As the Academy and its guests gather Sunday to enthusiastically slap congratulatory-calloused backs at the Oscars, an altogether different condition will overtake multiplexes nationwide. There, audiences will be confronted by a one-joke hippie comedy with Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston (Wanderlust), an Amanda Seyfried thriller withheld from critics before opening day (Gone), the Navy SEAL recruitment effort (Act of Valor), and frequent Oscar week performer Tyler Perry, departing from his matriarch Madea for a change (Good Deeds). ??
Such a weak field is hardly an anomaly; the first months on the calendar historically are the wasteland of the release schedule, sitting in sharp contrast to the Academy's annual celebration of cinematic "greatness." A curious paradox is normally in play — at the time Hollywood crows about its best, it often serves up some of its worst. To gauge this phenomenon — and display the movie industry's staggering self-unawareness — here is a look back at what has been foisted on the public during the last 20 years of Academy Awards weekends:??
· 83rd Academy Awards (2011): Last year the tepid comedy Hall Pass debuted at No. 1, while ex-Oscar heavyweight Nicolas Cage offered up his pulpy 3-D actioner Drive Angry, which could only reach No. 9.??
· 82nd Academy Awards (2010): A rare occurrence of a quality, popular effort as Disney?s Alice in Wonderland opened to nearly $150 million in business, while the sprawling cops-and-gangs saga Brooklyn?s Finest lagged well behind.
· ??81st Academy Awards (2009): Tyler Perry?s enduring hits continued with Madea Goes to Jail. Also featured was the roundly ignored comedy Fired Up — perhaps best-known for sporting the poster that basically said F-U to audiences.
· ??80th Academy Awards (2008): Convoluted espionage thriller Vantage Point, with one-time Oscar king Forest Whitaker, debuted…
Source: http://www.celebrities.com/celebrities-gossip/20-years-of-crap-that-opened-on-oscar-weekend/
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