Academy Awards adding a "Best Popular Film" category. Good or bad idea? Academy walks it back, won't be presented this year

[Rebeccas]

The irony is at the same time, they're relegating technical categories, which historically blockbuster movies do really well in, to commercial breaks.

[TwoMisfits]

So, they obviously instituted this category b/c of the recent spate of nominees and b/c of their declining ratings...and it's the strangest thing I've seen, b/c it, like the animated award, now GUARANTEES we'll never see a return to the movies that used to be nominated and win (pre-Weinstein)...we've pretty much guaranteed best movie will now be 5-10 indies and this category will be 5-10 blocksbusters and never the twain shall meet...

 

I mean, this year, I'm not sure we're gonna get 10 all-star indies before Dec 31...but they are the only films getting nominated for "best" picture now...

 

They probably should have split the best picture category into pictures with $100M+ production budgets and pictures with less than $100M production budgets and then set it to inflation...plenty of movies available for both categories to get nominees and then you have 2 best pics of the year...(yes, I know this could totally be gamed, but it's a standard)...

 

I mean, "popular" is just a stupid term...and measured exactly how...dumb, dumb, dumb...

 

EDIT: I also liked the suggestion of genre nominee categories and taking the winners of each into a final best picture that gets a live member vote on Oscar night...that would provide some suspense and some cool awards - start the show with each genre winner and then get to all the other categories before ending the show with the final selection...

Edited August 8, 2018 by TwoMisfits

[Cmasterclay]

1 minute ago, CoolioD1 said:

the big dog or blob man in hotel transylvania 3 deserves Best Popular Supporting Actor tbh. 

They only give Oscars to blobs when they play a blob with a disability or some sort of accent

[LonePirate]

20 minutes ago, Barnack said:

May as well end the academy award and go to a professional voters system (like almost all the other award have).

 

The hole point of the exercice is wanting to know what people that actually do movies think and the difference with the others.

Except there is no current difference between the Oscars and pretty much every other film award. The Oscars have become a rubber stamp for winners of other awards, which in itself is highly detrimental to the show itself. At least my suggestion still allows for people who make movies to continue making the final selections. They just need better selections.

[CoolioD1]

17 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:

 and Kevin Smith could be an Oscar winner.

I'M UPSET

[RandomCat]

 

[Warmaster506]

Looks like Disney bought themselves an award.   I bet a Disney films wins this for the next 5 years.  Suicide Squad winning an Oscar must have really pissed them off. 

[Hades]

Disney just  be buying studios, buying critics, now buying oscars...

 

[The Panda]

Best Popular Supporting Actress will go to Meryl Streep obviously

[That One Girl]

3 minutes ago, Warmaster506 said:

Suicide Squad winning an Oscar must have really pissed them off

 

I imagine that, like most of the world, they could not have given less of a shit about Suicide Squad winning an Oscar.

[Ryan Reynolds]

3 minutes ago, Warmaster506 said:

Looks like Disney bought themselves an award.   I bet a Disney films wins this for the next 5 years.  Suicide Squad winning an Oscar must have really pissed them off. 

They have to be very good not just popular, so Disney can get nominated a lot but not win.

[The Panda]

Also will the Razzies respond and make a “Worst (un)Popular Movie” category?

[aabattery]

Dumb.

[filmlover]

1 minute ago, Pandamia! said:

Also will the Razzies respond and make a “Worst (un)Popular Movie” category?

That would be too much effort even for them.

[filmscholar]

Sorry but I can't help but laugh at the Academy.   They spent years saying "Blockbusters" weren't "High Art" and now they are basically doing a "Blockbuster Oscar"?, LOL.   Sorry, not buying it.  Probably more than likely a ratings ploy than actually giving respect to "Popular" films.  Blockubster Bias prevented  tons of actually great films from winning the 3 Big Awards.  Prevented tons of great films from getting Oscars.  Forgive me if I'm not celebrating I just think it's too little too late at this point.  

Edited August 8, 2018 by filmscholar

[LonePirate]

3 minutes ago, Pandamia! said:

Also will the Razzies respond and make a “Worst (un)Popular Movie” category?

The Razzies already do this. Movies that bomb spectacularly are always prime contenders for Razzie nominations and wins, especially if there is at least one big name star attached to it. Gotti looks to fill that spot this year. 

[ZeeSoh]

12 minutes ago, Warmaster506 said:

Looks like Disney bought themselves an award.   I bet a Disney films wins this for the next 5 years.  Suicide Squad winning an Oscar must have really pissed them off. 

2 of their movies won oscars that year. And 5 of their movies outearned SS that year as well. Disney couldnt care less that SS won an oscar like most people. 

[TwoMisfits]

You know what would be more fun...

 

How about an honorary "We f'd up" category for past movies that should have won best picture, or been nominees, but got passed over for whatever reason that the academy would like to rectify.  It would be a fun comedy skit every year, a fun look back, and it would probably be something I'd like to watch...

[SLAM!]

I am appalled, both as a student and as an enthusiast of film. I am frightened - frightened - that this will give big studios, the makers of so-called 'popular films', more incentive to be even more derivative in terms of which films they choose to make. Furthermore, depending on the nominees, filmmakers might be discouraged from making their films the best they can be, and quality might go down the drain - some people may be thinking this way, even if it's the wrong way to think: "If I can't get Best Picture, why bother, right? Let's just shoot for the lowest common denominator so that no one is angry or mad at my film, so that I can slap together a mediocre yet fiancially-secure product and call it a day, complete with a void of unfulfillment in my heart." You know. More of the same, except worse.

 

So Academy. You started this, and you need to best of it. Therefore, you should be as smart as possible in regards to what is nominated. You know full well that Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Deadpool 2, and Solo: A Star Wars Story would be unacceptable nomination in the regular Best Picture category; therefore, they should remain unacceptable for this. In return, nominees must consist of deserving box office hits such as A Quiet Place and Mission: Impossible - Fallout. Either that, or the category will inflict severe damage to the psyche of general audience members.

[filmlover]

6 minutes ago, LonePirate said:

The Razzies already do this. Movies that bomb spectacularly are always prime contenders for Razzie nominations and wins, especially if there is at least one big name star attached to it. Gotti looks to fill that spot this year. 

You can always predict the Razzies by which ones are the easiest targets (one doesn't need a crystal ball to see that they'll nominate Fifty Shades for everything one last time). They never truly go after the worst of the worst.