Disconnect Between Oscars and Movie-Going Audience Still Thrives

After going over the Oscar nominations, I saw a couple of names I expected to see. Both Lincoln and Argo are Best Picture nominees and I'm down with that.

Both are excellent movies. Plus, I'm happy to say, they are also box office hits. And as I look down the list, I see other titles that are making a decent living at the American box office like Django Unchained, Les Miserables, and Life of Pi.

But, once again, there are many nominees for top awards that the majority of filmgoers have never even heard of, let alone seen. And I'm not pointing this out because I think there's anything wrong with that. No, I'm calling attention to the reason the annual Oscar telecast doesn't get the ratings it once did.

And the reason this is a point of interest to me are the complaints about those lower ratings. That's because they are, for all intents and purposes, groundless. The folks who nominate these films are well within their rights to single out those movies they feel are the best.

More and more, in recent years, those would be the smaller films that don't make it into a theater near you UNTIL they receive those Oscar nominations. And, then you still might not go. I've looked through all of the Oscar nominations and have discovered that 2012's three biggest hits--Marvel's The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Hunger Games--combined for...wait for it...ONE NOMINATION!

That's right!

And congrats to The Avengers for its Best Visual Effects mention. But that, my friends, is it. Two of the three movies that most of you saw in 2012 won't even be acknowledged when the gold statues are handed out on February 24th. And the other will only get scant attention. Hey, if the voters don't think those should be nominated, that's fine. That's the democratic process.

But they shouldn't go complaining if people aren't tuning to find out if a movie they didn't even know existed wins an award for nice costumes. And, who knows, maybe you don't even care if movies you love receive awards. Perhaps you shouldn't. I know I don't.

I enjoyed The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Hunger Games very much. I couldn't care less if a bunch of high-brow Hollywood snobs agrees with me or not. But I will be watching that night, because I did get a chance to see some of the nominated films and will be curious to see how they do.

I just wanted to set the record straight and offer a reason for some to stop all that belly-aching.

(Click here for a complete list of nominations for the 85th Annual Academy Awards.)