The Oscar nominees reflect the increasing polarization of the movie business. Only one of the Best Picture nominees — Juno — did well at the box office. The rest are limping along.

That's one end of the polarization — the quality movies that make no money. The other end of the polarization is movies like Transformers and Spider-Man that bring in hundreds of millions of dollars but are total dreck.

The business has been moving in this direction for years, but this year, it seems that the studios have given up on popular movies being good — and on good movies being popular.

Caught in the middle is the Oscars telecast. Traditionally, it's one of the top three most-watched shows of the year and, thus, a ratings and advertising bonanza. But this year, there's uncertainty over whether the audience will tune in for an Oscars show about movies it hasn't seen.

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