Best Pic films are also hits this year

By Jake Coyle

AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK

How accurate is “Zero Dark Thirty”? Is “Lincoln” an epic of historical recreation or a high school history lesson? What did you think of “Django Unchained”? Can we get Anne Hathaway something to eat, already?

As a crop, this year’s nine best-picture nominees has been one of the most talk-provoking, op-Ed-generating bunches in recent Oscar history. From “Argo” to “Life of Pi,” they’ve largely been popular at the box office, too.

This year, the question “Have you seen ...?” has been a frequent one, and often the reply has been positive. The movies have been debated, criticized, mulled over and tweeted. Above all, they’ve been relevant.

That hasn’t always been the case, particularly in years where most best- picture candidates — and this is no slight to their worthiness — have struggled to surpass $100 million at the domestic box office. Last year, of the nine nominees, only “The Help” managed to pass that threshold. This year, five have (“Argo,” “Les Miserables,” “Lincoln,” “Django” and “Life of Pi”) and two more are very close (“Zero Dark Thirty” and “Silver Linings Playbook”).

The biggest story of this year’s Oscars could very well be the pervasive success of serious films for adults.

Part of what makes this year’s class remarkable is that they aren’t obvious box-office draws. Westerns are supposed to be dated. Excessively detailed stories about congressional politics aren’t usually popcorn-munching hits. Religious-minded films centered on an unknown young actor and a digital tiger adrift on a boat don’t typically steamroll like a superhero blockbuster.

“The movies worked,” Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of the Weinstein Co., which released “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Django Unchained,” said at a recent Producers Guild of America event. He called the best- picture nominees “the best collection of movies we’ve had in 20 years.”