Thanks, Academy: Oscars Make Harry Potter Most-Snubbed Franchise of All-Time

Of Hollywood's top five grossing film series, the boy wizard's goes down as the only one to never, ever win a shiny statuette

By Joal Ryan Feb 27, 2012 7:23 PMTags
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Harry Potter just set another record, and for once, the boy wizard has the Academy to thank.

With Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2's three losses last night, the world's most successful movie franchise of all-time became the most-snubbed top-grossing franchise of all-time.

Read it and weep:

Of Hollywood's five biggest film series (per BoxOfficeMojo.com stats), the now-concluded Potter franchise is the only one to never, ever win at least won Academy Award.

George Lucas' Stars Wars movies won eight competitive Oscars. The James Bond adventures have picked up two. The Batman iterations to date own three wins, including a Best Supporting Actor trophy for Heath Ledger. The Shrek franchise distinguished itself from the get-go with the inaugural win in the Animated Feature category.

And then at No. 1 there's Harry Potter: 12 nominations, zero wins.

Early on, it seemed as if the franchise might have better luck at the 2012 Oscars. And even after Deathly Hallows Part 2's Best Picture buzz fizzled, and talk of an Alan Rickman Best Supporting Actor nod died, the series picked up as many nominations as it ever had.

Deathly Hallows Part 2's best chance for a game-changing win arguably was in Art Direction, a category where the film had had success at the guild-awards level. But in the end it was swept aside in Hugo's sweep of the tech awards, losing there and also in Visual Effects. It likewise went down to defeat in Best Makeup, losing to The Iron Lady.

Elswhere, Billy Crystal and the telecast made only passing reference to the film, the past year's biggest box-office hit. No stars from the series served as presenters.  

And now, as far as the Oscars are concerned, it really all does end here for Potter

Unless, that is, one of author J.K. Rowling's planned adult novels casts her signature hero in something more relevant to Oscar voters.

Like, a black-and-white silent movie.