Films with BIG audience appeal should be recognized by a BIG award. This is how it might work: The top 10 films with the greatest audience appeal as measured by worldwide box office receipts would be automatically nominated for a new category titled the Best Blockbuster Award. The Academy voters can select their favorite film from within that list, thus insuring that they consider the fine artistry of blockbusters that are often overlooked. This will greatly appeal to mass audiences because it increases the odds that a film they love will have a chance at a BIG award. They might even be more likely to watch and enjoy the Academy Award Show.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has contributed a great deal to the industry. This is yet another opportunity to do so. Besides, without mega blockbusters, the brilliant filmmakers who create them, the mass audiences that love them, and the money they generate, there would be no Academy and quite possibly no Hollywood.

Thank you,

Gene Del Vecchio, Adjunct Professor at USC, author of Creating Blockbusters