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(1) As we approach #Oscars season, I miss the days when the top grosser was also Best Picture (i.e. “The Godfather”). We’ve become too divided between art vs. mainstream. Art masterpieces WERE pop culture. How quickly we forget blockbusters used to win Best Picture all the time.
(2) In the 1930s and 1940s, a Top 10 grosser won Best Picture a whopping 90% of the time with films like “It Happened One Night” (1934), “Mutiny on the Bounty” (1935), “Gone With the Wind” (1939), “Rebecca” (1940), “Casablanca” (1942) and “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946).
(3) In the 1950s, it held at 80 % with the likes of “All About Eve” (1950), “An American in Paris” (1951), “From Here to Eternity” (1953), “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1957) and “Ben Hur” (1959).
(4) The 1960s saw 90% of Best Pictures come from Top 10 grossers like “The Apartment” (1960), “West Side Story” (1961), “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962), “My Fair Lady” (1964), “The Sound of Music” (1965), “In the Heat of the Night” (1967) and “Midnight Cowboy” (1969).
(5) The 1970s also saw 90% with “Patton” (1970), “The French Connection” (1971), “The Godfather 1 & 2” (1972-1974), “The Sting” (1973), “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975), “Rocky” (1976), “Annie Hall” (1977), “The Deer Hunter” (1978) and “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979).
(6) But in the 1980s, as sequel culture exploded, we dropped to 60% as “Platoon” (1986), “Rain Man” (1988) and “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989) proved exceptions to a new trend of audiences shying away from the likes of “Ordinary People” (1980), “Gandhi” (1982) and “Amadeus” (1984).
(7) The 1990s fell to just 50% with “Dances With Wolves” (1990), “Silence of the Lambs” (1991), “Schindler’s List” (1993), “Forrest Gump” (1994) and “Titanic” (1997).
(8) By the 2000s, it fell to just 30% with “Gladiator” (2000), “Chicago” (2002) and “LOTR: Return of the King” (2003).
(9) 2010s bottomed out at 0%. ZERO Top 10 grossers won Best Picture: “The King’s Speech" (#18 grosser), “The Artist” (#71), “Argo” (#22), “12 Years a Slave” (#62), “Birdman” (#78), “Spotlight” (#62), "Moonlight” (#92), "Shape of Water” (#46), "Green Book" (#88), “Parasite" (#98)
(10) What changed? Hollywood studios adopted the franchise model, preferring the safe bet of sequels over the risk of original content. Can you really blame Oscar voters for wanting to reward fresh ideas rather than those who ride the coattails of other past filmmakers?
(11) Sequels can be awesome fun, including some of my favorite movies, but voters rarely want to crown them as Best Picture (with rare exception: The Godfather 2, Lord of the Rings 3)
(12) Voters won't open the can of worms of crowning “Star Wars 10” Best Picture instead of the original “Star Wars” (1977), “Indiana Jones 5” instead of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1981), “Batman v. Superman 4” instead of “The Dark Knight” (2008). It seems academically dishonest.
(13) And so the chasm between art and mainstream continues to grow wider with each passing year. Critics turn up their noses at “Wonder Woman 4" while mainstreamers zone out watching “First Cow."
(14) Perhaps there’s hope in “Black Panther” earning a Best Picture nomination, “Joker” winning Best Actor and “Watchmen” winning Emmys. But a lot, and I mean a lot, will have to change in Hollywood to return to a 90% hit rate on blockbusters winning Best Picture.
(15) And with that, cue “The Godfather” theme, signaling the lost days where art and mainstream beautifully collided. I hope in my lifetime, years from now, it could be again.
