Having made $135.3 million in the global box office, Sausage Party holds the record for being the highest grossing R-rated animated film of all time. While as we know, box office success doesn’t naturally add up to awards success, you have to hand it to the producers for giving it a go.
Sony, who produced the musical comedy about talking supermarket food who look forward to being selected by their ‘gods’, having no idea that they will be eaten, is lining up screenings, mailers, ads and more to get the film into judges’ minds for awards season.
Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘Academy members are way smarter and more forward-thinking than people realize. They want to recognize bold, original, risky breakthroughs, and that’s what Sausage Party is, however subversive. Plus, it’s just plain cool.’
Seth Rogen, who voices Sausage Party’s main character and also co-wrote and co-produced the film, said: ‘We've never been this passionate about a film and we're thrilled to enter uncharted territory. It's rare you really get to break new ground, and we hope that people view it as a good thing for the medium.’
If Sausage Party were to secure an Oscar nomination in the Best Animated Feature category, it would be quite a feat given only one other R-rated film, last year’s Anomalisa, has accomplished this.
However, it’s facing some tough competition. There have been five nominated films in the category for the past five years of the Oscars, and we’d guess that the films which will be up for the award this year are Finding Dory, Moana, Zootopia, The Secret Life of Pets, and Kubo and the Two Strings. At that, Sausage Party may just push out one of the latter two and who knows, maybe three nominations for Disney (even if one is technically Pixar) might be over-generous for the Academy.
Another category where Sausage Party might have a chance is in the Best Original Song category. The opening number ‘The Great Beyond’ has a great aul kick to it, and sure plenty of animated movies had songs nominated in the past. Plus, the film’s music was written by none other than Alan Menken, an eight-time Oscar winner who also wrote the music for many of Disney’s best known songs like ‘Under the Sea,’ ‘A Whole New World’ and ‘Colours of the Wind.’
Moreover, South Park: Bigger, Louder and Uncut, which Sausage Party beat to become the highest grossing R-rated animation ever, got a Best Song Oscar nomination for the hilarious ‘Blame Canada.’ If South Park isn’t too dodgy for the Oscars, it’s hard to believe that Sausage Party could be. It’s up to the judges to decide.
