Last night the 2015 People’s Choice Awards took place at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, and winners for all types of fan-favorite entertainment were announced from Movie, TV, and Music categories. There were a few surprising and unexpected choices within the Movie categories of winners, but possibly most surprising of all was the biggest award of the night, Favorite Movie. The public's votes were counted, and the Best Movie (as deemed by the people who vote on PeoplesChoice.com) went to Maleficent.
I bet you weren’t expecting Maleficent—I sure wasn’t. The film also won Favorite Family Movie at the People’s Choice Awards. But despite the mixed reviews from critics, the film had huge commercial success, and it was the only non-superhero movie to cross a $600 million gross internationally this past year. Whether it be the power of the Disney brand, or the star power of Angelina Jolie, people not only went to the theaters to see it, but they also loved the film, according to the People’s Choice Awards.
In case you are unfamiliar, the way that the People’s Choice Awards works is that each year a voting platform is hosted on PeoplesChoice.com. On that site, the public determines categories, nominees and winners for the award show. According to ComingSoon.net, every year, potential nominees are determined by a number of factors including the national ratings averages, music sales, box office grosses, and the PeoplesChoice.com data, followed up by vetting through EPoll Market research. It is the only major awards show entirely voted for fan favorites by the public. And it is an interesting view into what exactly drives the box office, because when it comes to the more critically-acclaimed movies we’ll see in upcoming awards shows like the Golden Globes, they don’t come close to the kind of international gross that films like Maleficent do.
Some of the other fan favorites this year, and winners of the People’s Choice Awards included Robert Downey Jr., who was graced with two awards, Favorite Movie Actor and Favorite Dramatic Movie Actor. Then of course, Jennifer Lawrence who took home Favorite Movie Actress and Favorite Action Movie Actress. Favorite Movie Duo went to Shailene Woodley and Theo James from Divergent, which also won Favorite Action Movie. Chris Evans was deemed the People’s Favorite Action Movie Actor (because everyone loves Captain America). The Favorite Comedic Movie went to 22 Jump Street, the Favorite Comedic Actor was Adam Sandler and Favorite Comedic Actress to Melissa McCarthy. Then the People voted Chloë Grace Moretz as their Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress and The Fault in Our Stars was Favorite Dramatic Movie (of course). And last, but certainly not least, the Favorite Thriller Movie went to Gone Girl.
The movie choices correlate pretty well with box office grosses, and what is deemed popular by the public is not always highly rated by the critics. For those of us who want to see where more critically-acclaimed movies such as Selma and Whiplash fall in line, we’ll have to wait till this Sunday, January 11th at the Golden Globes ceremony.
