“Army of the Dead” has won the first-ever Oscar Fan Favorite Award on Sunday night.
Zack Snyder’s fans have struck again for their second big moment of the night after winning the Oscars Cheer moment for The Flash entering the Speed Force.
The Fan Favorite vote comes after Academy members balked at the idea of a “Popular Oscar,” floated back in 2018 — and quickly abandoned after an outcry. The new Twitter contest wasn’t met the same backlash, partly because it was conceived as an entirely new statuette-worthy category.
But the prize was expected to be polarizing if ample screen time was given to a subpar film as many film lovers are up in arms over the decision to not air eight different categories live this year.
The Oscars have been trying to find new ways to get people to tune in, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of interest in the nominees led to ratings plummeting by more than 50% last year.
This year’s nominees also largely drew little interest from the general public — at least when it comes to buying theater tickets — with sci-fi blockbuster “Dune” accounting for 56% of the $191 million grossed by this year’s Best Picture contenders and none of the nominees still in theaters grossing more than $1 million.