Will 'Captain America: Civil War' Net Marvel An Oscar?

Although superhero films are a commercial success - ten superhero films have broken $1 billion at the worldwide box office - there still seems to be a lot of prejudice around them. Only a handful of comic book movies have ever won an Oscar, but Marvel is once again trying to challenge that. On Friday September 23rd, Marvel held a "For Your Consideration" screening of Captain America: Civil War that's clearly angling for an Oscar...

What comic books have won Oscars?

There was a time when comic book movies - especially superhero movies - were few and far between. The trailblazer was 1966's Batman, and it's telling that you then have to look to 1978's Superman before you see another notable superhero on the big screen. DC dominated the superhero box office until 1998's Blade, which was really when Marvel began to appear on the scene. Now, though, your average year sees at least six or seven superhero films, and countless other comic book adaptations. Surprisingly, though, the rate of Oscar wins hasn't really increased. Check out the wins to date:

• Superman (1978) - Best Visual Effects
• Batman (1989) - Best Art Direction
• Dick Tracy (1990) - Best Original Song, Best Makeup, and Best Art Direction
• Men in Black (1997) - Best Makeup
• Spider-Man 2 (2004) - Best Visual Effects
• The Dark Knight (2008) - Best Supporting Actor and Best Sound Editing

It's pretty staggering that - given the current boom in superhero films - only two comic book movies have won Oscars since 2000

What's more, despite their tremendous financial success, Marvel Studios has never won an Oscar, in spite of seven nominations. As Comicbook.com observes:

"Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Marvel’s The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Captain America: The Winter Solider, and Guardians of the Galaxy were each nominated for Best Visual Effects. Iron Man was also nominated for Best Sound Editing, and Guardians of the Galaxy was nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling."

What's going on?

Of course, the reality is that popularity and box office success doesn't always equate with an Oscar. In fact, this was so much the case that in 2009 the Academy expanded its categories in the hope of bringing in some of the higher-grossing studio films and generating more public interest. The next year, The Hurt Locker - which released on just 535 screens and tallied less than $19 million at the box office - beat Avatar. The divide in popular perception and Oscar-worthiness is getting to be a real problem, with viewing figures for the Oscars Ceremony dropping like a stone.

Another factor, though, is that there's generally a bias against certain genres in the Oscars. Filmsite points to a bias against action-adventure, science-fiction, and fantasy films; that bias definitely extends to superhero movies. In fact, there's generally a strong prejudice against superhero films. Birdman director Alejandro Iñárritu famously described Hollywood's latest superhero focus as "cultural genocide." When musician and actor Jack Black introduced the 2015 Oscars Ceremony, he described superhero films like this:

"Opening with lots of zeroes, all we get are superheroes: Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Jediman, Sequelman, Prequelman — formulaic scripts!"

A final part of the issue is that, as the LA Times demonstrated in 2012, Oscar voters aren't exactly diverse.

"Oscar voters are nearly 94% Caucasian and 77% male, The Times found. Blacks are about 2% of the academy, and Latinos are less than 2%.Oscar voters have a median age of 62, the study showed. People younger than 50 constitute just 14% of the membership."

There haven't been any real indications of a change since 2012, so the LA Times's study probably still applies. Not only is that in striking contrast to the demographics of box office viewers, it also means that Oscar voters aren't the people films like Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War are targeted at.

Will 'Captain America: Civil War' win an Oscar?

Marvel has started the ball rolling with the "For Your Consideration" viewing, but there's a long way to go yet. First Captain America: Civil War will have to secure nominations. Only then will it actually be in with a chance of winning.

Civil War was a blockbuster success, and Marvel is clearly very proud of it - justifiably so. The crowd-pleading airport battle was also a remarkable feat of CGI, with Spider-Man, Black Panther, Ant-Man and Giant-Man purely existing as computer constructs. I wouldn't be surprised if that nets the film some recognition, possibly a Best Visual Effects nomination. Sadly, I doubt that Civil War will really have a shot at Best Picture - but time will tell.

Ultimately, an Oscars win will be a nice bonus for Marvel - but should really be taken as the icing on the cake. Civil War was Marvel's third-highest-grossing movie (behind The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron), and is a success by anyone's measure. We'll soon see if that translates into an Oscars win, but even if it doesn't - the film was still a hit.