Two Scary Numbers Hollywood’s Pretending Not to See
A shrinking Oscars audience and a looming debt bomb
Welcome to the Jamboree, my weekly takes on the industry’s passing parade.
The problem is, we’ve only got so many 9 percents to lose.
That’s the first number.
The Oscar ratings are in, and… rough: down 9 percent from last year’s ceremony, and this with the new Nielsen methodology, which has generally given annual broadcasts slight bumps in the year-to-year data. Even worse: Last year’s best picture winner, Anora, was one of the lowest-grossing winners ever; this year, between winner One Battle and presumed runner-up Sinners, the Oscars had two relatively widely viewed frontrunners ($350 million combined in North American box office), led by real stars who were nominated.
Ten years ago, when Spotlight won best picture, 34 million people watched the Oscars. Two years ago, when Oppenheimer won, it was 19 million.
This year, it’s 17 million.
I’d like to give these last couple of years a mulligan and say it’s all going to be fixed when the Academy moves its ceremony over to YouTube, where surely… the influence of the streaming world will make everything fresh and different! And if Academy leaders don’t do it on their own, those Google execs will knock some heads together and make sure they do.
But I think it’s just as likely that, being handed this august event, YouTube will want to show it’s worthy of such a distinction and bend over backwards to support the most stuffy and pompous parts of the ceremony. (Let every actor in the city come forward and make a speech about the meaning of acting! More writers to say, “It all starts with the words…”)
And as for the Academy, it’ll be freed at last from the threat of low ratings. When has being freed from oversight and results ever motivated anyone to make tough choices?
It’s time to decide: Is this show a fundraiser for the Academy and a PSA for its various branches, or does it exist to serve the larger industry? If the former, that is fine, but maybe we can get a few talented people together and start a show focused on promoting film.
I hear ABC has an opening.
So 9 percent, that’s one number.
The other is $79 billion.
And it might be even scarier.