ignored by public moviegoers. Films like “The Wrestler” and “Slumdog Millionaire,” — winner of last year’s Best Picture but one that did not make the top 50 of the All-Time Box office hits — received little attention until awards season.
“The market that drives blockbusters is basically kids,” Scalese said.
The rise of the blockbusters came in the 1970s and 1980s. There used to be a production code where movies were made that intended to be likeable for all audiences. Now, there are niche markets. Big hits are made for teenage boys. People who go to the movies are younger with both time and money to spend. Meanwhile, the critics are older. Adolescents may drive profits, but the people who nominate films are adults. According to the official Academy Awards Web site, voting on all achievements is restricted to active and life Academy members through a secret ballot.
Critics are often invited to early screenings and write reviews before the film opens to the public. Therefore, critical reviews are important in the early weeks before word of mouth. The impacts of reviews diminish with each week as people who have seen the films convey their own opinions, word of mouth dominates, and more people see the film.
“I don’t think people care what critics say in the end,” Haas said.
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