Can 'Barbie' Save the Oscars?

The Academy Awards are infamous for ignoring popular movies in favor of critical darlings, and this year's nominees don't stray too far from that tradition. The list of Best Picture contenders includes box-office disappointments like Killers of the Flower Moon and Maestro. But it also includes big popular hits Barbie and Oppenheimer. Could the inclusion of movies that wide audiences actually want to see help turn around the award show's recent falling ratings? Read on for details.

Via Variety.

Universal and Warner Bros.’ decision to release their respective “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” tentpoles on the same summer weekend proved a boon for the box office last year, with the former earning well over $1 billion worldwide and the latter close to that.

Does that mean anything for Sunday’s Academy Awards on ABC?

Recent years have not been kind to Oscar ratings, but that doesn’t mean the Academy’s embrace of films that were popular in theaters hasn’t sometimes helped reverse course.

Last year was a perfect example. The 2022 ceremony was marred by Will Smith’s infamous slap of Chris Rock before Smith took home best actor for “King Richard,” making the show’s sudden ratings influx more embarrassing than impressive.

However, 2023’s inclusion of global sensations “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” not to mention A24 show stealer “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” seemed to aid the show in delivering better ratings than the Slap did.

And thanks to “Barbenheimer,” Sunday’s ceremony marks the first time since 2011 that films nominated for best picture totaled more than $1 billion domestically for two consecutive years.

That “Oppenheimer” would play a crucial role in the show’s theatrical value is especially poetic. Director Christopher Nolan is partially responsible for the Academy’s decision to widen the number of best picture nominees past five, starting with the 2010 ceremony, as the absence of “The Dark Knight” from the top award in 2009 generated excessive backlash.

Still, the Academy is selective when it comes to nominating blockbusters for best picture. While “The Dark Knight” was both a theatrical and critical smash, the Oscars’ widening of top-prize options did not see any DC or Marvel film included until “Black Panther” in the 2019 ceremony. As popular as “Black Panther” was with audiences and critics, the small bump in Oscar ratings that year wasn’t sustained in the 2020 show.

Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” was similarly glossed over for 2013, but DC’s billion-dollar “Joker” spectacle was a standout in the 2020 broadcast, earning Joaquin Phoenix best actor, though best picture went to Korean hit “Parasite.”

That show excluded “Avengers: Endgame,” which at the time was the top-grossing film in history. 2009’s “Avatar” later reclaimed that position through a re-release, and its 2022 sequel finished as the third best ever. Unlike every “Avengers” film, both “Avatar” movies were nominated for best picture.

Get the rest of the story at Variety.