It doesn’t say much for Hollywood that films winning the summer boxoffice race stand little chance of getting into Oscar’s best picture race.
On the heels of DOCTOR STRANGE 2 & TOP GUN: MAVERICK, we’ll also be celebrating mainstream live-action event films this summer like JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION (pictured), THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER & BULLET TRAIN. But when summer ends and we head into the awards season, they’ll face an uphill struggle to get best picture consideration.
They’re essentially in the best picture deep freeze because the Academy’s heavily expanded global membership just doesn’t regard Hollywood tentpoles as best pictures. There’s a major disconnect between how Oscar’s far-flung members vote & how moviegoers vote at the boxoffice. The same wrongheaded thinking also influences how other award givers act. Awards telecast ratings have plummeted because viewers don’t see or care about the best picture nominees.
Academy members are forgetting that without event films movie theatres would close, killing the biggest market for the pictures that pay many of their salaries. The Academy should remind its cinema snobs worldwide that best pictures aren’t officially defined as only having shoestring budgets, overseas origins, or streaming financing.