{"id":38981,"date":"2016-01-14T22:56:03","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T06:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?p=38981"},"modified":"2016-02-28T22:57:13","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T06:57:13","slug":"oscar-winners-slipping-at-the-box-office-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2016\/01\/oscar-winners-slipping-at-the-box-office-2015.html","title":{"rendered":"Oscar winners slipping at the box office \u2014 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"spotlight-a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Click for previous posts: 2005<\/a> | 2006<\/a> | 2007<\/a> | 2008<\/a> | 2009<\/a> | 2012<\/a> | 2013<\/a> | 2014<\/a><\/p>\n

2005<\/a> marked the first time since 1996 that the Best Picture winner did not gross at least $100 million, the first time since 1985 that not one of the Best Picture nominees<\/i> grossed at least $100 million, and the first time in living memory that the Oscar did not go to one of the Top 25 films in North America. In fact, the winner that year \u2014 Crash<\/a><\/i> \u2014 grossed a mere $54.6 million and ranked way, way down at #49.<\/p>\n

Ever since then, the Oscar for Best Picture has tended to alternate between relatively big hits and somewhat smaller box-office performers \u2014 until last year, when the award was given to a smaller film for the second year in a row. Is that the new normal now? Will the award go to another small film this year? Or could it mean that the Academy is even more likely to snap back and go for a big film this year?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thinking smaller films winning Best Picture is the new normal for now.<\/p>\n

Consider: the top-grossing nominee this year, The Martian<\/i>, failed to get nods for film editing or for its director, Ridley Scott. And the second-highest-grossing nominee of the year, Mad Max: Fury Road<\/i>, didn\u2019t get any acting or screenplay nominations. And The Revenant<\/i>, which had a huge opening last weekend and will soon be one of the three top-grossing nominees of the year, also failed to get a screenplay nod.<\/p>\n

It is very rare for a film to win Best Picture without getting nominations in all of those categories. So it looks like the award might go to one of the lower-grossing films.<\/p>\n

As ever, we shall see. For now, here are the nominees<\/a>, with their current grosses and box-office rankings for the year as of yesterday:<\/p>\n