Yesterday the Academy Awards made several announcements. The most welcome ones involved shortening the telecast, which always goes way too long.
But they also announced this very nebulous category: Achievement in Popular Film.
There are many reasons why this is not a good idea. The chief among them is that this is tacit acknowledgement that the movies that they are holding up as the "Best" in film are so far disconnected from their audience that they need to create a whole new category for movies that people have actually seen.
I went through and did a breakdown of the box office of the Academy Award Winner for Best Picture since 1980: (numbers courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com)
| Year | Best Picture | Box Office Rank | Higest Grosser |
| 1980 | Ordinary People | 11 | The Empire Strikes Back |
| 1981 | Chariots of Fire | 7 | Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| 1982 | Ghandi | 12 | ET: Extra-Terrestrial |
| 1983 | Terms of Endearment | 2 | Return of the Jedi |
| 1984 | Amadeus | 12 | Bevery Hills Cop |
| 1985 | Out of Africa | 5 | Back to the Future |
| 1986 | Platoon | 3 | Top Gun |
| 1987 | The Last Emperor | 25 | Three Men and a Baby |
| 1988 | Rain Man | 1 | Rain Man |
| 1989 | Driving Miss Daisy | 8 | Batman |
| 1990 | Dances With Wolves | 3 | Home Alone |
| 1991 | The Silence of the Lambs | 4 | Terminator 2: Judgment Day |
| 1992 | Unforgiven | 11 | Aladdin |
| 1993 | Schindler's List | 9 | Jurassic Park |
| 1994 | Forrest Gump | 1 | Forrest Gump |
| 1995 | Braveheart | 18 | Toy Story |
| 1996 | The English Patient | 19 | Independence Day |
| 1997 | Titanic | 1 | Titanic |
| 1998 | Shakespeare in Love | 18 | Saving Private Ryan |
| 1999 | American Beauty | 13 | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace |
| 2000 | Gladiator | 4 | How the Grinch Stole Christmas |
| 2001 | A Beautiful Mind | 11 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone |
| 2002 | Chicago | 10 | Spider-Man |
| 2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 1 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
| 2004 | Million Dollary Baby | 24 | Shrek 2 |
| 2005 | Crash | 49 | Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith |
| 2006 | The Departed | 15 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest |
| 2007 | No Country for Old Men | 36 | Spider-Man 3 |
| 2008 | Slumdog Millionaire | 16 | The Dark Knight |
| 2009 | The Hurt Locker | 116 | Avatar |
| 2010 | The King's Speech | 18 | Toy Story 3 |
| 2011 | The Artist | 71 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 |
| 2012 | Argo | 22 | The Avengers |
| 2013 | 12 Years A Slave | 62 | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire |
| 2014 | Birdman | 78 | American Sniper |
| 2015 | Spotlight | 62 | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens |
| 2016 | Moonlight | 92 | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story |
| 2017 | The Shape of Water | 46 | Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi |
When you look at this you can see that the average box office rank of a Best Picture is 24. And only 10% of the time was the highest grosser the Best Picture.
But if you dig into the numbers and look at last 10 years alone, that number is 58. And that means that on average, the general movie going audience saw 57 other movies in the theater beside the Best Picture winner. And none of those had the Best Picture as the Highest Grosser.
Compare that to the 1980's, when the average box office rank was 9.
