Do The Oscars Need A Superhero To Save Them?
Posted January 19, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
In this corner we have The Dark Knight, the year’s biggest film and a critical success. In the opposite corner, Slumdog Millionaire, an indie crowdpleaser that’s only opened in limited release.
The Oscar nominations don’t come out until Thursday morning, but those two films are expected to be locked in a David-and-Goliath battle of sorts, not just for nominations but when the winners are announced a month later, on February 22.
In recent years the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has honoured independent films that haven’t been huge box office moneymakers – for instance There Will Be Blood, Crash, No Country For Old Men, and Million Dollar Baby.
And ratings for the awards show have suffered. In fact one of the highest rating telecasts for the Oscars was more than 10 years ago, in 1998, when Titanic won in just about every category. Not all the critics loved it, but the film was exceptionally popular. In fact it remains the all-time box office champ.
The Dark Knight is a rare film that not only the critics loved, but the audiences adored as well. So the question is, will audiences come back to Oscar if the Batman sequel is heavily nominated?
As far as its chances for winning go, the technical categories seem like a shoo-in. And the late Heath Ledger is seen as a favourite in the best supporting actor category – both for the nomination and the win.
The film itself will probably earn nominations for best picture, along with best director for Christopher Nolan and possibly best screenplay for Nolan and co-writer Jonathan Nolan. But that might be the best the superhero tale can hope for.
And two other films that were popular with moviegoers, Iron Man and WALL-E, probably won’t make much noise come Thursday. Iron Man will likely show up in the technical categories, while WALL-E is pretty well assured a best animated feature nod. But as far as the main categories go, neither film is expected to garner any nominations.
Smaller films like Slumdog are once again picking up the hardware left, right and centre. The Danny Boyle-directed gem about a ‘slumdog’ from Mumbai and his search for love was the big winner at the recent Golden Globes, winning best picture (drama), best director, best screenplay, and best score.
Other films that are expected to earn nominations Thursday include Gran Torino, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, and Milk, none of them box office smashes, although Gran Torino was Clint Eastwood’s best ever opening weekend.
It’s not unheard of for a film that did big box office business to also receive Oscar nods. Aside from Titanic, Star Wars was nominated for 10 awards in 1978, including best picture. And boxing flick Rocky won best picture the year before that.
It remains to be seen whether The Dark Knight, if it is nominated, can bring back viewers to the Oscars. Last year’s show was watched by only 32 million viewers, the smallest Oscars audience since Nielsen began keeping those records in 1974.
