Marvel Studios film “Black Panther” made Oscars history on Tuesday, landing the first best picture nomination for a superhero movie, as crowd-pleasing blockbusters muscled into a contest recently dominated by art-house fare.
Other box-office hits among the eight nominees for the movie industry’s top prize included musical remake “A Star is Born” and rock biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
“Black Panther” was 2018’s top-grossing movie in the United States and Canada, and second-highest worldwide, with $1.3billion in ticket sales.
Released by Disney-owned Marvel, it was the first superhero film to feature a predominantly black cast.
The movie was hailed for bringing African pride and beauty to a big-screen adventure. It received seven nominations in total.
The inclusion of popular films contrasted with the past few years when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences favoured independent dramas with small audiences and snubbed commercial successes such as “Wonder Woman.”
The academy attempted to address the issue in August by proposing a new popular film category. But the idea was quickly scrapped after criticism that it would create a two-tier system of popular and less mainstream films.
Tuesday’s nominations showed popular films had broken into the best picture race.
The field reflected “the perfect intersection of art and commerce,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at measurement firm Comscore.
“The academy is clearly honouring blockbuster films this year,” he said, “and is acknowledging their contributions to the art of filmmaking and thus recognizing the level of talent involved.”
