Given the odd backlash against La La Land, and the hosting by Jimmy Kimmel, I was curious to watch the Oscars this year. (I think we have last year's show recorded on a hard drive, but I haven't watched it.)
Now that I know the results in the "sorry about that mistake, La La fans" climax, I have to make the observation, as many others no doubt will too, that the Best Picture Oscar for years now seems to go to critical favourites which have next to no appeal to a wide audience.
Moonlight might be fine film, but how much appeal can an episodic film about an American black man coming to terms with being gay and living in crime affected Miami hold for a wider audience? I see that the movie has made $22 million in the US - that's good for an arthouse flick, but it's not a lot of tickets.
Seems to me that the last, broadly popular, movie that won Best Picture was The King's Speech in 2010. (In 2012, Argo did a respectable enough $136 million in the US, but only made $96 million overseas. King's Speech made $414 million globally.)
Shockingly, I see that the 2009 winner, The Hurt Locker, made only $17 million in the US. That's tiny. Even The Artiste from 2011, which I would have guessed was the biggest Best Picture Box Office bomb, made $45 million in the US and $133 million globally.
Getting an Oscar might be nice, but producers must surely prefer the cash of an actually popular movie...
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