If you grew up with any interest in movies at all, chances are you have heard of the Oscars. The so-called most prestigious night in Hollywood, the award that marks the pinnacle of film. It is the dream of almost everyone who works in film to get an Oscar, or so they say. It is a grand event that would be the talk of entertainment for weeks on end. Or, at least it was. Nowadays, nobody seems to care much about the Oscars. The shows ratings have fallen to a miserable 10 million, and there does not seem to be any sign of improvement. Ad revenue keeps falling, controversies keep happening, and there’s just a general vibe that, like Hollywood, the Oscars are out of touch with their audience. So what gives? What happened to the most prestigious night in film, and is there any way to revive the now failing show? Well, to answer that, we’ll have to look at some of its problems.
Now there is a whole host of problems peope have with the show for a start, but one problem tend not to talk about as much is the show itself. For starters, the show itself is super long, extending to nearly 3 hours in some years. As well, it seems like everything in the show takes too long to do, whether it be speeches, or having to cover every single category in the awards. There is also the red carpet, which only purpose nowadays is to only make the show run even longer. Luckily, this issue seems to be getting resolved in recent outing. However, while the oscars have done actions in recent years to try and mitigate the length of the show, they have not subsequently done much to make the show any more interesting. For starters, people can already guess what’s going to win at the Oscars. The Oscars are always the last show in awards season, so you already had other movie award shows like the Golden Globes to indicate which films are more likely to win awards. As well, the presentation is not that thrilling if your not into celebrity culture much. It’s just giving out awards and occasional skits, with a host that is usually predictable and somewhat unfunny. Even if you come for celeb stuff, you can probably get more insight from celebs through their Twitter/X account. All they will say on the carpet is just some boring statement. Keep in mind as well with all of this that you can only engage with it through TV. There is no streaming allowed unless with the channel, and people wonder why nobody watches the Oscars.
Although, how many people actually continue to watch TV anyways? With cord cutting at an all time high, anything reliant on TV has been going down with it. That brings us to another issue for the Oscars: they don’t matter to people anymore. One of the ways they don’t matter is through the nominees. Often, these are films released by indie studios, or are hardly known outside of niche film afficionados. Some of them don’t even have a wide release until the new year, or will end up on streaming. These types of films are not what the average Joe generally sees, as they usually only go to movies to see superhero, or other spectacle films. On top of that, these films often have little in the way of a marketing budget, or end up on streaming, competing with Stranger Things and having little fanfare for their release.
The industry, however, cares more about pushing these obscure movies for Oscars rather than films that can garner widespread financial, as well as critical success. Titanic was the first movie to make 2 billion dollars while also winning 11 Oscars. In fact, a lot of crowd pleasers like Rocky, Star Wars, and Jaws got nominated in the past. Why is it then that the Oscars decide to emphasize niche films over stuff with mass appeal now? So, already there is a disconnect in taste between the audience and the films nominated. This point, as well, brings us to another; is that people simply don’t go to the movies much anymore. Unless it is to see some spectacle release, people will not show up. Tickets are so expensive these days, with snack price not included, that’s it’s not worth it to see any other movie that is not a superhero film. On top of that, if you want to watch something more dramatic and artsy, there’s always a streaming service. Movies just don’t seem to matter to audiences these days in a world of streaming shows and expensive costs. With that fading interest in film, so is there a fading interest in the Oscars. Hence, like the industry, it seems like the Oscars are going to go bust.
I don’t think the Oscars are going to disappear completely. However, I do think they are going to fade into the background. That is, at least, until the film industry can get itself back together and make itself relevant. The Oscars are just a microcosm of Hollywood’s irrelevancy, and if the Oscars are to truly rise back to the top, Hollywood is gonna have to do the same beforehand. Even more than that, though, the Oscars will need to change to be relevant. It will have to learn how to cater to average joes alongside film buffs. It’s going to be a difficult road ahead, but with some risk taking, it could not only lead to stability, but maybe, to greatness.
References:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/oscars-streaming-ratings-academy-awards-1.6775794
https://www.looper.com/112576/people-stopped-watching-oscars