# Are the Oscars out of touch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2014, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640 "2014-01-13T05:57:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cdnirish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@cdnirish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdnirish)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/1 "2014-01-13T05:57:45Z")
Just having finished watching the Golden Globes, it put me in mind of the debate that raged in 2012 when The Artist won Best Picture, and a lot of people said “WTF?!?” It seems that the Golden Globes are much more in touch with what mainstream filmgoers like than the Oscars - an Oscar win doesn’t seem to have the same cachet for a picture than it did years ago. The MPAA seems to have lost touch and credibility with mainstream audiences - I believe Titanic was the last Best Picture winner that also was a “blockbuster” release. Discuss. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/2 "2014-01-13T06:21:22Z")
A movie that represents the best of the filmmaking art isn’t always going to have public popularity. In fact, a lot of people argue the opposite point from what you’ve made and feel the Academy Awards are too mainstream. And a nitpick: The MPAA is the Motion Picture Association of America. They’re the people that assign movie ratings. They do not give out awards. The Oscars are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/3 "2014-01-13T06:25:34Z")
Blockbusters don’t need awards. To quote Mad Men - that’s what the money is for. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/4 "2014-01-13T07:30:42Z")
> [@cdnirish](#): > > - I believe Titanic was the last Best Picture winner that also was a “blockbuster” release. > > Discuss. Return of the King ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/5 "2014-01-13T07:31:44Z")
> [@cdnirish](#): > > The MPAA seems to have lost touch and credibility with mainstream audiences - I believe Titanic was the last Best Picture winner that also was a “blockbuster” release. > > Discuss. I guess you forgot “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” Of the 15 winners since Titanic, 11 made more than $100 million domestic (ROTK took in $377 million domestic.) “The Hurt Locker” ($17M) and “The Artist” ($44M) are the outliers, not the standard. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/6 "2014-01-13T07:34:26Z")
A box office hit was never relevant for an Oscar win/nomination. People knew that decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/7 "2014-01-13T07:51:55Z")
If people were saying WTF?!? when The Artist won Best Picture they must have at least been saying wtf? when it won the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/8 "2014-01-13T08:08:23Z")
Yeah, as others have said the Oscars aren’t supposed to be a popularity contest, they’re supposed to be about what was best in moviemaking in the past year. Sometimes those two things align; sometimes not. So no, I don’t think they’re out of touch. Of course, there’s always an element of popularity to the Oscars, and while they’re the biggest and probably most prestigious award in town I don’t think hardcore cinephiles always agree with their picks. But personally I think they do a decent job of balancing the good and the popular. Finally, I don’t know why people pick on “The Artist” so much. Yes, it was a silent movie, but that aside it wasn’t super experimental or avante garde or anything - it was really a pretty straightforward, light, funny story. I’m looking at the other nominees from that year, and “The Tree of Life” was a thousand times more experimental. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/9 "2014-01-13T08:11:59Z")
As a kid, I swore never to forgive the Oscars for letting “Gandhi” beat “E.T.” I still haven’t but I’m not so mad anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/10 "2014-01-13T08:49:13Z")
The Oscars have never been about popularity exactly. They have also never been about critical recognition exactly. There are box office totals if you want to know about popularity. There are also other awards like the People’s Choice if you want a ceremony about popularity. There are various critical awards if you want an award (but not a ceremony) about critical recognition. The Oscars are voted on by people working in the film industry (and mostly the American film industry). The movies they choose are the ones that they would like to pretend are representative of the movies that they make. The films chosen are not the mindless ones that make a lot of money. They are also not the really difficult ones that critics love but which make little money. The movies they choose are middle-brow ones that aren’t too mindless but which aren’t too arcane either. They are the ones that fall somewhere in the middle, having some intellectual content but not too much. And, of course, the Oscars exist because movie people love the chance to dress up and walk the red carpet and make speeches for a TV show that gets reasonably good ratings. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/11 "2014-01-13T08:57:19Z")
The Academy. The guys who never gave Hitchcock an award. Or the guys who have not given one to DiCaprio. Or who let Star Wars and Saving Private Ryan lose. Yes they are out of touch. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/12 "2014-01-13T12:27:18Z")
> [@pricciar](#): > > If people were saying WTF?!? when The Artist won Best Picture they must have at least been saying wtf? when it won the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy. And Best Actor in a comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/13 "2014-01-13T12:54:52Z")
They gave Best Picture to _The Departed_, an inferior knock-off of _Infernal Affairs_. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/14 "2014-01-13T14:13:31Z")
The Oscars are the Industry giving itself a hand-job. 'Nuf sed. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/15 "2014-01-13T14:17:41Z")
Also realize that a nominee only needs like 20% of the vote to win. For Best Picture even less than that these days. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/16 "2014-01-13T14:22:43Z")
At least now with all the voters getting copies of the movies to watch they mostly watch the movies they are voting on. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/17 "2014-01-13T15:19:59Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > A box office hit was never relevant for an Oscar win/nomination. People knew that decades ago. I don’t want to get in this argument again, but I will just quote from a post I made a few years ago about this very point. > [@](#): > > … 27% of Best Picture winners (22 films out of 82 awards) were the #1 box office grossing movie of the year upon initial release (caveat: in three of these years (61, 46, 40) the B. Picture winner was overtaken by a Disney film with multiple releases in subsequent years. All my sources combined the release #s for Disney movies.) > > … 77% of BP winners were among their years top-10 grossing films. The first Best Picture winner not to be a top-10 film was 1948’s Hamlet, which ranked 17th in box office. The first BP winner not to be a top-20 film was 1987’s The Last Emperor (#25 for the year). > > … The average yearly box office rank of BP winners is 8.5. For losers it’s 19.27. However, since I made this it is becoming clear that the correlation between being B. Picture winner and a box office favorite is becoming a little more tenuous. But, given a list of nominees, smart money says to pay attention to the box office figures of the nominees. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/18 "2014-01-13T16:02:14Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > The Academy. The guys who never gave Hitchcock an award. > > Or the guys who have not given one to DiCaprio. Or who let Star Wars and Saving Private Ryan lose. > > Yes they are out of touch. And Dances With Wolves beat out Goodfellas. And Forest Gump, though a great movie in my opinion, beat out Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction - which have both held up much better to the tests of time. And Almost Famous didn’t even get nominated, because Harvey Weinstein schmoozed people into putting Chocolat up for Best Picture that year. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/19 "2014-01-13T16:13:09Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > They gave Best Picture to _The Departed_, an inferior knock-off of _Infernal Affairs_. > [@Bob Ducca](#): > > And Dances With Wolves beat out Goodfellas. > > And Forest Gump, though a great movie in my opinion, beat out Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction - which have both held up much better to the tests of time. > > And Almost Famous didn’t even get nominated, because Harvey Weinstein schmoozed people into putting Chocolat up for Best Picture that year. I’ve always felt like there should be an Academy Award for best picture; except the film has to be 5 or even 10 years old to be considered. It wouldn’t even bother me if it was in place of the current best picture award. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640/20 "2014-01-13T16:21:16Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Or who let Star Wars and Saving Private Ryan lose Much as I like **Star Wars** , the academy was right. \*\*Annie Hall \*\* is still a better – and an infinitely deeper – movie. It has something to say, and considering the long term effect of **Star Wars** the choice was absolutely correct. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-the-oscars-out-of-touch/678640.md?page=2)