Today the nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards were released to the public, with a new change for this year which allows 10 nominees in the Best Picture category.
Here is the list of the nominees for Best Picture including the total gross worldwide to date (courtesy of boxofficemojo.com):
"Avatar" - $2,045,442,330
"The Blind Side" - $238,142,164
"District 9" - $204,837,324
"An Education" - $10,818,790
"The Hurt Locker" - $16,107,592
"Inglourious Basterds" - $313,569,648
"Precious" - $45,469,462 (Domestic Gross Only)
"A Serious Man" - $20,514,312
"Up" - $723,005,700
"Up in the Air" - $97,432,811
It is important to note that some of the films, like "Up" and "District 9" have already made it to DVD release. And certainly a more recent film, like "Up in the Air", is bound to make more money, so I bolded its current earnings along with the other 5 highest grossing nominees. 5 out of the 10 films have made over 200 million dollars, an astounding amount of money. This made me, along with Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune, question why the Academy has seemingly included the enormous blockbusters of the year in the nominees. In class we discussed how the plot of "Avatar" is nothing especially unique, and an animated film ("Up") has not been up for the Best Picture award since "The Beauty and the Beast" in 1991. So why are these movies up in the running for this prestigious award?
A possible answer lies in the economic crisis that the United States faced in the past year. Why not promote the hit films of the year and encourage Americans to spend money at the movies? By including blockbuster movies Americans are encouraged to see upcoming hit movies as well. Or the Academy is rewarding the success of these movies, yet another possible secret message to encourage spending money in these troubled times.
What reasoning do you have behind the nominees for Best Picture this year? Do you think the Economic Crisis has anything to do with it? How does this reflect upon the actions of American society as a whole?
I noticed this too Claire! I like your idea of how the nominees are being rewarded for their success in money. I think this is one possible answer, but I also believe that these are all actually good movies. Even though Avatar's plot is not very unique, I think it was by far the best movie of the year. We also have to realize that people are paying money to see Avatar because it is a good movie. People wouldn't be spending money to see a crap movie. I think all these movies deserve to be nominees!
ReplyDelete"People wouldn't be spending money to see a crap movie"
ReplyDeleteehhh... To Caroline's point, I highly doubt this. How on earth is something automatically not crap just because people spend money on it? This is kind of like saying people wouldn't spend money on crap music, or crap books, which simply is not true (Britney Spears, Twilight, Disney stars, celebrities, many pop artists). Just because something has a lot of money spent on it does not mean it's great, good, "meh," or even "slightly above crap" quality. I'm not saying that all things people spend money on are bad, but there is so much stuff that people overhype and spend tons of money on, even if it's just "meh."