What Would've Won The New Most Popular Academy Award? A Retrospective
With the brand new award of “Achievement in popular film” looming over this Oscar season, I thought it might be interesting to look back at the last 20 years and consider what movies might have won it. I took the top 5 domestic grossing movies from each movies as a graphic pool, but Jeff and I made some audibles as well.
1998
Kenjac: While ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is way better than any of these movies, I gotta go with ‘Armageddon’ because it was a little more of a cultural phenomena. RIPIP Harry Stamper, a true American hero.
Jeff: Agreed with KenJac, while we have no idea what the criteria is, I feel like ‘Armageddon’ would have taken this, despite ‘Saving Private Ryan’ being the far superior movie.
1999
Kenjac: I have to go with ‘The Matrix’. ‘The Phantom Menace’ had one of the biggest marketing blitzes ever, but I think the disappointment from that compared to the pure shock and awe people had at the bullet dodge makes this a lot easier.
Jeff: I have to pick ‘Toy Story 2’ here because of the quality and success it had. ‘The Phantom Menace’ would’ve had a chance had it not been a steaming pile of shit.
2000
Kenjac: “Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.” Fuckkkkk yes. ‘The Grinch’ may have been more popular overall because of its age gap, but I don’t care.
Jeff: The fucking ‘Grinch’, man. Yeesh. I think ‘Cast Away’ would have won this one. The hype for this movie post release was huge in 2000, but don’t overlook ‘Remember the Titans’ or ‘X-Men’.
2001
Kenjac: This is a TOUGH year, but staring down the barrel of these 5 I have to go with my gut and say ‘Harry Potter’. The start of that little nerds journey was one of the best in the entire franchise and had people of all ages lining up at the theater.
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Jeff: ‘The Lord of Rings’. It was massive and also nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. I think ‘Harry Potter’ fans would’ve been mad, but ‘The Lord of the Rings’ was just too good.
2002
Kenjac: The battle of Helms Deep was incredible, and I can’t vote against it. ‘The Fellowship Of The Ring’ got the gears turning, but ‘The Two Towers’ was when the franchise really hit its stride.
Jeff: ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘The Two Towers’ would have had a battle to the death, but, again, I have to go ‘The Lord of the Rings’. Any movie nominated in these categories that also gets a Best Picture nomination will take this award every single time.
2003
Kenjac: ‘The Return of the King’ is the best of the LOTR franchise, so I have them going back-to-back.
Jeff: ‘The Return of the King’ won Best Picture. This is a no brainer.
2004
Kenjac: This is tough, but I have to go with ‘The Incredibles’. ‘Spiderman 2′ was certainly popular, but I don’t think it was quite as far reaching.
Jeff: I am not as into ‘Spider-Man 2’ as most people, but many think it is one of the best comic book movies ever made. It was a massive blockbuster and seems to fit this category.
2005
Kenjac: Have to go with ‘Revenge of the Sith’ here. It’s the best of the prequel trilogy, and had people super pumped to see Anakin finally turn into Vader.
Jeff: Remember when ‘Crash’ won Best Picture this year? Yikes! I am going with a movie not on this list with ‘Brokeback Mountain’. It doesn’t totally fit the blockbuster bill, but it received a ton of notoriety and was very popular at the time of release.
2006
Kenjac: I agree with Jeff in that Borat was way more of a phenomena, but I don’t see a scenario where the acadamy gives it the award. Gona go with ‘The Da Vinci Code’.
Jeff: Little upset pick for me here, as I think ‘Borat’ would have taken the a ward from this year. Sacha Baron Cohen won a Golden Globe for his role in the movie and received a ton of praise for this comedy.
2007
Kenjac: Honestly, I have no idea what the Academy would pick here. I did not remember ‘Spiderman 3′ being this commercially successful and I wasn’t a fan of any of the 5 on this list. I’m going off reservation and saying ‘300’.
Jeff: Popular well liked movie that was pretty good? Let’s go with ‘Knocked Up’.
2008
Kenjac: This award was literally made for ‘The Dark Knight’. ‘Iron Man’ is a relatively close second, though.
Jeff: I mean, this new award may as well be called the ‘The Dark Knight Memorial Award’. The pick is super obvious here.
2009
Kenjac: Under duress, ‘Avatar’.
Jeff: Sigh. Deeper sigh. Exasperated sigh. ‘Avatar’, unfortunately.
2010
Kenjac: My money is on ‘Toy Story 3′ with ‘Inception’ as an honorable mention.
Jeff: The easy picks continue as ‘Toy Story 3’ would’ve grab this one without question. Great movie and it just made tons of cash at the box office. It was also nominated for Best Picture.
2011
Kenjac: Harry wins again for me, as this installment easily blew away the rest of the ones on this group and most movies on the year in general.
Jeff: ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2’ is probably the best Harry Potter movie, and would likely take the cake with ease this year.
2012
Kenjac: ‘The Avengers’ had such an insane hype machine built around it that I really have no choice but to pick it. The battle of New York remains an insane theater experience.
Jeff: ‘The Avengers’, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and ‘Skyfall’ would be in a battle for the death here. ‘Skyfall’ is probably the best movie out of the three, so I will have to give it a bit of an edge, but ‘The Avengers’ would be pretty tough to beat because of its insane popularity.
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2013
Kenjac: ‘Frozen’ without a shadow of a doubt.
Jeff: Hand up, I loved ‘Catching Fire’ and would make that my pick here.
2014
Kenjac: Two Crisp Rat bangers in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and ‘The Lego Movie’, but I have to go with the former. It’s the best Marvel movie in my opinion, and one of my all time favorites.
Jeff: I am having a hard time deciding between ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ or ‘The LEGO Movie’, but ‘The LEGO Movie’ was just a better movie and close in popularity, so that will be my pick.
2015
Kenjac: Fuckin’ kidding me? Star wars by a mile!
Jeff: Another easy, obvious pick with ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’.
2016
Kenjac: Civil War was, and is, an absolute unit. Amazing theater experience as well.
Jeff: ‘Captain America: Civil War’ will be my pick here, but don’t overlook ‘Deadpool’. Ryan Reynolds received award show hype for the movie, so the win wouldn’t have been too crazy.
2017
Kenjac: I liked all the movies in this 5 a decent amount. I wasn’t a HUGE ‘The Last Jedi’ fan, and I while ‘Wonder Woman’ is the best DC movie, that basically makes it the valedictorian of summer school. I think ‘Get Out’ was way more of an experience that got a ton of people talking.
Jeff: ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’, despite its polarizing reviews, would be tough to beat, but I think the obvious choice would have been ‘Get Out’. Last year ‘The Shape of Water’ winning may have sparked this new award and ‘Get Out’ was likely the next movie in line for Best Picture.
It’s funny seeing movies that you would never expect to be a top 5 grossing type (There’s Something About Mary) in the early years turn into an amalgam of the same 4 franchises by the time we hit 2017. Disagree with our picks? Tweet us and let us know. Don’t forget to subscribe to Lights, Camera, Pod, follow us on Twitter, follow us on Instagram and join in on the conversation on our Reddit. And don’t forget to vote for the best Arkansas movie.