The Golden Globes Make History With Stand-Up Comedy & Blockbuster Movie Awards
A huge change is coming to the Golden Globes — namely, that two big categories have been added to the awards ceremony.
According to an exclusive report in Variety, the Golden Globes, which celebrates the best in both television and film each year, will add two categories ahead of the 2024 telecast: one for blockbusters and one for stand-up comedy. That first one will bear the official title of "Cinematic and Box Office Achievement," and Variety reports that it will include streaming numbers as well as box office data, which will be obtained from "recognized industry sources." A film will have to earn $150 million during its release, and $100 million of that haul has to come from the domestic box office in order for it to qualify and become one of the eight nominees. The qualifications for the stand-up special are pretty broad, as it just has to have what Variety calls a "recognized distributor" and air on television proper or a streaming service.
The president of the Golden Globes, Helen Hoehne, told Variety, "The Golden Globes has a rich history of supporting and celebrating the work of comedians, and we're thrilled to honor their brilliance alongside outstanding motion picture and television performances of the year. Additionally, we are proud to recognize the hard work and innovation that goes into making a film that is both a blockbuster and artistically exceptional."
Does this mean a few select movies will dominate the Globes?
Putting the stand-up comedy of it all aside, the Variety article does specify that movies nominated in the blockbuster category will also be able to compete in the long-standing Best Motion Picture categories of Comedy and Drama. So what does this mean? Well, based on the way 2023 has been going, at least a few movies stand to dominate all of the major film categories at this year's Globes.
"Super Mario Bros." was the first 2023 film to cross $1 billion at the box office, but in July, It was easily surpassed by Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" movie, which earned its billion within just a few short weeks and set several box office records in the process. It might feel wild to mention "Barbie" and "Super Mario Bros." in the same breath, but truthfully, these two movies could well be going up against each other in the new blockbuster category, whereas it feels like a given that "Barbie" will compete in Best Motion Picture – Comedy, based on its overwhelming critical acclaim. Then there's Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," which didn't make it to the billion-dollar mark, but still performed pretty spectacularly for a three-hour biopic, earning well over $300 million at the domestic box office; it seems like a certainty that, like "Barbie," Nolan's movie will end up in both the blockbuster and drama categories.
It feels like a category for big box office earners is a long time coming — but will it create chaos?
It does, on some level, feel like the blockbuster category at a major awards ceremony is long overdue. At the 2009 Oscars, which ended up earning incredibly low ratings for its telecast, movies like "There Will Be Blood" and "No Country for Old Men" competed for the night's top prize ... but fans of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" were incensed that the beloved comic book adaptation missed the cut for Best Picture. Sure, Heath Ledger won a posthumous Oscar for his spectacular turn as the Joker (and the movie earned eight nominations, only winning that one for Ledger), but at the 2010 Oscars, the Best Picture category was suddenly twice as large, allowing up to ten nominees.
That doesn't mean a show like the Oscars has necessarily adjusted, though; "Black Panther" and "Top Gun: Maverick" might be recent blockbusters who made it into the Best Picture category, but neither of them ever had a real chance at winning. Still, the Golden Globes are way more chaotic than the Oscars in general, and the wild overlap between blockbusters and the "best" movies of the year could make for an interesting ceremony. It also indicates that a "best" movie and a "blockbuster" aren't mutually exclusive, which might cause problems in and of itself. For now, though, we just have to wait and see what happens with the 2024 telecast.
The nominations haven't yet been announced, but as of this writing, the Golden Globes are set to air on January 7.