Cause you can't get much bigger than The Dark Knight.

The Academy only cares that your movie is not a total flop.

We didn't cry when Shrek 2 was left out in the cold.

The Reader was pretty close to a flop. It might have become one if not for the nom.

yeah, The Reader wasn't gonna make 10m, and it had already peaked. That's as flop as BP contenders get. I wonder if TDK's summer release date really did play a factor in its snub. Maybe there was just too much buzz early on for there to be much left by now.

I wasn't thinking about relatively inexpensive prestige pictures when I said "flop"

Master and Commander had a pretty big budget and made quite less than that (if you consider that the studio gets half of it).

But Shrek 2 didn't become the closest to Titanic.

Neither did TDK.

Anyways, The Reader was a financial and critical flop. I think that's a first for them.

It did just well enough to keep up appearances. At 60 mil, there's no BP nom there.

It's not that the Academy doesn't care about BO, it's just that they're smart enough not to get sucked in by a lowest common denominator crowd pleasing POS like TDK...

Not really

I mean it's not like nameless geriatric AMPA member #1 looks at his ballot and thinks "I liked the Reader more than TDK. OH WAIT, IT HAS A LOW BOX-OFFICE??? THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING!!!"

Bad BO=bad press=people thinking less of it and/or not watching it

It's all about buzz, baby.

I think its more about what Yosh said vs Shack.

I don't think anyone votes based on box office. But if you have a moderately expensive movie that doesn't look like it'll make back its investment, then yes, it makes a difference.

If The Reader somehow cost $100 Mill, it wouldn't have been nominated. On the same token, if Curious Case had only made $20 Million, it wouldn't have been nominated.

I certainly don't think anyone looked at their ballot and said they had to vote for TDK because it made half a billion dollars.

Thankfully because of the internet, we'll soon have an idea about what happened with TDK from the horse's mouth.

Apparently. Really bad move, very very bad. The Reader was not only an inferior movie in every way, but it will not create any press for the oscars or pull in any viewers. Plus you'll have internet fanboys creating riots and bad press for the academy everywhere. Last year had the worst ratings of all time and this snub could contribute to this year topping that.

Internet fanboys aren't going to create bad press for the Academy. They don't care aobut the fanboys. No one does.

Riots? Oh, shit! It's Rodney King all over again!

I really don't think the Academy cares about bad TV ratings. It's not as if the show is gonna get cancelled.

And let's be honest, we're all gonna watch anyway.

Not I! Unless M.I.A.'s performing.

I don't think there's any doubt this years broadcast will be lower than last years. And honestly, there's nothing slated for the end of this year, that makes me think the 2010 broadcast will be any higher (Nine, Shutter Island, Lovely Bones, Public Enemies, random films no one has ever heard of).

Avatar, Watchmen, Up, I can't even begin to entertain it.