Beyond the artist endeavors, the movie industry is about making money. The night of the Oscars, ABC sold 30 second time slots to advertisers for 1.7 million dollars a piece, making the golden statue event, worth a grand total of about 80 million dollars to the network; Second only to the Super Bowl, which scored about 200 million for FOX.

The big category, we all wait for is the best picture, and even that has been changed in recent years, some say to make more money.

Billion dollar ideas and betrayal a stammering king Delusion and disorders.

It's the stuff movies are made of. And once a year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes an elite few of these films that have changed the cinematic world forever.

Melena Ryzik, Reporter of New York Times, said, "The Oscar’s are the pinnacle of the Hollywood scene I mean for actors directors and cinematographers, really anybody involved in movie making it is the height of their profession. It’s considered the most prestigious award to win."

But making your way to the top isn’t easy. Traditionally just 5 slots were reserved for the best picture award. For the last two years there have been 10 nominees.

Brian Moylan, Staff Writer, Gawker.com, said, "We should call it the Batman Rule because the big thing that upset people when the Dark Knight didn’t get nominated for best picture but it was one of the highest grossing movies ever and people thought it really deserved a nomination so their answer to that was to open the field up to ten pictures so you could get a larger variety of blockbusters, independent movies, animated films because people want to stay up and wait for the best picture nominees that they have already seen. "

Christopher Farley, Reporter of Wall Street Journal, said, "the reasoning was if we increased the category because they thought if we increase the number of films that are nominated people will go to see more films. It doesn’t always work out that way cause sometimes people say there’s no many films I can’t possibly seem them all."

Crystal Fisher, New York, said, "And let’s not forget that behind all this Oscar Buzz is actually some big Biz - the average ticket cost here in the states an average ticket can run you an average of $8 and here in New York it can run you upwards of $10-12. The US and Canada grossed about $11 billion dollars overall last year."

Reports show in the weeks leading up to the Oscars the box office has seen a little boost but nothing like Christmas week where the top 12 movies grossed about $312 million dollars. The week of the 4th the top 12 grossed about $96 million and 4 of the 12 were nominated for best picture, The Kings Speech, True Grit, Black Swan and the Fighter. And the week of the 11th the top 12 jumped to $176 million but only 3 were nominee’s.

Christopher Farley, Reporter of Wall Street Journal, said, "It’s been favorable so far but will they get the bigger bump we have seen in the past when the category was smaller again we will have to wait and see."

Melena Ryzik, Reporter of New York Times, said, "There’s a quantifiable boost that movies get from the nominations window, they call it the nominations bump and it’s something like 40% just in the few weeks between the nominations and the oscars and then even if they don’t win they can still get like a 20% bump. "

To err on the safe side it seems the best thing to do is get nominated. Leading into next year the critics had some advice.

Melena Ryzik, Reporter of New York Times, said, "What hopefully we’ll see in the coming years based on this year is that a small movie like a Black Swan or a King’s Speech can be not just a critcal favorite and an award season favorite but can also so big box office. "

Christopher Farley, Reporter of Wall Street Journal, said, "I think at some point in the near future you are going to start to see these 3D movies get serious critical acclaim. "

And for this year if you stay awake until the end of the broadcast which can run about 4 hours for the final award which is for best picture. Brian has some tips on who to keep an eye on.

Brian Moylan, Staff Writer, Gawker.com, said, "Once the nominations came out I think that we saw that the big fight is going to be between the King’s Speech and the Social Network, especially for best picture."

But who’s to say if the Academy won’t surprise us. We’ll just have to wait for that special moment.

The moment nominee’s become winners, the moment our fantasy worlds become reality, the stuff dreams are made of…

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