Sunday Newsletter: Did the Pandemic Kill Awards Season?
“What is your favourite season?”
“Hm … Awards.”
So quips the character Moira Rose on the sitcom ‘Schitt’s Creek’. But she may be part of a dwindling crowd.
In recent years even the most prestigious awards shows, in particular the Oscars, have been subject to various controversies and declining reach.
Then, the pandemic meant that fewer people were going to the movies. In 2021, the Oscars viewership fell by a massive 58% from the year before.
So, as Awards Season 2022 nears its peak, it remains to be seen if there’ll be a resurgence of interest, or if the pandemic killed the Oscars.
The Background…
Awards season tends to run from November-February in the United States, culminating with the Oscars (although over the past couple of years, the timeline has been thrown off due to the pandemic).
The Oscars (or Academy Awards) are often seen as the most prestigious event of awards season, garnering international recognition for nominees and winners. What would later become known as the first Academy Awards was hosted in 1929, and presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (or AMPAS).
As of 2020, the Academy has grown to nearly 10,000 members, all of whom have experience working in the film industry. They first vote for the candidates, and then the winners.
The Story…
Since first being televised in 1953, the Oscars has seen peaks and valley in its viewership, but rarely dipped below 30 million viewers. And landing a nomination or a win does not just bring prestige, but commercial rewards too. For instance, the South Korean thriller ‘Parasite’ saw a massive 234% increase in ticket sales following its Best Picture win.
But the TV audience for the Oscars has been falling, and in 2021 it hit an all-time low, with a measly 10.4 million viewers.
There are likely a variety of reasons as to why the viewership of the Oscars has dwindled. For one, the movies that tend to resonate the most with audiences at the box office are remakes and comic book adaptations. For example, Disney’s 2019 remake of ‘The Lion King’ became the highest grossing animated film of all time, and was the second-highest grossing film of the year. More recently, 2021’s highest-grossing film was ‘Spiderman: No Way Home’, and 2022’s ‘The Batman’ is the year’s second-highest box office earner so far. These films rarely get Oscar nods in any major categories, particularly not in the coveted Best Picture category.
Analysts have also argued in publications such as The Guardian and The New York Times that the pandemic, which upended release schedules and the marketing circus that accompanies them to make people aware, may have dealt a significant blow to society’s interest in celebrity culture.
Our Coverage…
This year, the Oscars will take place on March 27th, with actresses Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes hosting the event. ‘The Power of the Dog’ has received the most nominations (12 in total), and other heavy hitters include ‘Dune’ and Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ (both remakes of older films).
To learn more about the complex relationship between remakes and the Oscars, listen to this Noa article.
