Anyone watch last night’s People’s Choice Awards? Yeah, me neither. But did you see the results? “‘Fahrenheit,’ ‘Passion’ Win People’s Choice Awrds”, the AP news headline reads. Further examination of the story is even more interesting as “‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ was named best film and ‘The Passion of The Christ’ best film drama.”
The People’s Choice Awards have never really been a show about quality. I don’t think they necessarily even truly represent the most popular of entertainment — if so, then the absolute top grossers would likely always win. Until this year, the awards were always decided via Gallup Poll, but this time around, CBS formed a partnership with Entertainment Weekly, and just about anyone could vote via online ballot.
These two movies split this country just like the last election. The number of people who were able to view either film objectively was tiny, with the majority of critics praising one film and calling the other trash. Of course, on the surface, these two movies had very little to do with each other, but they do represent the whole red state/blue state phenomenon, and if their individual grosses had been used as tea leaves, it should have come as no surprise that the conservative right would be able to mobilize people to get out the vote. The certainly convinced enough followers to head to the multiplex and turn The Passion of the Christ into a box office sensation. The caveat that Fahrenheit’s over $100-Million gross was incredible for a documentary may be valid, but it doesn’t hold up against The Passion’s nearly $400-Million, astonishing in its own right since audiences had to read subtitles.
I don’t want to place too much importance on The People’s Choice Awards, but how fascinating that these two movies (I assume) split much of the voting. (It’s important to note that the two films did not compete against each other in either category.) How interesting that enough people are still so passionately behind both of these films to name Fahrenheit best overall movie and The Passion best drama. (Meanwhile, Shrek 2 — the year’s box office champ with $436-Million gross — is the lucky winner of best comedy and best animated film.) Even within a silly, innocuous, popularity contest awards show, Fahrenheit was able to beat out major box office earners (and fan favorites) like Spiderman 2, Shrek 2 and The Incredibles. The only film nominated for “Favorite Movie” it attracted a larger audience than was Eternal Sunshine. Meanwhile, The Passion’s competition for “Favorite Movie Drama” also included fan favorites (even if they’re not all great movies) The Bourne Supremacy, Collateral, Finding Neverland and Ray. Yet among all these titles, these are the two that won.
It would have been interesting to see what might have happened had people actually have to vote for one versus the other. How close would this sort of “popular vote” really been.
Out of Focus 