Oscar changes...

On Wednesday, the Academy announced a few major changes to the awards ceremony to turn around the show's plummeting ratings. I am not sure about one of the changes.

Best Achievement in Popular Film Award: This is the most controversial change, and the one that concerns me the most. It is already being referred to as the "popcorn Oscar." Apparently the Academy (and ABC, see below) want to honor movies that people have actually seen. Even though the Academy expanded the Best Picture category so it can have up to 10 nominees, most nominees are artsy-fartsy and /or depressing movies that the general public has zero interest in seeing. I have a number of questions about this one, some of which may get answered in the future:

1. What defines a "popular film?" How much it grosses? The budget? The movie's net profit after production costs and marketing? The subject matter? The studio that releases it?

2. Who chooses the nominees? This would be a great opportunity for the Academy to leave this one up to moviegoers to goose the ratings. However, relying on the Internet to decide things may result in a disaster, like people deliberately nominating a turd like "Show Dogs" or "The Week Of," which is Adam Sandler's latest "masterpiece." Also, you have the possibility of fraud, such as hackers stuffing the virtual ballot box.

3. Can a film be nominated for Best Picture and Best Popular Film? This would have affected movies like "Titanic," "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and even "Get Out."

4. What concerns me the most is that these changes were supposedly mandated, I mean "suggested," by ABC, the network that airs the Oscars. I agree there is a valid concern that not enough people are watching the Oscars, but also keep in mind that ABC is owned by Disney. The Mouse House is responsible for all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, and the Star Wars movies, which could make up a substantial number of the nominees in this category. Is this a ploy to provide Disney with another avenue to promote its films and brag about awards?

The good thing is movies like "Black Panther" will be recognized. "Black Panther" was a damn good movie, and based on what I have seen so far this year, is worthy of a Best Picture nomination, as well as supporting nods for Letitia Wright and Michael B. Jordan.

In short, if the Academy is going to pander to the masses, they sure as hell better do it right.

Update: Apparently they aren't doing it at.all. The Academy postponed plans for this award, Hopefully indefinitely.

Running time: Last year's Oscars clocked in at a bloated 3 hours, 53 minutes. Not only did it end on a Sunday night when most people were in bed on the East Coast, but also shorted DVR owners who set it to record for 3 or even 3 1/2 hours. The Academy pledged to keep the show to 3 hours. One of the ways they propose to do this is by presenting some of the awards during commercial breaks. I don't have a problem with this, because the Tonys and the Grammys don't present all their awards on the televised show. Besides, the only people who give a crap about the Best Short Film category are the filmmakers and their families. This also will curtail the useless montages (which usually include the clop of Brando yelling "Stella!" in "A Streetcar Named Desire) and long musical numbers. My one request is not to chop the "In Memoriam" segment, because there are usually a few deaths that I didn't hear about over the course of the year, and it is always fun to complain after the fact about who they forgot to mention (RIP Abe Vigoda, Joan Rivers, Corey Haim, and many more).

Air date: In 2020, the ceremony will air on February 9, a couple of weeks earlier. I am OK with this because it will take attention away from the Golden Globe Awards, which is a farcical publicity stunt in which a bunch of hack foreign "journalists" award movies based on which studio gives them the biggest gift basket and award the actors who give them the most interviews.

Do you agree? Do you have any other suggestions to make the Oscars better? I would like to hear your thoughts on Facebook.