Box Office: Best Picture Oscar Contenders

COMMENTS (14)

• Can we finally put to rest the idea that George Clooney isn’t a box office draw? He’s in a lot of underperformers, but Descendants and Up In The Air are both modestly budgeted worldwide hits built largely around him.

  Comment by Hank — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 2:02pm PST  Reply to this post

• Why is Extremely Loud even nominated? It didn’t do that well in the BO, the reviews weren’t very good, and word of mouth was ok at best.

  Comment by Joey Baseball — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 2:29pm PST  Reply to this post

• Let’s go back to five nominations. Seriously.

  Comment by Anon — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 2:29pm PST  Reply to this post

• It could happen: The Help.

  Comment by simon — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 2:45pm PST  Reply to this post

• Something else worth pointing out – “The Descendants” is a great picture that genuinely promotes what the right would call family values; it does so right down to the final scene and the end credits. These are real characters in unforeseen circumstances struggling with recognizable and relate-able conflicts. The lead character struggles with conscience and is forced to make a decision of consequence that will affect many people. Because it was rated “R” – and I can’t even remember why this would be the case; there’s more sex and violence in a superhero movie and they’re not rated “R” – parents were potentially discouraged from seeing it with other family members (or encouraging them to go on their own) which would obviously impact box office. Nothing in this movie deserves an “R” rating considering any of the traditional notions of drawing such a conclusion. The M.P.A.A. must go into these movies with a checklist of no-nos the way they take your order in line at Wendy’s when the line is too long to call the bill of fare “fast food.” The back pages of the Village Voice would identify such an obvious check list “fetishist.”

  Comment by Mark — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 2:55pm PST  Reply to this post

• Extremely Loud And Incredible Close is an awful piece of crap worth of a Worst Piece Of Crap Razzie award…

  Comment by POW — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 2:59pm PST  Reply to this post

• Kind of a weak year.

  Comment by Stevieg — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 3:15pm PST  Reply to this post

• You can immediately drop Loud and Close, The Help, Moneyball and War Horse from the noms to go back to 5.

  Comment by Stevieg — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 3:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• And then you’ll have 10 people watching the telecast. And only 10.

  Comment by PaulH — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 3:27pm PST  Reply to this post

• It is a total travesty that “The First Grader” was not nominated.

  Comment by Darin Shea — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 3:29pm PST  Reply to this post

• EXL & IC; liked it. Nobody talks about Sandra Bullock – really good. Could have done with less of the whole Max Von Sydow wizened waylaid helpless witness mute thing. Felt hackneyed I thought, Boo Radley and “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” etc. Must all be from the book.

  Comment by The Damage is Done Not to Be Undone as is Always the Case — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 3:31pm PST  Reply to this post

• I wanted to like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, but it was so slow and boring. The only good part of the movie was Sandra Bullock and she was barely in it!

  Comment by RJ — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 3:58pm PST  Reply to this post

• The Help was created to salve the conscience of guilt-wracked white liberals, so it’s bound to pick up something from the same gang of white libs.

  Comment by The Clintidote — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 4:05pm PST  Reply to this post

• How is it that this movie isn’t being called out for the putrid debacle that it is? Very expensive failure from Scott Rudin that is the death gong for Tom Hanks absurd salary? What a horrible, nasty mess of a film. Everyone involved with it should be embarrassed for their hand in its vile, blood-soaked cash-grab. Thankfully, no one went to see it– and it will hopefully be the end of the 911 weepers, movies with that awful kid– and Iraq “deerhunter” wannabes… Yuck.

  Comment by Exremely pitiful — Sunday February 26, 2012 @ 4:51pm PST  Reply to this post