What's a "popular film" Oscar? Awards show goes begging for ratings

                          Do the Oscars think films like "Shape of Water" are sinking their TV ratings?

Various reports that the Oscars are going to change their annual telecast, dumping some lesser categories during commercial breaks to keep the show a tight three hours, moving the awards earlier in the year so they don't trail the zillion other awards shows, and adding a category for "achievement in popular film." As Variety put it:

The group did not provide details on what movies would be eligible and when the award will first be handed out, but its intent is clear.

At one point in its history, Oscar voters routinely named blockbusters such as “Titanic” or “Gladiator” as the year’s best. That’s changed. Recent best picture victors such as “Moonlight,” “Spotlight,” and the 2018 winner “The Shape of Water” have been firmly ensconced in the arthouse world, whereas well-reviewed hit films such as “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” have only been recognized for their technical achievements.

This is, of course, a problem the Oscars have faced for long years, and one that many of us have written about before. The motion-picture academy it tried to remedy by expanding the best-picture nominees to as many as 10 -- only to see the art-house faves still rule. But if your aim is to honor the best work in your field, then, well, "The Shape of Water" was pretty great. And every year, it's not just the big commercial films that get ignored by the Oscars; so do a lot of smaller films that lacked the clout to make the Oscar short lists. I wrote a recap of movies missed by the 2018 Oscars earlier this year. 

But the problem here is not that the Oscar system overlooks popular films. It's that Oscar nominators and voters do. No one is ordering them to vote against big hits; they just think their industry looks better when they choose prestigious films over commercial endeavors -- and they know that, in some past years, winners that were also big hits did not always reflect well on the movie business. ("Titanic," for example, mentioned by Variety above, is on a lot of lists of worst best-picture winners.) 

Creating a separate popular-film category takes voters of the hook. Moreover, will it be possible to win in this new category AND win best picture? Or will the new prize be a consolation prize for a well-made film that people liked while Oscar voters sniffed at it? 

Then there's this great tweet from critic/journalist Mark Harris:

It truly is something that in the year Black Panther, a movie made just about entirely by and with black people, grosses $700 million, the Academy's reaction is, "We need to invent something separate...but equal."