Decker

I know some of you said you weren't interested in watching, but how about..... now?

dex14

I thought this was an interesting piece.

GoldenJCJ

Is the Academy TRYING to sabotage this whole thing?!

Seriously, is this like a plan to get out of the abc deal or something? Or are they just cool with dumbing it down enough that there won’t be a difference between the Academy Awards and the MTV Movie awards?

Draven

Again, you can have ratings or you can only nominate “prestige” movies for the biggest categories. You can’t have both. They seem like they are grasping at anything to draw a number (besides nominating movies the general public care about, of course).

These days a black and white Netflix release that only played for a weekend in NYC would get a Best Picture slot over “Titanic”.

rocket1312

The problem is that there is no Titanic. And as long as people won't go to the theaters to see anything that isn't a franchise, there won't be. You've been personally dancing on the grave of movie theaters for a while, but this is the new reality. We get a handful of big budget franchises to keep the studios' lights on and the rest is either low budget pap or awards bait. And who knows what will happen when Netflix finally wins best picture this year, realizes it's not all that it's cracked up to be and turns off the money faucet.

For those complaining about the nominations, what movie should the academy have nominated? Spider-Man? Anything else?

Decker

I didn't think it was a particularly great movie, but just a couple of years ago Bohemian Rhapsody came out and it was a huge commercial hit ($911M Worldwide) and a BP nominee and front-runner. So I don't think the Titanic scenario is out of the question these days.
But yeah a lot of tiny films are dominating the awards right now. I liked Coda well enough, but did I think it was going to be the BP front runner? No I certainly did not.

GoldenJCJ

Sure, I get that but it seems like the AMPAS is trying to have it both ways. If they want to be the Blockbuster Awards or the Kids Choice Awards, fine but then stop pretending they’re above those awards. You can’t have pro-skaters/snowboarders as presenters and have a “Most Popular Film” category that’s voted for online and also nominate a 3 hour foreign language drama as Best Picture.

I know how meaningless the Oscars are and yet I still hold them to a higher standard than other awards. For instance, I know all the shitty campaigning producers do, how the Academy voters don’t even watch all the BP nominees, etc. but I’ll still go out of my way to see all the Best Picture nominees that I don’t do for other awards.

Maybe I’m just salty that of the two choices the Academy could choose to go with this (ratings or prestige) they’re choosing the one that I personally despise.

JeffTheAlpaca

I can see this getting huge ratings on the West Coast with the sun still out from 5-7:30pm

It is weird as fuck to watch the Oscars in the afternoon and stupid.

Decker

1) That is called a live broadcast and is in Prime Time in 2/3 of the country.
2) It's been like that forever, including when 40M people watched the telecast.
3) What is your better solution?

windom

They could do it before DST starts, which they had been doing for a while not too long ago.

JeffTheAlpaca

It if was in Feb that would be better and in ancient times in the 90's they did it in March when there was no DST until April.

I think the ratings will shatter last years low rating and reach a new low.

Decker

It would be impossible to “shatter “ last year’s low ratings as viewership dropped 57% from the previous all time low rating from a record low 21M viewers to less than 10M. It has to go up this year, but probably not by much.

JayTL

I think it's fully possible. The academy is trying to appeal to a larger audience, but they don't care. And people who do care? Just want to see who wins and some speeches.

I think the best thing they can do is embrace the niche audience- go full Tony Awards. Make it a song & dance (not necessarily literally) show- be a love letter to movies. Make it a show about the magic of movies, don't just say "we love movies"...actually love movies.

I don't get that feeling anymore with these shows. They should be focused on the telecast for next year already, get that host, and start to prepare things that aren't the actual awards...that's should be the only thing we don't know. By the time they look and get a host and presenters, we all know it's just shottily thrown together without them caring.

I don't know if it's an academy issue, or an ABC issue, or both.

Jaymole

I remember when the Academy awards were on a Monday and at the same time as the Final of the NCAA tournament.

TomOpus

I remember that too.

A local theater is showing it on the big screen for free (of course). I wonder if it would be worth it.

Draven

Spider-Man definitely needed a nod. If The Dark Knight and Return of the King can get nods, Spider-Man needs one too.

JayTL

Would nominations even matter? No one would think it would win. Even if it was nominated, would millions more people tune in just to watch?

The average consumer tuned out. They'll get the list of winners on Twitter....if they even care about who wins

Decker

The Dark Knight didn't get one. That's the main reason the BP field was increased from 5 to 10.

Decker

It's not like this year is without a huge popular blockbuster with multiple nominations. Dune made $400M in a pandemic and despite being on HBO. It still isn't making people tune in to watch. And as it turns out, all the awards it will win will be in tape delayed, edited segments anyway.

Draven

Sorry, you’re right. I was thinking of Ledger.

Still, the point stands - there’s no reason a franchise comic book movie can’t get a nod. I’d argue they are more challenging to make well than most of the BP nominees in any given year.

CyberpunkCentra

So Diddy, DJ Khaled, Shawn Mendes get to go to the Oscars, but not Rachel Zegler!?!?!

Decker

As a star of a BP nominee, she gets to go. Just not present, which is stupid, I agree.

My wife's best friend is neighbors and friends with Matthew Lillard. When The Descendants got nominated, he and his wife got to go to the show, which I thought was pretty cool.
Edit : Asked my wife. Just Shaggy got to go, no date.

dex14

No she doesn't. https://deadline.com/2022/03/west-si...et-1234982796/

Decker

Well I guess the invites have changed in the past 10 years.

rocket1312

So let's pretend Spider-Man gets a nod. Is there anything else that was both popular and deserving? Anything at all? I certainly don't see anything that even comes close in the top 50 box office. Maybe House of Gucci, but that wasn't particularly popular or particularly good.

So is this all just about Spider-Man? Is the Academy suddenly "in touch" with that one single nomination?