Disney-ABC request for popular Oscar category sparks Backlash

[Powerboy]

Annie Hall won best picture. Not sure about the other awards, but I wouldn't call that a long forgotten movie.

I was exaggerating. Relatively speaking, compared to Star Wars, it's a gone and forgotten movie.

[SteveGus]

The Oscars have a serious problem. Viewership has been dropping, because 'Oscar bait' films are a recognizable genre now: solemn, middlebrow films that aren't particularly entertaining, and that work just as well or better on TVs and tablets than they do on the big screen. Let's face it: 12 Years a Slave is nobody's idea of great motion picture entertainment, and the only way you'd get me to watch something like Still Alice is to give me the Clockwork Orange treatment. This is an attempt to reverse the trend by creating an award for films that people actually go to the theatres to enjoy. I suspect it's too little too late.

[Powerboy]

The Oscars have a serious problem. Viewership has been dropping, because 'Oscar bait' films are a recognizable genre now: solemn, middlebrow films that aren't particularly entertaining, and that work just as well or better on TVs and tablets than they do on the big screen. Let's face it: 12 Years a Slave is nobody's idea of great motion picture entertainment, and the only way you'd get me to watch something like Still Alice is to give me the Clockwork Orange treatment. This is an attempt to reverse the trend by creating an award for films that people actually go to the theatres to enjoy. I suspect it's too little too late.

Hopefully not too late but "Most Popular" isn't going to cut it because people will quickly catch on that it like patting a little kid on the head and telling them they are right when you don't really believe it. It's just being condescending and giving an award people want to see before going on to handing the big award out to a movie nobody cares about.

There may be no real solution without a complete overhaul of the Academy or just ditching the Academy and letting them have their Oscars voting and their ceremony but not televising it but replacing it with an awards event people care about. It may be impossible to overhaul the Academy but nothing forces the networks to televise the Oscars or stops them from replacing the Oscars with something else.

Of course, the general argument is that this is what the People's Choice Awards are for but they don't have the oomph because everyone wants credit from their peers, from people they feel have the knowledge and understanding to appreciate their work on more than just a visceral "It was great/ It sucked" level. But even the People's Choice Awards aren't perfect because there's still, as I understand it, a considerable price tag to get a vote. Besides, "Most popular picture" is almost by definition whichever one sold the most tickets, put the most butts in seats, in a given year.

[skyvolt2000]

Some really wild and frankly dumb speculation running rampant

This doesn't sound like some ploy to boost Disney's oscar count, it sounds like a ploy to boost the oscar's ratings, which have been plummeting for years

the oscars have been accused of snubbing popular films and only truly considering artsy indy stuff that barely anyone sees for decades even when they do throw out the occasional bone of a nomination.

Yes it's a ploy and it's a weapon to get higher rates for anyone who wants to do a commercial during the Oscars.

When black folks were left out of the Oscars (thus the OScarssowhite hashtag) the ratings were bad for the Oscars and thus ad rates for Oscars were lower.

And we saw folks get sent packing and new blood to get new movies nominated. It made no sense the only black movies you saw got nominations were Civil Rights & Slavery films. Or films not even release in the USA get nominations before they came out.

For ABC to sit up and request this as some ploy to get Panther nominations is insulting.

What would be the bigger backlash?
A billion dollar film get NO nominations or get under this category only? That's insulting to everybody who worked on that film.

While DC fanboys want to cheer and belittle the Marvel films-despite REALITY that Marvel took "low" level properties and they all took DC's icons to the cleaners.
Call me when DC gets a black lead movie with a lead NOT belonging to Milestone or formerly belonging to WIldstorm or sharing screen time with Hal Jordan and has all his or her body parts.

[Hall]

Yes it's a ploy and it's a weapon to get higher rates for anyone who wants to do a commercial during the Oscars.

When black folks were left out of the Oscars (thus the OScarssowhite hashtag) the ratings were bad for the Oscars and thus ad rates for Oscars were lower.

And we saw folks get sent packing and new blood to get new movies nominated. It made no sense the only black movies you saw got nominations were Civil Rights & Slavery films. Or films not even release in the USA get nominations before they came out.

For ABC to sit up and request this as some ploy to get Panther nominations is insulting.

What would be the bigger backlash?
A billion dollar film get NO nominations or get under this category only? That's insulting to everybody who worked on that film.

While DC fanboys want to cheer and belittle the Marvel films-despite REALITY that Marvel took "low" level properties and they all took DC's icons to the cleaners.
Call me when DC gets a black lead movie with a lead NOT belonging to Milestone or formerly belonging to WIldstorm or sharing screen time with Hal Jordan and has all his or her body parts.

