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This Year’s Best Picture Nominees Have the Lowest Grosses in Six Years
Variety ^ | February 20, 2018 | Brent Lang

Posted on 02/21/2018 8:27:30 AM PST by EdnaMode

When it comes to box office grosses, the Oscars are no popularity contest.

This year’s crop of best picture nominees have received critical plaudits and trunkloads of awards. But that has not, for the most part, translated into massive ticket sales. Only “Get Out” and “Dunkirk” have topped $100 million at the domestic box office and could comfortably be labeled blockbusters. As it stands, this is the lowest-grossing crop of best picture contenders since 2011, a fact that should be sending shivers up the spine of ABC executives as they brace for the March 4 telecast.

“The Oscars are rewarding more and more niche films,” said Jeff Bock, a box office analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “There’s not a lot to talk about in terms of social media buzz or pop culture significance.”

To be fair, most of these films were never designed to be commercial juggernauts. Seven of the nine nominees — a group that includes “The Shape of Water,” “Darkest Hour” and “Lady Bird” — were platform releases, an industry term for smaller, indie films that open in a modest number of theaters before expanding over weeks and months. It might have been a different story if Academy voters had abandoned their apparent distaste for superhero movies and propelled “Wonder Woman” or “Logan” into contention. Instead, Warner Bros.’ Gal Gadot vehicle was shut out completely, and Fox’s Wolverine sequel had to settle for a screenplay nomination.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expanded the list of best picture contenders in 2009 from five to a possible 10, the hope was that voters would move outside the art-house bubble.

(Excerpt) Read more at variety.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: academyawards; awards; hollywood; oscars
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Other than Dunkirk, how many of the nominated films really needed to be seen in a theater? Many people likely wait to watch the movies on Blu-ray/DVD/streaming.
1 posted on 02/21/2018 8:27:30 AM PST by EdnaMode
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To: EdnaMode

The more homos in them the more likely they are to get nominated.


2 posted on 02/21/2018 8:29:10 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WukZwJP.gif" width=800>)
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To: EdnaMode

I wonder what the attendance numbers were for that silly WaPo retro fantasy involving Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep? Probably not that impressive either, eh?


3 posted on 02/21/2018 8:30:50 AM PST by OttawaFreeper ("If I had to go to war again, I'd bring lacrosse players" Conn Smythe)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Yep. My wife and I now immediately turn off the movie/show once the homosexual enters the scene. Because of Amazon Prime free tv and movies, we’ve been exposed to a lot of modern TV shows, It is shocking how many of them feel the need to include homosexual characters.

And then there was the one we thought might be interesting until we learned pretty fast that the lead character was homosexual. It wasn’t very good anyway so it was easy to turn off. One Mississippi. Interesting concept. Lousy show.


4 posted on 02/21/2018 8:32:01 AM PST by robroys woman (So you're not confused, I'm male.)
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To: EdnaMode

All those films are about gay cowboys eating pudding.


5 posted on 02/21/2018 8:32:59 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: EdnaMode
When it comes to box office grosses, the Oscars are no popularity contest.

I guess they forgot that really totally awesome academy award winning movie "Titanic".

6 posted on 02/21/2018 8:33:35 AM PST by BBell (calm down and eat your sandwiches)
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To: dfwgator

Cartman was ahead of his time.


7 posted on 02/21/2018 8:34:31 AM PST by BBell (calm down and eat your sandwiches)
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To: EdnaMode

Darkest Hour was beautifully shot. I’m glad it I saw it on the big screen. I loved Dunkirk too. Haven’t seen the others. I don’t generally bother with movie trash.


8 posted on 02/21/2018 8:36:36 AM PST by Himyar (Comes A Stillness)
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To: BBell

It was 20 years ago.


9 posted on 02/21/2018 8:39:24 AM PST by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: EdnaMode

/src on/Don’t worry “Black Panther” will sweep the Oscars next year./src off/


10 posted on 02/21/2018 8:40:37 AM PST by C19fan
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To: OttawaFreeper

“I wonder what the attendance numbers were for that silly WaPo retro fantasy involving Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep?”

124 million U.S. gross so far ...


11 posted on 02/21/2018 8:43:23 AM PST by catnipman ( Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: EdnaMode
They go for some stinkers sometimes.

There was a thread a month or so ago about famous Oscar losers (Gone With the Wind) and not-so-memorable winners. My favorite Oscar-winning stinker - Chariots of Fire

12 posted on 02/21/2018 8:44:01 AM PST by ZOOKER (Until further notice the /s is implied...)
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To: PghBaldy

Titanic was the year one critic dubbed the year that movies and academy awards became dictated by teenage girls and teenage boys trying to get lucky. I did not see anything special about it. Definitely not a movie worth watching twice.


13 posted on 02/21/2018 8:44:15 AM PST by BBell (calm down and eat your sandwiches)
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To: BBell

The ratings for the Oscars could be in the toilet. How many people are going to sit through a 3 to 4 hour telecast, going past midnight in the east coast, to see which movie or actors/actresses they never saw and don’t know anything about, have won Oscars????


14 posted on 02/21/2018 8:52:30 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: robroys woman
Yep. My wife and I now immediately turn off the movie/show once the homosexual enters the scene.

So basically it's OFF.

15 posted on 02/21/2018 8:56:26 AM PST by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel.)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

I’ve never watched an awards show so I guess I won’t know what I’m missing. A bunch of narcissists patting each other on the backsides.


16 posted on 02/21/2018 8:56:53 AM PST by BBell (calm down and eat your sandwiches)
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To: Rummyfan

So basically it’s OFF.


Close.

It’s old stuff. :)


17 posted on 02/21/2018 8:58:24 AM PST by robroys woman (So you're not confused, I'm male.)
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To: OttawaFreeper

It haseems grossed $77 million domestic so about 8 million tickets have been sold in the US/Canada.


18 posted on 02/21/2018 9:04:46 AM PST by EdnaMode
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To: catnipman

Tha’s the global gross. Domestic is $77 million.


19 posted on 02/21/2018 9:05:43 AM PST by EdnaMode
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To: EdnaMode

As the blockbusters become more and more beholden to the beat book the kind of experimentation that leads to best pictures is being relegated more and more to “niche”. Hollywood used to be willing to experiment on big budget movies, but not anymore.


20 posted on 02/21/2018 9:11:00 AM PST by discostu (Lick here [ ] you might be one of the lucky 25.)
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