Mark Wahlberg on board with the Oscars' popular film category

Los Angeles: Actor Mark Wahlberg has defended the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' decision to include a new category for outstanding achievement in popular film.

The new award category will likely help the major box office draws that fail to get nominated or awarded in main category.

While the new award has already attracted plenty of detractors in Hollywood, the 47-year-old actor believes it is a good thing.

"Maybe if they'd had the category before, we'd have won a couple of them, Wahlberg told Variety at the premiere of his new film "Mile 22". 

"We've had some really commercially successful films that we think certainly warranted that kind of notoriety. We make films that we want people to enjoy and if we get those kind of accolades, fantastic. If not, we make the movies for audiences to enjoy," he added.

The two-time Oscar nominated actor also said that there were a lot of great films which were very popular and "probably deserve the recognition".