James Cameron's Avatar (top); Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw in The Blind Side (middle); Carey Mulligan in An Education (bottom)
To shore up the Oscar ceremony's dwindling television audience, the Academy wanted bigger fare at the 2010 Oscars. So, they expanded the Best Picture category to include ten films, hoping that some blockbuster or other would get a nomination.
Indeed, it's true that several of the most commercially successful Oscar contenders listed below — Up, The Blind Side, District 9 — would probably not have made the cut had the Academy kept the Best Picture field restricted to five films. Avatar, of course, would have been shortlisted even if there had been only three slots available.
Last year, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight was a huge box-office hit that received much critical praise. It was up for both the Producers Guild and the Directors Guild awards. But Academy voters preferred the much smaller ex-Nazi drama The Reader.
Below is a list of this year's Best Picture Oscar nominees and their box-office grosses, in descending order:
- Avatar, d: James Cameron, with Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Laz Alonso. 20th Century Fox, nine nominations, $598 million, released Dec. 18.
- Up, d: Pete Docter. Pixar / Disney, five nominations, $293 million, released May 29.
- The Blind Side, d: John Lee Hancock, with Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron. Warner Bros., two nominations, $238 million, released Nov. 20.
- Inglourious Basterds, d: Quentin Tarantino, with Melanie Laurent, Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Christoph Waltz. The Weinstein Co., eight nominations, $121 million, released Aug. 21.
- District 9, d: Neill Blomkamp, with Sharlto Copley. Sony, four nominations, $116 million, released Aug. 14.
- Up in the Air, d: Jason Reitman, with George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick. Paramount, six nominations, $73 million, released Dec. 4.
- Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, d: Lee Daniels, with Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey. Lionsgate, six nominations, $45 million, released Nov. 6.
- The Hurt Locker, d: Kathryn Bigelow, with Jeremy Renner, Christian Camargo, Brian Geraghty, Anthony Mackie. Summit Entertainment, nine nominations, $12.7 million, released June 26.
- A Serious Man, d: Joel and Ethan Coen, with Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind. Focus, two nominations, $9.2 million released Oct. 2.
- An Education, d: Lone Scherfig, with Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina. Sony Pictures Classics, three nominations, $9 million, released Oct. 9.
Sources: Hollywood.com, Box Office Mojo
Photos: Avatar (WETA / 20th Century Fox); The Blind Side (Ralph Nelson / Warner Bros.); An Education (Kerry Brown / Sony Pictures Classics)
With i0 nominated this year, don't know how this will play out. A dark horse might win if the favorites cancel each other out.
"The Blind Side" for best picture. I thought it was a joke when a friend told me. Now that I think about it, I'm surprised it didn't get a nomination for best director and best screenplay. Bravo, Academy! But why didn't you include other worthy movies like "The Hangover", "Ice Age" and "Transformers 2"?