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We watch a lot of audiovisual content. In such circumstances, only exceptional movies stay longer in our minds. Exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. This second type of productions should be ostracized and heavily criticized, but has instead gained its own cult. Fans of bad movies have associated and organized many events promoting their favorite genre, like the Polish movie festival “The best from the worst”.

Movies rated as extremely bad have an opportunity to gain worldwide media exposure (no matter if they desire it or not) during the Golden Raspberry Awards. Since the 1980s, each edition has been organized the night before the Academy Awards ceremony. There is a criticism among the movie industry that members of the Golden Raspberry organization focus only on the high-budget movies, which result in huge box-office flops. However, some people have accepted their awards, looking for media publicity.

The main question is: does nominating a movie to the Golden Raspberry increase the main interest in it? We will check the popularity of four movies with the biggest number of nominations each year, monitoring the period before announcement of nominations and after the awards ceremony. Moreover, we will also check the popularity of the nominated movies in  all monitored markets, exploring our monthly ranks from the year of release and nomination.

In March 2022, the highest number of nominations and awards (including Worst Picture) went to the movie ‘Diana: The Musical’, available worldwide from its release on October 1, 2021 on Netflix. The nomination announcement date is marked by the red line and the award one by the orange one.

Both nomination and award haven’t increased the popularity of the musical. What about other shows which have been nominated, like ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’? We checked TOP50 monthly ranks for the monitored countries in 2021 and 2022: 

As it can be noticed, ‘The Woman in the Window’, one of the Netflix hits, was extremely popular after the release, even if movie critics panned it. Even if the movie was heavily criticized, the magic of heavy advertising and marketing is responsible for high viewership figures. It was also the case of next year's worst picture winner, ‘Blonde’.

‘Blonde’ was heavily criticized for its unnecessary brutality, but it was popular among the viewers, even after revealing that it had got the most nominations for the Golden Raspberry. However, it has equalled in the number of most awards with ‘Elvis’ and ‘Morbius’.

The curse of extremely bad movies has hit in 2023 another renowned franchise - Winnie-the-Pooh. Creation of the ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ movie was possible thanks to the entry of the book written by Alan Alexander Milne into the public domain. It recieved drastically bad reviews, but gained some kind of internet fame. ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ received five Golden Raspberry awards, winning in every category it was nominated.

As it can be noticed, that post awards hype has increased the interest in the movie. Overall viewers' craze about the movie has motivated creators to create its sequel. Another heavily discussed production and most nominated to Golden Raspberry awards in 2024 was fourth entry in the The Expendables series. The franchise is known for casting many stars, but its plot and dialogue got unfavorable reviews. Let’s check how often ‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey‘, ‘Expend4bles’ and other biggest nominations appeared in national TOP50 monthly ranks in 2023 and 2024:

‘Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey’ had a loyal base of fans, but ‘Expend4bles’, thanks to the cast, has catered more to the needs of the mainstream viewers.

The 2024 winner was a low-budget movie, but the 2025 Golden Raspberry Awards focused mostly on flops from the biggest movie studios. ‘Madame Web’ was chosen as the worst movie, which was considered a sign of protest against the wave of mediocre superhero movies. Viewership of the movie has reached its peak a week after getting the award:

But nominations and awards included many more famous productions like ‘Megalopolis’ directed by Francis Ford Coppola or ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ with Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in the cast. Let’s see, how popular they were in 2024 and 2025:

These figures show that even low-rated movies can be popular. Sometimes viewers are tempted by a famous cast, franchise or huge marketing campaign, but there are cases when it appears organically, without any prior reason. Viral culture has helped even bad movies to get their recognition and their own loyal fanbase. And looking at the lasting phenomena of bad movies from the 2000s, productions, which are unknown at the moment, can become classics in the next few years.