7 Other Categories the Oscars Can Add if the Academy Gets Desperate

By Ramin Setoodeh

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The Oscars borrowed a trick from high school yearbooks on Wednesday morning by announcing a new award for popularity.

How popular do you need to be to qualify? The motion picture academy has yet to spell that out, but the new category is clearly designed to try to boost ratings and nominate starry blockbusters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and “Star Wars.”

With that in mind, Variety wanted to step up to the plate to help out . Here are seven other awards the can add:

Best Performance by a Pet in a Supporting Role

Possible contenders: Uggie from “The Artist,” any of the dogs that played “Lassie,” the horse from “Lean on Pete”
Why: Viewers who would tune in to see a Jack Russell Terrier in a tux.

Best Sequel

Possible contenders: “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2,” “Incredibles 2”
Why: They rule the box office, but they rarely get any Oscars love.

Best Reboot

Possible contenders: “Batman Begins,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Ocean’s Eight”
Why: Don’t you think the Oscars would benefit from Rihanna’s attendance?

Best Performance in a Meryl Streep Film That’s Not Meryl Streep

Possible contenders: Emily Blunt, “Into the Woods;” Anne Hathaway, “The Devil Wears Prada;” Cher, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”
Why: Otherwise, it’s too easy to get overlooked.

Best Adam Sandler Film

Possible contenders: “Happy Gilmore,” “Billy Madison,” “Just Go With It”
Why: To prevent the Razzies from getting all the buzz.

Best Picture With a Single-Digit Rotten Tomato Score

Possible contenders: “The Emoji Movie,” “Gotti,” “Speed 2: Cruise Control”
Why: Reviews aren’t everything.

Best Performance by an Orc on Netflix

Possible contenders: “Bright”
Why: A movie with this much notoriety deserves an award of its own.