The Oscars typically nominate and award movies that aren’t as culturally significant as other movies that come out each year. You can see it in this past year’s nominees and winners. Of the nine films nominated for best picture at this year’s ceremony, none were in the Top-10 of highest grossing films of 2017 domestically. The highest grossing domestic best picture nominee is Dunkirk, which came in at number 14 of the year ($188 million), followed by Get Out at number 15 ($176 million). The Shape of Water, which won best picture at the 2018 Oscars came in at number 47 on the year grossing just under $60 million dollars. I’m not saying that money is the only thing that determines a movie’s success. In fact, many terrible movies often make tons of money if they have a big name, whether it be an actor, director, brand or character associated with it. But, if “The Oscars” want people to tune in to their four-hour ceremony each year, they have got to be more aware of what the typical moviegoer wants, and whether you want to believe it or not, the typical moviegoer will never go to the movie theater to see the films that “The Oscars” love so dearly. This even reflects in the shows’ ratings; according to Deadline, this year’s ceremony “averaged 26.5 million viewers… down 19% from last year’s 32.9 million viewers, a nine-year low.”
The question now is, “How do we get the typical moviegoer to be interested in “The Oscars” and the films being nominated at the ceremony?” It’s a tough question. Obviously, you don’t want to abandon the categories, structure and prestige associated with the ceremony now. But it wouldn’t hurt to maybe add a new category or two that the most popular movies of the year have a shot at winning. Also, the Academy, has got to loosen up a bit. There were so many highly influential movies, actors and directors that could have been nominated this year but weren’t for whatever reason. Movies like, Wonder Woman and It, both were critically acclaimed, cultural phenomenons in 2017 but neither received any nominations. Both had incredible performances, stories or directors associated with them that really should have been recognized. Wonder Woman was the first female-led superhero film, was directed by a woman, and was the third highest grossing film of the year domestically. It could’ve been nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress (for Gal Gadot) or Best Director (for Patty Jenkins). It, which made $327 million domestically and $700 million worldwide on a $35 million budget introduced us to the Bill Skarsgård’s critically acclaimed performance of Pennywise, and was based on Stephen King’s 1986 novel by the same name. Nominations could’ve included Best Picture, Best Actor (for Skarsgård) or Best Adapted Screenplay.
In my opinion, The Oscars can learn a lot from The Grammys because they have found a healthy balance between nominating and awarding commercial and critical successes. This might be because these two overlap more in the music industry, but still I believe the comparison is valid. Think about the past few year’s Album of the Year nominees; Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, Lorde, Childish Gambino, Adele, Beyoncé, Drake, Justin Bieber, Sturgill Simpson, Taylor Swift, Alabama Shakes, Chris Stapelton, The Weeknd. All of these artists are not only being nominated as the “best” in music each year, but they are also putting out songs and albums that the entire country and world love to listen to. This cannot be said for The Oscars and is why I think something needs to change.
- Box Office Stats from: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2017
- 2018 Oscar Stats from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/90th_Academy_Awards#Box_office_performance_of_nominated_films
- Deadline quote: http://deadline.com/2018/03/oscar-ratings-down-all-time-low-viewership-1202310775/
- Grammy Stats from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Album_of_the_Year
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