We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

Home

DreamWorks is almost always guaranteed a slot at the Oscar nomination table. That gives Home an advantage that I don’t think it would have otherwise.

Although it’s opening to strong box office, Home is one of the worst reviewed DreamWorks films ever, scoring an abysmal 49% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes and 55 rating from MetaCritic. This may test the DreamWorks guaranteed slot because animators tend not to reward mediocre films. Even the ones that weren’t that great like Puss in Boots managed to land nominations, but they had much better reviews.

This could mean that a power vacuum is approaching. Disney & Pixar have one outing each this year. DreamWorks only has one. That leaves the likes of Universal’s Minions, Fox’s Peanuts Movie and Paramount’s Monster Trucks as potential power fillers. Assuming Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur are both nominated, that leaves three slots that could go to films other than Home. Of course, things may not be entirely bleak and it could still get a nomination, but at this juncture, I’m not seeing the likelihood.