For the past few months on Oscar Beat, we’ve been taking a detailed look at the Oscar race to come. We saw frontrunners emerge out of the fall film festival circuit, and now we’re starting to see each category come together. However, for this holiday weekend we thought it’d be fun to take a look at awards seasons past; specifically, films that were considered strong Oscar hopefuls until for one reason or another they dropped out of the race entirely. This year we’ve already seen a couple of potential Oscar contenders fade from the race once critics got their first look—namely The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which now feels destined to be more of a commercial hit than a serious Oscar contender.After the jump, we examine five films from the past decade that looked like they had the goods for Oscar glory but dropped quickly and quietly out of sight when it turned out they were nothing but hype.
Alexander – 2004 Never one to shy away from controversy, director Oliver Stone’s biopic of Alexander the Great certainly had its fair share of press, though not exactly for accolades or high praise. It seemed like a potential Oscar heavyweight at the time, but the bloated historical epic received scathing reviews from both critics and historians and was a bust at the box office; Stone is no stranger to claims of historical inaccuracy, but Alexander was no JFK when it came to quality filmmaking. At a three-hour runtime, critics called the film unfocused and jarring, and the negative reviews resulted in a 16% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Nearly a decade later, Stone is still toying with the film’s edit, as a fourth “director’s cut†is apparently on tap to be released in the near future.[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/embed/COEI8rm0bs0[/EMBED_YT] 
All the King’s Men – 2006Here’s a film with an awards-heavy pedigree that flickered out in the blink of an eye. For his third directorial feature, Oscar-winning Schindler’s List scribe Steven Zaillian chose to adapt Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1946, and pulled together a cast that included Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Mark Ruffalo, and Anthony Hopkins to bring the period story to life. What felt like a home run turned out to be a massive swing and a miss, with critics savaging the film after its premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. Many called the pic out for its obvious Oscar baiting, and it sat on the shelf for almost a year. The movie currently sits at a paltry 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, and didn’t fare much better with audiences, bringing in only $9.4 million despite its star-studded cast. Zaillian has not directed a film since, but he rebounded a bit the following year with his screenplay for American Gangster.[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/embed/U-VD8OsMbsc[/EMBED_YT]
Bobby – 2006The star-studded nature of director Emilio Estevez’s film about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy had many thinking the film would be a serious contender in the coming race, but Bobby was a case of quantity not quality. Actors like Martin Sheen and William H. Macy shared the screen with head-scratchers like Ashton Kutcher and Lindsay Lohan, and the bursting ensemble left little room for any breakthrough performances. Critics were mixed on the film overall, and with very few finding anything noteworthy to say about Bobby, it failed to drum up any genuine Oscar prospects.[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/embed/dakDA3bY_6E[/EMBED_YT]
Lions for Lambs – 2007It had been nearly a decade since Robert Redford directed a film—1998’s The Horse Whisperer—and the political-leaning Lions for Lambs saw Redford sharing the screen with Oscar favorite Meryl Streep and box office draw Tom Cruise. The timing wasn’t exactly great, though, as Cruise was still reeling from bad press that began with his Oprah Winfrey appearance in 2005, and though the film appeared to have parallels with America’s war on terrorism, critics reacted negatively to Redford’s execution, calling the film preachy and boring. With a negative critical reception and a lackluster box office performance, the film’s awards prospects quickly went out the door.[EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/embed/0n02lrQ_5Vo[/EMBED_YT]Click on over to Page 2 to continue reading.
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Nine – 2009
Ah, such hope for this one. Director Rob Marshall had been nominated for the Best Director Oscar seven years earlier with the musical Chicago, and after a less successful dramatic turn with Memoirs of a Geisha, he was returning to the song-and-dance world with six Academy Award-winning actors in tow, including the brilliant Daniel Day-Lewis. With that kind of pedigree, everyone assumed Nine would be one of the major players in the coming awards race. Then the reviews came in. Critical reception to Marshall’s 8 ½ twist was poor with the film only nabbing a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie did go on to earn four Oscar nominations, including a Best Supporting Actress nod for Penelope Cruz, but it was wholly absent in the rest of the major categories. Considering everything the film had going for it—including a Hollywood-centric plot—Nine was quite the disappointment.
The Lovely Bones – 2009Â
While director Peter Jackson’s first follow-up to his Oscar sweep with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was the commercial-friendly King Kong, it appeared that he was headed into more dramatic territory with his next film The Lovely Bones. With beloved source material and a natural blending of his fantastical and character-driven sensibilities in tow, hopes were very high for this one, but unfortunately the resulting film was somewhat lacking. Though undoubtedly ambitious, not everyone was onboard with how Jackson went about mixing the world of the afterlife with the world of the living, with some calling the effort too sentimental. The picture nabbed just one Oscar nomination—Best Supporting Actor for Stanley Tucci—and pulled in a 32% on Rotten Tomatoes. Failing to cross the $100 million mark despite its effects-heavy visuals, audiences also didn’t take to Jackson’s adaptation.
The Soloist – 2009
Director Joe Wright’s 2007 film Atonement was a big hit with Oscar voters, earning seven nominations including Best Picture.  For his follow-up project, Wright moved out of his period piece comfort zone and tackled an Oscar bait-ish drama that ticked off a number of Academy favorite categories: based on a true story, lead character with mental health issues, uplifting ending.  Even with Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx and the newly hot Robert Downey Jr. in the leads, The Soloist was a bit of a mixed bag and not at all the awards contender many had pegged it to be.  Though the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score of 56% isn’t a total failure, it didn’t catch on with audiences at the box office and nabbed zero Oscar nods.  Perhaps the April release date should have been a giveaway.
Amelia – 2009
After winning her second Best Actress Academy Award for her work in Million Dollar Baby, Hilary Swank had failed to find the same success in her follow-up projects. The Academy loves a good biopic though, and with Amelia Swank looked to be in line to possibly recapture the awards attention. Unfortunately, not even director Mira Nair or co-star Richard Gere could help make the film exciting, and Amelia was dubbed an instant dud when critics first got a look. With a 27% on Rotten Tomatoes and a mere $19.6 million at the box office, Amelia is one of the bigger Oscar flops in recent memory.
What about you, dear readers? Were there any other films over the years that seemed to you like surefire Oscar contenders that failed to land any significant awards praise? Sound off in the comments below.