The highest grossing comedy films about government and politics released during 2018, plus "The Favourite" cleans up at the BAFTA Awards

Yesterday, I wrote about the highest grossing dramatic films about government and politics released during 2018.  Today, as promised, is the day for the  top earning comedies about politics and government from 2018.  Following are the relevant comedy releases from Box Office Mojo.

38    Night School (2018)    $77,339,130
 46    Green Book    $61,501,776
 64    Vice    $45,215,710
 82    The Spy Who Dumped Me    $33,562,069
 88    Super Troopers 2    $30,617,396
 91    The Favourite    $30,200,041
120    Eighth Grade    $13,539,709
136    The Death of Stalin    $8,041,828
160    Gringo    $4,969,853
162    Johnny English Strikes Again    $4,412,170

While this field is more unified than the dramas — it helps that it's smaller — it still has divergent components.  "Night School," "The Spy Who Dumped Me," "Super Troopers 2," and "Johnny English Strikes Again" are all low-brow commercial comedies. "Green Book," "Vice," "The Favourite," "Eighth Grade," and "The Death of Stalin" are all humorous, relatively high-brow treatments of serious material that have earned awards and nominations.  "Gringo" sits in no-man's land in between the two — a a middle-brow farce that is a parody of a crime caper, I suppose.

Of the award-winning and nominated films, I first thought "Vice" could be the best political film of 2018, but "The Favourite" has since surpassed it, earning ten Academy Award nominations to eight for "Vice."  "Green Book" is behind both and "BlacKkKlansman" with five Oscar nominations.  All three won Golden Globe awards, "Vice" Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy for Christian Bale, "The Favourite" Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy for Olivia Colman, while "Green Book" earned three, Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, Best Screenplay - Motion Picture, and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for Mahershala Ali.

The Oscars ignored the other award-winners and nominees, but not the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice, and BAFTA Awards.  "Eighth Grade" earned a Golden Globe nomination for Elsie Fisher, who also won a Critics' Choice Award for Best Young Actor/Actress.  "The Death of Stalin" earned two nominations at last year's BAFTA Awards as well as a nomination at this year's Critics' Choice Award.  I would not be surprised if "Eighth Grade" earned a nomination for Best Independent Film at the Saturn Awards, but I wouldn't count on it, either.  If so, Elsie Fisher might earn a nomination for Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Film, although I expect Millicent Simmons from "A Quiet Place" would have an advantage.  I would be more surprised if "The Death of Stalin" snagged a nomination for Best International Film; I think the competition is too stiff.

"The Favourite," "Vice," and "Green Book" all earned statues at last night's BAFTA Awards.  Follow over the jump to watch videos of the acceptance of their awards.


"The Favourite" not only earned the most nominations at the BAFTA Awards, as the above graphic shows, but also the most trophies, seven.  I'm showing the film winning four of them, beginning with The Favourite Wins Outstanding British Film.


Note that the award is for Outstanding British Film, not Best Film.  "Roma" won that award.  That could happen at the Oscars, too.

Next, Olivia Colman Delivers Emotional Speech & Wins Leading Actress.


Colman is nominated for this category at the Oscars as well.  However, she may not win, as Glenn Close won the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.  Based on that, I think Close is favored.

The third video I'm featuring is Rachel Weisz Wins Supporting Actress for The Favourite.


Weisz also has a nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the Oscars, which is a much more wide-open contest than for Actress in a Leading Role.  Emily Blunt won the equivalent statue at the SAG Awards, but is not even nominated for an Oscar (I think the Saturn Awards will try to rectify that omission), while Regina King won Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes, but was not nominated at the SAG Awards.  Hollywood could not even agree on who to nominate, so I'm not sure it knows who will win.

In addition to the above awards, "The Favorite" won Best Screenplay (Original), Best Make Up/Hair, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design.  The film has nominations in all of the above except Best Make Up/Hair at the Oscars.

Mahershali Ali continues to sweep the awards for his role in "Green Room."  Watch him win Supporting Actor for Green Book, which was the only BAFTA award for the movie.


Ali also has an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, where I think he is the prohibitive favorite.

"Vice" won one award, Best Editing.


While "Vice" has a nomination for Best Editing at the Academy Awards, I'm not sure it will win, as it didn't win an ACE Eddie Award.  The award for comedy went to "The Favourite" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" earned the equivalent for drama.  I expect one of those two will win at the Oscars instead.

That's it for the political comedies.  I'll return with the documentaries, both good and bad and political speculative fiction films after a double celebration of Darwin Day and Fat Tuesday/Paczki Day.  Stay tuned.