Out With the Oscars
From the print edition of The New American
On March 4, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held their 90th annual awards show, widely known as the Oscars. For nearly four hours on an early March Sunday night, anyone interested could watch extremely well-dressed celebrities, adorned with expensive jewelry, lecture a worldwide television audience about the social and political issues of their choice. Not surprisingly, a lot of folks passed on that honor. The 2018 Oscars broadcast was the lowest-watched in history, down a stunning 19 percent from 2017. The 26.5 million viewers in 2018 trailed the next lowest year, 2008, by more than five million viewers. The annual program, which used to rival the Super Bowl in viewership, has tumbled in importance to the viewing public.
The Oscar-nominated movies suffer from the same public apathy. Only two of the films nominated for Best Picture, Dunkirk (Warner Bros.) and Get Out (Universal Pictures), even netted $100 million at the box office. The last true box-office smash to win the Oscar was 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (New Line), which earned over $377 million. It’s almost as if Hollywood doesn’t care what audiences want anymore. It’s as if the motion-picture industry’s subjective sense of what is good and worthy of recognition trumps what the public wants.
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