Now, many in the industry complain because the cinemas are flooded with sequels and franchise films. So I made a chart controlling for that factor. I left in remakes and first films in a franchise, since you don't know if you have a franchise until the first one is a hit. These are the results:
| Year | Best Picture | Box Office Rank (non-sequel, non-franchise) | Higest Grosser (non-sequel, non-franchise) |
| 1980 | Ordinary People | 9 | 9 to 5 |
| 1981 | Chariots of Fire | 6 | Raiders of the Lost Ark |
| 1982 | Ghandi | 10 | ET: Extra-Terrestrial |
| 1983 | Terms of Endearment | 1 | Terms of Endearment |
| 1984 | Amadeus | 10 | Bevery Hills Cop |
| 1985 | Out of Africa | 3 | Back to the Future |
| 1986 | Platoon | 3 | Top Gun |
| 1987 | The Last Emperor | 24 | Three Men and a Baby |
| 1988 | Rain Man | 1 | Rain Man |
| 1989 | Driving Miss Daisy | 4 | Batman |
| 1990 | Dances With Wolves | 3 | Home Alone |
| 1991 | The Silence of the Lambs | 3 | Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves |
| 1992 | Unforgiven | 8 | Aladdin |
| 1993 | Schindler's List | 9 | Jurassic Park |
| 1994 | Forrest Gump | 1 | Forrest Gump |
| 1995 | Braveheart | 13 | Toy Story |
| 1996 | The English Patient | 18 | Independence Day |
| 1997 | Titanic | 1 | Titanic |
| 1998 | Shakespeare in Love | 17 | Saving Private Ryan |
| 1999 | American Beauty | 10 | The Sixth Sense |
| 2000 | Gladiator | 3 | How the Grinch Stole Christmas |
| 2001 | A Beautiful Mind | 7 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone |
| 2002 | Chicago | 5 | Spider-Man |
| 2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 1 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
| 2004 | Million Dollary Baby | 18 | The Passion of the Christ |
| 2005 | Crash | 44 | The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe |
| 2006 | The Departed | 9 | Night at the Museum |
| 2007 | No Country for Old Men | 25 | Transformers |
| 2008 | Slumdog Millionaire | 11 | Iron Man |
| 2009 | The Hurt Locker | 101 | Avatar |
| 2010 | The King's Speech | 12 | Alice in Wonderland |
| 2011 | The Artist | 54 | The Help |
| 2012 | Argo | 12 | The Hunger Games |
| 2013 | 12 Years A Slave | 44 | Frozen |
| 2014 | Birdman | 58 | American Sniper |
| 2015 | Spotlight | 40 | Inside Out |
| 2016 | Moonlight | 74 | The Secret Life of Pets |
| 2017 | The Shape of Water | 21 | Beauty and the Beast |
When you look at this you can see that the average box office rank of a Best Picture is 18. The percent of highest grossers winning Best Picture goes up to 13%
But once again you see in the last 10 years, that number is number is still an abysmal 42. Once Again, none of those had the Best Picture as the Highest Grosser.
For the 1980's, that average improves to a 7.
And just so that I show I'm being fair, I've gone back and done a box office analysis of what films win the Catholic Skywalker "KAL-EL" for Best Picture. My chart only goes back to 1997, but I am not afraid of including franchises and sequels
| Year | Catholic Skywalker Best Picture | Box Office Rank | Higest Grosser |
| 1997 | Titanic | 1 | Titanic |
| 1998 | Life is Beautiful | 35 | Saving Private Ryan |
| 1999 | The Green Mile | 12 | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace |
| 2000 | Cast Away | 2 | How the Grinch Stole Christmas |
| 2001 | Memento | 88 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone |
| 2002 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | 2 | Spider-Man |
| 2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | 1 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
| 2004 | The Passion of the Christ | 3 | Shrek 2 |
| 2005 | Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith | 1 | Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith |
| 2006 | Click | 13 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest |
| 2007 | Juno | 15 | Spider-Man 3 |
| 2008 | The Dark Knight | 1 | The Dark Knight |
| 2009 | Up | 5 | Avatar |
| 2010 | Inception | 6 | Toy Story 3 |
| 2011 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | 1 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 |
| 2012 | Les Miserables | 18 | The Avengers |
| 2013 | Man of Steel | 5 | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire |
| 2014 | Captain America: The Winter Soldier | 4 | American Sniper |
| 2015 | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens | 1 | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens |
| 2016 | Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice | 8 | Rogue One: A Star Wars Story |
| 2017 | Logan | 11 | Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi |
My average is 11, though it is skewed because Memento made so little money at the box office. But I do have 29% of the highest grossers as Best Picture.
And in the last 10 years, my average is 6th at the box office.
My point is that no, not every hit movie is necessarily Best Picture quality. I would never think to nominate How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And some obscure films, like Memento, really are worthy of the highest praise.
But somewhere 2005, you can see a radical shift in the Academy focusing on more obscure films, taking for themselves the role of "taste-makers" telling the plebes what is artistic cinema and what is not. Since 2011, none of the Best Picture winners have been in the top 20. And if you control of franchise films, it has still been that way since 2013.
Hollywood knows there is a disconnect because the ratings for the Oscar telecast have been declining, last year's being the worst. So now, they have decided to create a "Kids' Table" at the Oscars for the movies that we, the unsophisticated rabble, enjoy.
But by creating such a distinction, all they are doing is showing how irrelevant the Oscars continue to become.
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