“Avatar” continued to roll up major box office business as it added its first major award, winning the Golden Globe for best picture. It’s now on a collision course with “The Hurt Locker” for Oscar.
“The Hurt Locker,” an independent film about a bomb squad in Iraq that cost a fraction of Avatar’s $400 million price tag to make, won the Broadcast Critic’s Film Association award for best picture.
Avatar’s James Cameron also won for best director, while Katherine Bigelow won the critic’s award for “The Hurt Locker.”
Both honors are precursors to the pre-imminent Oscars in March. The critic’s association has a good track record for picking winners. The Globes are picked by the foreign press in Hollywood.
While the two films are now neck-and-neck in the Oscar race, Avatar is the clear winner at the box office. It grossed $166.3 million over the weekend and is on track to pass “Titanic” as the top grossing film, although it’s not even close when adjusted for inflation.
“Avatar” is pulling in an about $20 million daily overseas, which means it could surpass “Titanic’s” foreign record by the end of this week. “Avatar’s” gross worldwide is $1.607 billion, $236 million behind “Titanic’s” global record of $1.843 billion.
Many of the Globe awards paralleled the critic’s association’s.
Sandra Bullock won a Globe for best dramatic actress for the football tale “The Blind Side” and Jeff Bridges won for the country-music film “Crazy Heart.”
Both also won top acting honors from the critic’s association, although Bullock tied with Meryl Streep for best actress.
At the Globes, Streep won best actress in a musical or comedy for “Julie & Julia” and Robert Downey Jr. won for the crime caper movie “Sherlock Holmes.” Bullock was also up for the award for romantic comedy “The Proposal.”
Mo’Nique won both for best supporting film actress. She played an abusive mother in dark drama “Precious,” making her the odds-on favorite for an Oscar.
“First let me say, thank you God for this amazing ride that you’re allowing me to go on,” she said, in one of many emotional speeches. “I’m shaking, but I tell you all, I am in the midst of my dream.”
Austrian actor, Christoph Waltz won for his role as a bloodthirsty Nazi in “Inglourious Basterds.”
The Vegas bachelor bash “The Hangover” won for best musical or comedy film.
This year many stars pinned yellow, blue and red ribbons to their dresses and tuxedos in a show of solidarity for victims of the massive Haiti earthquake.
In addition to “The Hurt Locker, “Avatar” also topped George Clooney’s “Up In the Air,” about corporate downsizing, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” and Quentin Tarantino’s World War Two fantasy “Inglourious Basterds.”
In the best movie musical or comedy category, ”The Hangover” topped ”Julie and Julia,” relationship film “It’s Complicated,” the musical “Nine” and love story “(500) Days of Summer.”
The Golden Globe Awards are based on voting by about 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
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