‘Succession’ closes the deal and other big takeaways from the 2024 Golden Globe Awards

Beyond the practical aspect of the Golden Globes, which advanced “Oppenheimer” (especially) and “Poor Things” in their Oscar campaigns and began the “Succession” farewell tour, Sunday’s televised ceremony reinforced the notion that Hollywood has a hard time quitting those who lavish honors upon it.

Although this marked the 81st edition of the Globes, comparisons to previous ceremonies should come with an asterisk. That’s because of sweeping changes the Globes have undergone as an organization, phasing out the scandal-plagued Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. (HFPA) and establishing a revised and expanded voting group under new management, Dick Clark Productions.

Granted, not everyone got the memo, with three of the winners thanking the HFPA, while Robert Downey Jr. made the most overt reference to the scandal from the recipients, thanking the Globes for cleaning up its act.

That said, after staying away from the ceremony, which briefly left TV and shifted this year from NBC to CBS, Hollywood again turned out in force, with top talent filling the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The tone, however, felt somewhat subdued, despite a clear desire to buttress the Globes’ reputation as more of a party than stuffier, higher-stakes Academy Awards, with the voiceover announcer joking, “Censors will be standing by.”

They weren’t needed, nor was there much in the way of political statements. The night got off to an awkward start from which it never entirely recovered, with host Jo Koy’s stand-up material falling flat, underscoring why comics and other talent haven’t been lining up to take on these gigs in the modern era.

Despite the turmoil surrounding the Golden Globes, they structurally accomplished something that the Oscars have tried to do but couldn’t: Creating a category to include movies that achieved box-office success (more than $150 million worldwide), which have found nominations scarce in recent years.

“Barbie,” the year’s box-office champ, won that inaugural prize, giving director Greta Gerwig, star Margot Robbie and company a chance to take a bow, while nabbing a second statuette for best song for Billie Eilish. The Academy Awards notably floated a similar “popular film” plan in 2018 hoping to boost ratings, before its board nixed the idea. (“Barbie” is distributed by Warner Bros., like CNN, a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

The other half of the “Barbenheimer” box-office juggernaut had the better night award-wise, augmenting its status in a wide-open Oscar year. The film’s five victories included Downey, Cillian Murphy in the title role, musical score and director Christopher Nolan, receiving his first Globe after six nominations. Nolan thanked the studio, Universal, for seeing “potential in very challenging material,” transforming a three-hour historical epic about the nuclear bomb into a commercial sensation.

The whimsical “Poor Things” also received a boost, doubling up its win for musical or comedy movie with another for star Emma Stone. Among other key acting races, Lily Gladstone took home the sole Globe for director Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” in a historic acknowledgement of a Native-American actor; and Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph won for “The Holdovers,” reuniting the former with “Sideways” director Alexander Payne.

Historically, the Hollywood Foreign Press gave its selections a strong international flavor, a trend that seemed to survive its membership changes. That included a best screenplay win for France’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” Japan’s “The Boy and the Heron” claiming best animated movie and Ricky Gervais (a past Globes host) snagging a newly created award for stand-up specials.

Elsewhere in television, the final season of “Succession” (another Warner Bros. Discovery property) tuned up for next week’s Emmys by garnering four awards, more than any other series, including best drama and for stars Sarah Snook, Kieran Culkin and Matthew Macfadyen. There were similar sweeps by the limited series “Beef” and comedy “The Bear,” with three each.

The Globes have always recognized both movies and television, though its calendar placement during the run-up period to the Oscars has traditionally made the show most closely watched as a bellwether for the films that get recognized. Academy Award nominations will be announced on January 23.

This year, the Emmys will actually follow the Globes on January 15, having been postponed four months due to the writers and actors strikes. The TV industry’s top prize was last delayed in 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Voting for the Emmys has long since been completed. In fact, the Television Academy handed out honors primarily in technical areas over the weekend, with HBO’s new drama “The Last of Us” topping all programs with eight awards, including guest-actor honors for Nick Offerman and Storm Reid.