Avengers: Endgame went home without an award after the 2020 Oscars, and in the process made history with a record no movie actually wants to hold. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame served as the culmination to many of the story and character arcs established across the first decade-plus of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the journeys of Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.).
The movie was greatly received by critics and fans alike, with Avengers: Endgame becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time, surpassing the $2.79 billion set by Avatar at the turn of the last decade. Despite being the biggest movie ever made, and an Oscars push from Disney (who finally saw some MCU success at the Academy Awards last year with Black Panther), the movie was left without any recognition from the Academy.
It only received one nomination, and on the night 1917 beat Avengers: Endgame for the Best Visual Effects Oscar. That wasn’t too big an upset, since the Oscars often favor smaller visual effects, especially over Marvel movies, but it does mean Endgame has a rather dubious honor: the first movie to hold the crown of being the highest-grossing film of all time to win zero Oscars (h/t Fandom on Twitter). This goes all the way back to Gone With The Wind, since the first movie to be crowned the highest-grossing, The Birth of a Nation, pre-dates the Oscars. Gone With The Wind took home 10 Oscars, setting the bar for these box-office breaking movies.
Since then, the title of highest-grossing movie has changed several times, but always to an eventual Oscar winner. The Sound of Music replaced Gone With The Wind, and won 5 Oscars. Then came The Godfather (3), Jaws (3), Star Wars (7, including an honorary Oscar), E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (4), Jurassic Park (3), Titanic (a record-equalling 11 awards), and finally Avatar (3). Not only is Avengers: Endgame the only one of these movies not to win an Oscar, but only Endgame and Jurassic Park failed to score a Best Picture nomination as well. Gone With The Wind, The Sound of Music, The Godfather, and Titanic all went on to win Best Picture in the end too.
Of course, while an interesting bit of trivia, this isn’t a huge reflection on Avengers: Endgame’s quality. The Oscars generally award only a certain type of movie, and while that is gradually changing, it was never likely that Avengers: Endgame was going to win a huge amount of Oscars. It might’ve considered itself in with a chance for Best Score and some of the other technical awards such as Sound Mixing/Editing, but Endgame only scored the one nomination in the end, which as mentioned doesn’t go to Marvel movies. Instead, Marvel and Disney will just have to contend with making a crowd-pleasing blockbuster that’ll likely hold the title of highest-grossing movie ever made for a long time (or at least until Avatar gets a re-release to beat it).
Next: Oscars 2020: The Biggest Snubs & Surprises
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