Analysis By Dalia Sussman, ABCNews.com

March 20 Its The Green Mile, by an inch.

Thats the popular choice for this years Academy Award for best picture, albeit by the slimmest margin. The adaptation of Stephen Kings supernatural novel just barely edges out the other supernatural contender, The Sixth Sense. American Beauty, tagged by Hollywood insiders as the front-runner, lags in third.

The actual choice, of course, will be made by Academy members. Indeed, many Americans havent seen these movies. A third surveyed had no opinion on what movie should win, which is more than picked any one of the five nominees. And theres a good reason the The Green Mile and The Sixth Sense lead the pack: Theyre the biggest box-office successes of the field, meaning, simply, that more people saw them.

Theres a slight disparity among age groups. Young adults are more apt to favor The Sixth Sense while middle-aged Americans are more likely to pick The Green Mile. Older Americans apparently arent getting out to the movies as much theyre far more likely to have no opinion.

The Oscars air Sunday night, March 26, on ABC.

Methodology

This ABC News.com survey was conducted by telephone March 15-19, 2000, among a random national sample of 1,009 adults. The results have a three-point error margin. Field work by ICR-International Communications Research of Media, Pa