Voting Trends and Summary
For the fourth consecutive year, the field of major nominees did not include a bona fide blockbuster at the U.S. box office, with the nominees for Best Picture performing even more poorly than those of the previous year, although slightly better than in 2005.
None of the five Best Picture nominees was among the year's top 30 releases in box office at the time of the nominations; at the time of the announcement on January 22, Juno was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $87.1 million in domestic box office receipts (the film was the only Best Picture nominee of the five to earn more than $100 million before the ceremony date). The film was followed by No Country for Old Men which earned $48.9 million, Michael Clayton with $39.4 million, and Atonement with $32.7 million. There Will Be Blood rounded out the Best Picture nominees with $8.7 million. Out of the top 50 grossing movies of the year (prior to announcement), 30 nominations went to 11 films on the list. Only Ratatouille (11th), American Gangster (19th), Juno (32nd), and Charlie Wilson's War (40th) received nominations for best picture, directing, acting, or screenwriting. The other top-50 box office hits that earned nominations were Transformers (3rd), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (4th), The Bourne Ultimatum (7th), Norbit (30th), The Golden Compass (38th), Surf's Up (42nd), and 3:10 to Yuma (45th).
For the third consecutive year, a majority of the Best Picture nominees were rated R (under 17 requires accompanying adult). Of the 88 nominations awarded to non-documentary feature films (apart from the Foreign Film category), a slight majority of 50 went to R-rated films, 29 to films rated PG-13, 4 to PG-rated films and 5 to a G-rated film. There was a remarkable rating-related division among the nominations: R-rated films captured 24 of the 40 nominations for Best Picture, directing, screenwriting and acting; while non-R-rated films received 26 of the 45 nominations in the remaining categories, primarily those in "below the line" areas.
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