Out of the eight films nominated for Best Picture at the 91st Academy Awards, Black Panther is by far the entry that was seen by the most people in theaters, ending 2018 as the year’s highest-grossing feature domestically. It’s therefore less than surprising that the moviegoing public has voted it their favorite of the competitors in a new Fandango poll conducted for USA Today.
When more than 3,000 frequent filmgoers were asked who they’d pick for Best Picture out of the list of nominees, Black Panther walked away with 24% of the vote, beating out A Star Is Born (19%) and Bohemian Rhapsody (18%) for the top spot. After that in the ranking came Green Book (14%), followed by BlacKkKlansman (8%), Roma (7%), The Favourite (6%), and Vice (4%).
In the poll for Best Actor, meanwhile, Rami Malek was the clear winner with 44% for his turn in Bohemian Rhapsody, while Lady Gaga’s performance in A Star Is Born comfortably topped the Best Actress list with 42%.
But going back to Black Panther, while we wouldn’t bet on the film taking home the Best Picture Oscar on the actual night, the fact that it was nominated at all in the category makes it a groundbreaker in the field of superhero cinema – a genre which the Academy has usually relegated to the technical categories.
As well as receiving a Best Picture nod, Black Panther has been nominated for Best Costume Design, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Original Score, and Original Song. You can find out if the film triumphs in any of these categories when the 91st Academy Awards airs on Sunday, February 24th, at which point, we’ll also see if the recent predictions of an Avengers: Endgame trailer dropping on the same night have it right.