Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar 2 lead popular cinema’s resurgence at the Oscars

POPULAR films have made a spectacular comeback at the Oscars — with Top Gun and Avatar sequels both nominated for Best Picture.

It is the first time in Oscars history more than one film in this category has grossed over £1.2billion worldwide.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Angela Bassett, 64, is also the first to earn an acting nomination for a Marvel superhero film — for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Academy bosses hope the inclusion of popular films will give a boost to the televised ceremony, which has struggled to attract viewers in recent years.

Last year’s was the second lowest watched in Oscars history.

This year’s event, which takes place in LA on March 12, will likely be a bigger draw by including nominations for popular films such as The Batman and Elvis.

Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick has taken £1.2billion at the global box office so far.

It is the first time one of his films has been nominated for an Oscar since Magnolia in 2000.

Avatar has taken over £1.6billion globally since it was released last month.

The film has overtaken Spider-Man: No Way Home and Jurassic World on the list of the highest grossing films of all time.

Despite the Avatar sequel’s success, director James Cameron, 68, is not nominated.

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis is in the running for Best Picture, while leading man Austin Butler, 31, has one of the film’s eight nominations, for Best Actor.

Sci-fi movie Everything Everywhere All at Once is the most nominated film, with 11.

All Quiet on the Western Front and the Banshees Of Inisherin have nine.

Brad Pitt, 59, and Margot Robbie, 32, were among shock snubs as neither they nor their film Babylon were nominated.

And no women are nominated for Best Director, after winning for the past two years.

The Sun’s film critic, Dulcie Pearce, said: “It’s great to finally see popularity over pretentious being nominated.”

Movie fan Adam LeKang tweeted: “Looks like the blockbuster has returned in power.”