By now moviegoers are used to award shows nominating a bunch of under-the-radar flicks that most people have never heard of, let alone seen in theaters. The Academy is notorious for selecting highbrow, intellectual films that don’t make it into the mainstream. Now late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is addressing the issue.
The comedian did a long bit asking aloud why “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which is obliterating box office records, was passed over in favor of the satirical comedy “Don’t Look Up.”
“How did [‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’] not get one of the 10 nominations for best picture?” Kimmel asked.
“Forget the fact that the movie made $750 million and is still going. This was a great movie. It wasn’t in the top 10 best movies of the year? There were three Spider-Men in it. You’re telling me ‘Don’t Look Up’ was better than ‘Spider-Man?’ It most certainly was not.”
“Even if you go by the critics reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, ‘Don’t Look Up’ got a 46% and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ has 90%. For God’s sake, ‘Jackass Forever’ has an 89%,” Kimmel continued.
“Why do best picture nominees have to be serious? When did that become a prerequisite for getting nominated for an Academy Award? You wanna know what happened? Voters looked at the list and saw the names Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep and they checked the box and then they put their kids in the car and went to see the movie ‘Spider-Man.’ And they loved it! But they didn’t vote for it.”
“No Way Home” did earn one Oscar nod in the visual effects category. But that’s a small consolation prize for a movie that many fans believe deserves much more, including the highly coveted Best Picture nomination. Especially if a box office failure and critically panned mess like “Don’t Look Up” somehow made the cut.
Variety noted how The Academy changed their rules this year to include a fixed number of 10 best picture nominees. Many fans hoped this would leave room for mainstream blockbuster films like “No Way Home,” but apparently they were destined to be disappointed.
The publication also noted that Marvel’s “Black Panther” and DC’s “Joker” remain the only comic book movies to earn Oscar nominations for the Best Picture award in the past. The nominations typically get awarded to more obscure titles.
Oscar or not, the newest “Spider-Man” is still outperforming box office expectations. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the superhero flock is passing up the original run of record-setting movie “Avatar” at the domestic box office to become the number three highest earning movie of all time, not adjusted for inflation.
“No Way Home” is still raking in cash, earning an additional $9.6 million this past weekend to finish Sunday with $749 million in total ticket sales. That’s less than $1 million shy of the $749.8 million that James Cameron’s “Avatar” earned (not adjusted for inflation).
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