This weekend’s box office results bring up a perennial question: Does a movie need to be a commercial hit to score a Best Picture nomination? Certainly poor box office performance helped kill movies like Memoirs of a Geisha and The Kite Runner in the past, while blockbusters like The Sixth Sense and The Fugitive capitalized on their financial success to earn Oscar nods.
This weekend, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button performed strongly with almost $40 million in its first four days, a fantastic figure for what is essentially an art film (granted, one starring Brad Pitt) with a nearly three-hour running time. Meanwhile, Frost/Nixon, despite earning rave reviews, has posted decent but not terrific numbers, grossing $1.5 million over the three-day portion of the weekend in 205 theaters. Despite playing in one-fifteenth the number of theaters as Button, its per-theater average was still the lower of the two. I’ve had a couple friends wonder if the soft box office means Frost has moved down a few pegs in the Best Picture race. Perhaps it’s now the No. 4 contender instead of No. 3 (Milk, which has been doing well in limited release, is on the rise), but I still think it’s solidly in there for a nomination next month.
The question is, should it make a difference? Whether or not The Dark Knight ends up snagging the fifth slot may just provide the answer.
What do you think?
Related movie reviews:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Dark Knight
I really don’t think it was the box-office that killed Memoirs of a Geisha and The Kite Runner. They were just crappy movies. And to answer your question, no, a film’s box-office should have any weight when deciding which film was the best. It is irrelevant because too many people spend oodles of cash on crap. What if all the Harry Potter films had received Best Picture noms just because they raked in the money?
Whether you want it to or not, box office has to play some type of role. Best to who? If the public is not interested, then how can it be best? If no one goes to see the movie, the awards show will have no audience. The award is really subjective and meaningless anyway. How can you say what is best? For example, how can you say someone is better than someone else when they aren’t doing the same role. At least in sports you can measure by say goals or RBIs. The awards are just to sell tickets. I don’t take them too seriously.
Here in Jacksonville, Florida, I was really surprised to see that “Frost/Nixon” opened on a single screen in a Regal multiplex, about 25 miles from where I live. “Slumdog Millionaire,” on the other hand, is playing in four theatres around the area. If the “F/N” box office is soft, maybe it’s because it’s not playing in enough theatres.
I don’t really think that box office earnings should affect the Oscar awards/nominations. I saw both Frost/Nixon and Benjamin Button this weekend and I was amazed by both, though I would have to give the edge to Button. As for box office earnings, they shouldn’t have anything to do with Oscar nominations.
Well, Hollywood is about money so why shouldn’t the Oscars be?
But who cares about awards when sentimental, stereotypical junk like “Slumdog Millionaire” is the favorite for the big prize?
Finally saw this and i don’t think it deserves a best picture oscar. It is a three star movie at best. The only thing i like in it was the Joker and i was rooting for him to kill everyone. I also found it annoying that Batman kept talking it that deep voice. The only oscar nomination it deserves is for Heath Ledger. As lame as the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild are they were right in only nominating Heath.
Does it matter. If it’s still number 3 or four. It really has no chance at winning. I think Frost will get nominated. Button will get nominated whether it deserves it or not. I LOVED the movie “Frost”. It was historical. Sure not everything happened exactly right. I have heard iffy things about “Button”. It may get a nomination for Pitt to guarantee that Brangelina shows up at the show. But I am not sure… I think box office should be taken into consideration depending on the movie. And if it’s quality film making. There is time for movies to rise and fall in stalk… The award show isn’t until February.
Not that the Oscars should be a popularity contest, but why would people watch if they haven’t seen the movies being nominated? What are they going to cheer for? The fact that so many movies get nominated that no one has seen is why the ratings are so bad. No one is going to watch the Oscars this year to see how many awards Frost/Nixon wins. That’s the reality of it. Unless Dark Knight and Heath Ledger get nominations who cares about the Oscars??? I don’t.
If movies are given an advantage depending on their box office gross then it completely discredits the Oscars, in my opinion. How much money a film makes does not necessarily equate with the quality (though The Dark Knight is an exception), and for the Academy to suggest such a thing is wrong.
Lets be real. Does anyone even remember who won an Oscar last year for acting? Best picture? Anything? No one is going to remember next year either..or the year after that..or the year after that. It’s all about one night and if that night isn’t entertaining i.e Adrain Brody kissing Halle Berry, no one even remembers it. And no one cares.
Oscars shouldn’t be thought like a regular show played for the ratings but an award announcement for appreciaton of quality cinema. When has the best selling things been the best? Books? Cinema? Music? There are tons of awards for pop things. If Oscars become a toy of “popular” its value will go down to toilet.
I’ve written on this subject, though in a roundabout way, here, and since there is not room to copy and paste the article here, I can paste the link to it:
http://bobtaylorrocks.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-golden-globes-sicken-me.html
i dont care as long as dark knight stays no. 1. that is the greatest movie ever!!!!
less-than-stellar reviews are a much more consistent predictor of non-nominations, as evidenced by, guess what, Memoirs of a Geisha and Kite Runner. For that reason, don’t be shocked if Australia is totally forgotten, and even Benjamin Button may be hurt by this if more people react like Travers of the Rolling Stone did
There was a time when popcorn flicks were Oscar-worthy. Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and E.T. were all nominated for Best Picture, and all were the highest grossing films of whatever year they came out. We haven’t seen that in recent, since today’s summer blockbusters have been overshadowed by the indie, smaller movies, which I find some overrated. The Dark Knight pretty much broke all that. I’d like to see a nomination for Best Picture because I loved the movie, however I don’t think it’s the best movie ever made, like what some people say. I would even like to see Iron Man get a few nominations, even for acting.