SURVEY SAYS: How Many "Best" Pictures Have You Seen?

January 27, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards were announced yesterday, among them ten pictures in the running for “Best Picture.”  

This week I asked readers which one(s) they had seen, which they thought would (or at least should) win – and which film they might want to see added to the list.

As for which of the “Best” nominations they had seen, “Toy Story 3” topped the list, with 56.4% of this week’s respondents having checked it out, followed by “Inception” (45.7%) – though, in fairness, both of those have been out on DVD for some time now.

After that, the rest ranked as follows:

35.1% – The King’s Speech

31.9% – True Grit

30.9% – The Social Network

25.5% – The Kids Are Alright

14.9% – The Fighter

13.8% – Black Swan

12.8% – Winter’s Bone

  3.2% – 127 Hours

I also asked readers which of the nominees they thought would win for “Best Picture” – and it wasn’t even close; “The King’s Speech” pulled a commanding 60% of the responses this week, with “The Social Network” a distant second, with 20%. 

Black Swan was picked by 9%, the Fighter by 4%, while the rest split the remaining 7%.  However, no one picked “127 Hours.” 

As we all know, “the Academy” sometimes chooses films for “Best Picture” that don’t seem to mesh up with what “regular folks” might select – so this week I also asked what picture readers would pick if it were up to them.  And this year, anyway, it looks like the people and the Academy MIGHT be on the same page - a full third of this week’s respondents said they would choose “The King’s Speech” as the Best Picture, twice as many as the next choice (“True Grit”, which drew the support of 14.9%).  As for the rest:

11.5% - Toy Story 3

10.3% - Inception

9.2% - The Social Network

8.0% - Black Swan

6.9% - The Fighter

3.4% - Winter’s Bone

1.1% - 127 Hours

1.1% - The Kids are Alright

I also asked readers if they had other suggestions for Best Picture, or if they were “cool” with the list.  Here’s what they said:

RED was very funny.  Better in entertainment value than The Kids are All Right, which would have been better with some editing.  Very slow start.

Give me some action and a complicated plot.  ""Salt"" would be the winner in my book.  (Don't forget it's starring Angelina Jolie)"

I have been to very few movies this year, but I liked Red

I have seen a total of one new movie in the past 12 months. TRON Legacy, and though it was good, I would never presume to say it was best-picture Oscar worthy

The Town

The Way Back

Temple Grandin

Inside Job

Lebanon.  It was the best movie I saw this year.

As for observations on the Academy’s list:

I'm fine with the movies that made it, although I have to admit about half of them I never heard of before.  I do have to wonder however, what it says about me, that I have seen more of the "razzies" than the "best"?

"""The King's Speech"" reminded me of a seminar at which the IRS fielded questions from the audience.  (I think the IRS rep stammered more.)

List is already WAY too long.  "Toy Story 3" was an awful film that betrayed its franchise and should not be on the list.

I'm good with the list.  It's been a long time since I've seen a movie as good as "The King's Speech".  You should see it if you haven't! 

As for some general observations:

As usual, I haven't seen the majority of these nor do I care to.  Apparently I'm not sophisticated enough!

Cool with what's on this list.  Haven't seen a single one and haven't seen any others, so I wouldn't know if there should be something else on this list.

There were not a lot of great movies this year, so I'm OK with this list.

I'm disappointed with the state of the movie business today.  In the past, we would frequently take in a movie but the offerings in the recent past just have no interest for us.  If only there were something worth seeing the movie business (and the escape from life it offers), the movie business might be in better shape.

Cool with what's on the list.

I'm cool with what's on the list. I didn't see many movies last year.

I'm cool.

I stopped paying attention to the academy awards years ago, and to movies in general shortly after that! I HATE Hollywood! Everything is either total drivel, formulaic and predictable garbage, or contrived, agenda-driven propaganda (or sometimes all of the above!).

I am cool.

How the academy thinks 10 movies qualify for best picture is beyond me. There are barely 5 that should be on there. But it's all about money.

"Don't rely on critics' blurbs or the Academy to select movies.

Story, writer, director, cast are main criteria.  Unlike my younger cohorts, I don't believe ""special"" effects should drive the experience.  (How could Zoe Saldana be nominated as best actress for her digital rendering.)"

 

I have not seen any of these movies.  The last movie that I saw in the theater was Avatar.

I haven't seen any....though few are waiting for me at Netflix.  I need to get out more.

Ok .. I didn't even see ANY of these.  I really do need to see Winter's Bone as it was produced close to home.  Waiting on Netflix.

Actually, I think there are too MANY on the list.  Do the Academy folks really have that difficult a time whittling down a list to a manageable number (say 5), or is there just too much PR pressure on them to include certain movies in the running?  Good grief!

I just wanted to say that I didn't see any of these movies, or any movie for that matter, in 2010.

But this week’s Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who noted, Usually I haven't seen most of the nominees; this year I somehow saw most of them.  I thought they were all exceptional.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey!

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