Marvel abandons Avengers Infinity War at Oscars, to focus on Black Panther instead
Marvel and Disney will focus on Black Panther as their primary Oscars hope, diminishing Avengers: Infinity War’s chances to avoid cannibalisation.
Disney and Marvel are severely limiting Avengers: Infinity War’s Oscars campaign to ensure their other film, Black Panther, scores multiple nominations at the 2019 awards. According to Disney’s official For Your Consideration page, the studio is pushing Infinity War for only one category - Best Visual Effects - while Black Panther will get a more comprehensive campaign.
This isn’t to say that the films can only be nominated for the categories the studio is highlighting - they’re technically eligible for most of the usual awards - but it only goes to show where the studio’s focus lies. According to the Disney website, Black Panther will be pushed for awards ranging from the coveted Best Picture and Best Director (Ryan Coogler), to Best Actor (Chadwick Boseman), Best Supporting Actor (Michael B Jordan, Winston Duke, Daniel Kaluuya, Martin Freeman, Sterling K Brown, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis), Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Angela Basset), and a host of lower tier categories including Best Original Song (All of the Stars) and others.
Disney also lists Incredibles 2 - another box office behemoth - as the third film they will be pushing for the Oscars.
Both Black Panther and Infinity War were major box office winners - interestingly, Black Panther has made more money in the US than Infinity War, which has grossed over $2 billion worldwide. Black Panther’s worldwide take sits at over $1.3 billion, while its US haul is over $20 million more than Infinity War’s.
On review aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes, Black Panther scored a Marvel best 97% rating while Infinity War has an 84% score. Black Panther was appreciated for is political and social undertones, which was seen as a welcome addition to the largely lightweight Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It was recently reported that director Ryan Coogler would be returning to write and direct a sequel to Black Panther, while the fourth Avengers film is due for release in May, 2019.
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