The 96th Academy Awards took place Sunday night, but as of filing, it was unclear how many people actually watched the annual gala amid years of low viewership and frustration over the heavy-handed political messaging common at such events.
Oscars viewership has steadily fallen from more than 40 million in 2014 to a 21st-century record low of less than 11 million in 2021, according to Statista. While the last two years saw modest upticks, it is unclear whether a substantive recovery is on the horizon.
Theories on the decline in viewership are varied, and it is likely that more than one factor is in play, as reported by The Dallas Express last year.
One theory holds that Americans are fed up with excessively wealthy individuals in the film industry pushing their views on the public. Another asserts that the types of movies selected for Oscar consideration have veered from the films Americans actually care to see. Still another argues that the plethora of content on streaming services has shaken up the media landscape so much that the notion of Hollywood elites handing out awards to each other has been undermined.
Sasha Stone of AwardsDaily wrote in 2022, “The thing that is killing the ratings for the Oscars is that they have become insular, cliquish, and elitist. Everyone knows this, and yet few know what to do about it.”
If this year’s Super Bowl commercials are any indication, there is an appetite for content and corporate messaging outside of the narrow left-wing confines of the high-profile legacy entertainment industry exemplified by Hollywood, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The well-publicized gift bags that insiders receive at award shows like the Oscars have also done Hollywood “elites” no favors, with this year’s gift bags valued at roughly $180,000, per CNBC.
While by no means a comprehensive survey of younger folks, a high school newspaper in New Jersey polled students back in 2022 and found that nearly 60% did not watch the award show that year. The outlet posited that the types of movies featured at the Oscars have changed. Where once the Oscars featured movies that were hugely popular, such as Titanic, today, the films getting nominated are more likely to be obscure.
“The winners for best picture in the previous five years have reflected the trend that best picture winners do not make much money at all at the box office,” online editor Aidan Park wrote. “While monetary success shouldn’t be the driving factor in winning an Oscar, or even being nominated for one, without commercially successful films, people have no reason to watch.”
That same year, The New York Times published an op-ed that argued Americans have lost interest in actors as de facto influencers, particularly since the rise of the superhero genre.
“The possibility of a movie star as a transcendent or iconic figure … seems increasingly dated,” wrote opinion columnist Ross Douthat. “… The genres that used to establish a strong identification between actor and audience — the non-superhero action movie, the historical epic, the broad comedy, the meet-cute romance — have all rapidly declined.”
