If the Most Popular Film award had existed in 1993, I doubt Groundhog Day would have even gotten nominated, much less won.
Which brings me back to one of my original questions when this Most Popular Film award was first announced: What makes a movie “popular” in this case?
That only serves to underscore just how difficult it would be to create a Most Popular Film category and use it to award genuinely popular movies.
Granted, a Best Movie Deserving of a Wider Audience award would not boost the Oscars’ ratings, which was one widely circulated theory about why the Academy decided to suddenly add a Most Popular Film Award.