It was indeed a ploy to give Black Panther a nomination. I think people have picked up on it, Nothing there is hardly insulting, it's just the truth. If anything it discredits Black Panther more , making a DC film like the Dark Knight, Superman 2, Batman 89, Batman Begins more worthy of an Oscar since we know if black panther had an all white cast the movie would have been disposed like most MCU movies.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/osca...163541407.html
New Oscar “Popular Film” Category Was Obviously Created So ‘Black Panther’ Can Win


http://screencrush.com/black-panther...-popular-film/
New Oscar “Popular Film” Category Was Obviously Created So ‘Black Panther’ Can Win


https://www.firstpost.com/entertainm...y-4927891.html
With Best 'Popular Film' award, did Disney just buy themselves a whole new Oscars category?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme.../#6630f9103d1b
The Ironic Reason 'Black Panther' Might Not Get A Best Picture Oscar Nod

It was Disney who owns ABC that asked for the request and as people have said, Disney was going to campaign for Black Panther already but since Black Panther is hardly a great movie it was never going to get anything , reason Disney resulted to this. The Oscars knows what to do, if they want higher ratings, they should keep their politics away and just focus on movies. This cheap category is just going to make their ratings decline more.

[jump]

Call me when DC gets a black lead movie with a lead NOT belonging to Milestone or formerly belonging to WIldstorm or sharing screen time with Hal Jordan and has all his or her body parts.

DC already have had a black lead superhero with Steel, it sucked but it does meet the requirements.

[Hall]

DC already have had a black lead superhero with Steel, it sucked but it does meet the requirements.

Marvel already had a black lead superhero with Blade though his race was secondary, he was not known as a Black Man but as a Vampire slayer who just happens to be black. Martin Luther King's dream fulfilled. people are judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. Blade was more of a fulfilment of that dream. Black Panther getting known as a black man first puts him behind Blade. I always knew the race focused trope Disney used for Black Panther was always going to backfire at some point.

[jump]

Marvel already had a black lead superhero with Blade though his race was secondary, he was not known as a Black Man but as a Vampire slayer who just happens to be black. Martin Luther King's dream fulfilled. people are judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. Blade was more of a fulfilment of that dream. Black Panther getting known as a black man first puts him behind Blade. I always knew the race focused trope Disney used for Black Panther was always going to backfire at some point.

Steel came out before Blade tho.

[Colossus1980]

Call me when DC gets a black lead movie with a lead NOT belonging to Milestone or formerly belonging to WIldstorm or sharing screen time with Hal Jordan and has all his or her body parts.

But DC put out the most diverse cast ever with Suicide Squad. THREE black lead roles, One Asian, One Latino, One Native Indian(although he died quick), One Australian, One British, and throw in some white actors. Give some respect for SS for mixing it up. Most diverse CBM yet. Note never said it was the best but most diverse to date.

Damn talk about mixing it up for a movie! Conspiracy is what it is to ignore the efforts of SS.

[Hall]

Steel came out before Blade tho.

I was talking about Marvel. Blade was their first black lead hero.

[Jabare]

good for Disney. Oscars are a stale joke that most people don't care about as we see from the ratings

[Mister Mets]

I like the suggestion that the Academy should have someone in a stereotypical rich person outfit (IE- Mr. Burns, the Monopoly man) read the winners.

"And the illiterate hicks have chosen..."

[Mister Mets]

Mad Max: Fury Road was nominated for best picture, but now would it just be placed under this new category and that's it?

Technically no. There's no requirement that a film nominated as Best Popular Picture be ineligible for Best Picture.

However, there is a concern that voters will feel less inclined to nominate good, popular films for Best Picture if there's a runner-up prize.

[Osiris-Rex]

But DC put out the most diverse cast ever with Suicide Squad. THREE black lead roles, One Asian, One Latino, One Native Indian(although he died quick), One Australian, One British, and throw in some white actors. Give some respect for SS for mixing it up. Most diverse CBM yet. Note never said it was the best but most diverse to date.

Damn talk about mixing it up for a movie! Conspiracy is what it is to ignore the efforts of SS.

It is interesting that Suicide Squad gets swept under the rug just because the critics and some of the audience hated it. It was also a movie that featured four female leads, two white, one black and one Asian.

[Hall]

It is interesting that Suicide Squad gets swept under the rug just because the critics and some of the audience hated it. It was also a movie that featured four female leads, two white, one black and one Asian.

Simple. Disney is 100x more powerful than Warner Brothers