It’s been five years since the Academy announced — and then quickly retracted — their idea for a new award category that would honor the year’s most popular films. But that hasn’t deterred the Golden Globes, who are moving full steam ahead with their new award for cinematic and box office achievement in motion pictures. The inaugural list of nominees, announced Monday, includes a Nintendo hit, several sequels, and one very famous globe-trotting pop star.
“The idea behind it was to give popular films a place in this award season because those are the films that people have actually gone to see,” Helen Hoehne, president of the Golden Globes, tells Vanity Fair in an exclusive interview. “This is how movie theaters are kept alive—by the fans who go to see films on the big screen—and we felt there was a need to recognize those movies as well.”
The irony is that the organization chose to make this change in the year of Barbie and Oppenheimer, which earned a slew of Golden Globes nominations in addition to spots in this new box office–centric category. Hoehne thinks that Barbenheimer dominance is “just perfect. We thought this was a wonderful example to have. I think we’re very lucky.”
The category also notably has eight nominees, while all others are capped at six. The list is rounded out by Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, John Wick: Chapter 4, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. Hoehne says that decision to include eight was because “we realized there are so many films out there, and we wanted to recognize the breadth of the quality that is also out there, and just have more people be able to recognize films that were so excellent.”
The nominees were not just picked for their box office numbers, but also for the quality of the films, Hoehne says. All of the nominees are theatrical releases, though, when the category was first announced, there was language in the release that implied that a streaming film could be considered, using “commensurate digital streaming viewership according to recognized trusted industry sources.” Hoehne says the organization had a “secret sauce” procedure that would have tabulated those streaming numbers using both internal and external reporting. However, Vanity Fair has learned that the streamers did not in the end submit their projects in this category.
There’s another, Eras Tour–sized perk to the new category this year, of course. The Globes specifically ban concert film and documentaries from their main best-picture categories, which means this new award was the only way to invite the world’s biggest pop star to the party—and hopefully, boost some ratings in the process. After being off the air in 2022, and with 2023’s ratings down 26% from the 2021 show, there’s pressure for next year’s Globes to succeed with viewers. “The hope is that fans will get excited about watching because—when they’re finally watching films that they have gone to see in the theater…I mean, we know how many people have gone to see Taylor Swift in concert,” Hoehne says. “I think all those fans out there…we hope that they will tune in and will watch their favorite stars on TV to see them being recognized and awarded.”
Will a giant star like Swift show up on January 7? That remains to be seen. But Hoehne is promising that the show—returning to air with a new broadcast partner after several years of turmoil and reinvention—will remain, as she calls it, “the most fun award show…. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We have a lot of fun in the room.”
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