“Get Out” was a major commercial success last year, grossing more than $176 million in the US and a total of $250 million, including international releases, on a $4.5 million budget. It won its opening weekend, which is an important marker. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Out
I read a great many articles about it following its release. “Get Out” was not a film that very few people saw. I’m not sure I’d characterize any of the movies nominated for Best Picture that way.
“Get Out” ranked #15 in domestic gross for 2017 - higher than “Baby Driver,” “Cars 3,” “The LEGO Batman Movie,” and “War for the Planet of the Apes” (my favorite!)
“Coco” and “Dunkirk” were #13 and #14, respectively.
As Jimmy Kimmel said:
As a superhero film junkie, I loved his later line:
Thanks, @scout59 and @skieurope. I’m glad you pointed out these statistics and Jimmy Kimmel’s comments, with which I agree.
I got interested in how this year’s Best Picture nominees fared at the box office and looked it up on Wikipedia:
Dunkirk - $525 million ($188 million US/Canada)
Get Out - $255 million ($176 million US/Canada)
The Post - $147 million ($80 million US/Canada)
Darkest Hour - $135 million ($54 million US/Canada)
Three Billboards - $132 million ($54 million US/Canada)
The Shape of Water - $126 million ($57 million US/Canada)
Lady Bird - $59 million ($48 million US/Canada)
Phantom Thread - $33 million ($19 million US/Canada)
Call Me by Your Name - $29.5 million ($16 million US/Canada)
Dunkirk is now the highest-grossing WWII film in history; however, it wasn’t one of the top 10 highest-grossing films in 2017. Box Office Mojo ranks it as the 14th highest-grossing film in the US last year, and Get Out as #15. Of course, The Last Jedi was #1. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2017
The academy awards is first and foremost an awards show…for the movie industry. It can be as political, entertaining or boring as it winds up to be each year. This is not a show meant to entertain the average viewer although I am sure the networks would like it to be a rating success, it is secondary to its purpose.
My brother is a voting member and only votes if he sees all the movies.
Another interesting factoid - 4 of the 5 last winners for Best Director were Mexican or Mexican-American men.
If you never heard of “Get Out” you really weren’t paying attention. I did see it as part of my effort last year to see more films made by people of color, but if you read the main stream media at all, it was talked about for months. And deservedly so.
The Oscars have always been about the BEST not about $Top Money Maker$. Once in awhile the two overlap but that is the exception not the norm. It’s not a popularity contest.
I haven’t seen any of them in the theater and probably won’t, but my sons all rave about Get Out. They have promised to organize a movie night for H and I to watch it with them. My boys also liked Dunkirk, but although I am a history buff, I found it a bit ponderous and couldn’t get through it on TV at home. I do plan to see Darkest Hour on TV (my sons could not believe that this was the same actor that Harrison Ford tossed off Air Force One). The commercials that I saw for The Shape of Water did not intrigue me, so I doubt I will see it. I am still undecided on 3 Billboards
I watched the show, primarily because I love Jeopardy and always want to learn new trivia, and secondarily because my youngest son is going into Theater Tech and I wanted to see the kinds of things that were nominated in the design, production and lighting categories.
I have pretty broad tastes, and I think of myself as liking Guillermo Del Toro (although really the only film of his I’ve watched is Pan’s Labyrinth). But the ads for The Shape of Water, and the clips they showed Sunday night . . . do not make it attractive to me. I wanted to see it when it came out, because of Del Toro and because I had read a positive review, but the people we were going with voted for The Last Jedi instead, and that was the last time we went to the movies. Now that I’ve seen more publicity for it, and it’s won Best Film and Best Director, I want to see it less.
Phantom Thread is another film whose publicity has been telling me, “You will hate this movie, you will hate this movie” repeatedly.
The one I’m waiting for is Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” due out this month.
I saw Dunkirk last night. Man that score sounded just like Inception. Not a fan, especially since I have that droney sound associated with sci-fi and fantasy. I liked it all right. I hadn’t fully realized how many of the rescue ships didn’t make it. Tommy’s adventures reminded me of the Perils of Pauline - out of the frying pan into the fire - rinse and repeat.
I thought Get Out was exceptional. I’m glad Jordan Peele won for best screenplay. I enjoy the award shows more when many films win something, as happened this year.
Well, I finally saw Call Me By Your Name.
It is a very beautiful film, and Timothee Chalumet is superb. IMHO, Armie Hammer, although good, reads as too old, and the film would have been better served by someone who could be convincingly 24. That’s really my only caveat. The relationship between Ellio and his parents is lovely and unusual. The nuanced depth of the setting–the memories of fascism, for example–are the kind of thing that set it apart from so many slick first love movies.
The earlier discussion in which it was described as a story about an older man grooming and sexually abusing a boy are far enough off the mark as to be ludicrous.
To be clear (and accurate), the sentence should read “The earlier discussion in which it was described by one user who never saw the movie as a story about an older man grooming and sexually abusing a boy are far enough off the mark as to be ludicrous.” 
@Consolation
We saw and enjoyed Wrinkle in Time last night. It is helpful if you have read the book at some point prior to seeing the movie. H and I had read it decades prior. The special effects were impressive, as were the costumes.
@HImom, I think you may have meant to post that on the movie thread VS this Oscars 2018 thread.
Whoops, you’re right, @Nrdsb4!
“Consolation: IMHO, Armie Hammer, although good, reads as too old, and the film would have been better served by someone who could be convincingly 24.”
The few critics who addressed admitted uneasiness with this as well. The appearance of a substantial age difference was quite intentional.
There is reason for uneasiness: an adult person engaging in a sexual relationship with a teen - of any gender - is inherently predatory. We knew this once upon a time.
Given the nearly concurrent “Me Too” movement (Spacey and Weinstein, anyone?), it’s astonishing that this was glossed over by the mainstream media in the rush to bestow accolades upon this movie.