{"id":345152,"date":"2026-03-16T20:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T01:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/ted-cruz-says-nobody-saw-the-last-decade-of-best-picture-winners-and-that-the-godfather-wouldnt-qualify-today-both-claims-are-wrong"},"modified":"2026-03-16T20:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T01:31:14","slug":"ted-cruz-says-nobody-saw-the-last-decade-of-best-picture-winners-and-that-the-godfather-wouldnt-qualify-today-both-claims-are-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/ted-cruz-says-nobody-saw-the-last-decade-of-best-picture-winners-and-that-the-godfather-wouldnt-qualify-today-both-claims-are-wrong","title":{"rendered":"Ted Cruz Says ‘No person Noticed’ the Final Decade of Finest Image Winners and That The Godfather Would not Qualify Right now. Each Claims Are Mistaken"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Parasite<\/strong><\/a> earned $258 million on an $11 million budget. One in five South Koreans saw it in theaters. In the United States alone, Americans paid $53 million to watch the film entirely in Korean with English subtitles. It became the first non-English language film to win Best Picture, the first Korean film to win the Palme d\u2019Or, and one of the most talked-about movies of the decade in any language.<\/p>\n

According to Sen. Ted Cruz<\/strong><\/a>, nobody saw it.<\/p>\n

Hours after the 98th Academy Awards wrapped on Sunday night, Cruz took to X with a post that racked up over 756,000 views before most of Hollywood had finished their after-parties. He listed every Best Picture winner from the past decade \u2014 Parasite, Nomadland, CODA, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Oppenheimer, and this year\u2019s winner One Battle After Another \u2014 and offered his verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cOscars used to go to great movies, watched by millions,\u201d Cruz wrote. \u201cMovie-makers used to LIKE their customers. This past decade, other than Oppenheimer, nobody saw any of these movies, made to virtue signal to left-wing elites.\u201d<\/p>\n

He followed up by responding to the account @EndWokeness, which had posted the Academy\u2019s diversity and inclusion standards for Best Picture eligibility. Cruz called it \u201cutter insanity\u201d and listed The Godfather, Casablanca, Schindler\u2019s List, and Gladiator as classics that would no longer qualify. \u201cNone of these prior winners would qualify,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Two claims. Both checkable. Both dead wrong.<\/p>\n

The films speak for themselves<\/h2>\n
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Compare the last 10 best picture winners to the list below.<\/p>\n

Oscars used to go to great movies, watched by millions. Movie-makers used to LIKE their customers.<\/p>\n

This past decade, other than Oppenheimer, nobody saw any of these movies, made to virtue signal to left-wing elites. https:\/\/t.co\/6jFou4BpRS<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/fz9lzKbuNw<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Cruz gave Oppenheimer a pass \u2014 $976 million worldwide, third-highest-grossing R-rated film ever. No argument there.<\/p>\n

But he didn\u2019t extend the same courtesy to Everything Everywhere All at Once, which earned $143 million on a $25 million budget, became A24\u2019s biggest release in the studio\u2019s history, and spent 16 consecutive weekends in the domestic box office top ten. It swept seven Academy Awards. Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress \u2014 a moment that made millions of people feel seen for the first time on that stage.<\/p>\n

Nobody saw that, apparently.<\/p>\n

Nomadland and CODA were released during the peak of COVID, when the entire theatrical industry was on life support. One hit theaters and Hulu simultaneously, the other was an Apple TV+ release. Holding pandemic-era streaming releases to the box office standards of Titanic requires ignoring that most theaters were closed.<\/p>\n

And the ceremony Cruz was reacting to? It had just handed Best Picture to One Battle After Another, a Paul Thomas Anderson film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The night\u2019s other big story was Sinners \u2014 Ryan Coogler\u2019s vampire epic that set a record with 16 Oscar nominations and won four, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, who thanked the Black actors \u201cwho came before me\u201d in his acceptance speech. Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman in history to win Best Cinematography. Warner Bros., the studio behind both films, also put out Superman, A Minecraft Movie, and Weapons in the same year.<\/p>\n

These are not the marks of an industry ignoring its audience.<\/p>\n

The classics that \u201cwouldn\u2019t qualify\u201d<\/h2>\n
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In order to compete at the Oscars for Best Picture, all films must meet the \u201cdiversity inclusion\u201d quota.<\/p>\n

Here are those rules. Yes, this is real. pic.twitter.com\/2FQR5Kh4zx<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Cruz\u2019s second claim \u2014 that The Godfather and Casablanca couldn\u2019t compete under today\u2019s rules \u2014 sounds alarming until you look at what the rules actually say. The Academy requires Best Picture contenders to meet two out of four standards. The @EndWokeness post showed the on-screen casting criteria. It didn\u2019t mention the other three.<\/p>\n

Two of those standards have nothing to do with who\u2019s on screen. They cover things like whether the studio runs internship programs for underrepresented groups and whether the marketing team reflects some diversity. Any major studio today checks those boxes through existing corporate programs.<\/p>\n

Oppenheimer had an almost entirely white main cast. It qualified without issue.<\/p>\n

If Paramount released The Godfather tomorrow, it would very likely qualify the same way \u2014 without changing a frame.<\/p>\n

The comment section was predictable. The numbers weren\u2019t.<\/h2>\n
\"16\"Archos
Image credit: @circleranks\/Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cruz\u2019s posts pulled in over 685 comments in the first few hours. Half the replies cheered him on. The other half started posting receipts.<\/p>\n

The idea that the Oscars have drifted from mainstream taste isn\u2019t baseless \u2014 ceremony ratings have been sliding for years and some recent winners were smaller films. That\u2019s a real conversation worth having.<\/p>\n

But \u201cnobody saw these movies\u201d is a claim that only works if you don\u2019t check. And \u201cthe classics wouldn\u2019t qualify\u201d only holds up if you stop reading after the first standard.<\/p>\n

The films had their night. The numbers are already public. The rest is just comments.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n