Moviegoers Weigh in on ‘Lack of Interest’ for This Year’s Oscars
By Movieguide® Staff
After an abysmal showing from the Golden Globes earlier this year, will the Academy Awards fair any better in the rating column? Based on movie fans’ overall interest in the awards show, the answer is no.
“The rising dominance of the streaming services has taken the gloss off the Oscars for me,” George Bailey, an avid movie fan, told the Associated Press. “You just don’t get the same warm fuzzy feeling from when you recognize a movie from the silver screen.”
Although the Oscars has earned millions of viewers each year, the decrease in interest in the annual awards show is apparent.
AP reported:
For much of this century, the Oscars drew 35 million to 45 million viewers, often just behind the Super Bowl. Last year, just before the pandemic was declared, the hostless telecast on ABC was seen by its smallest audience ever, 23.6 million viewers, down 20 percent from the year before.
The pandemic-era Golden Globes a little more than a year later plummeted to 6.9 million viewers, down 64% from last year and barely besting 2008, the year a writer’s strike forced NBC to air a news conference announcing winners. Last year, pre-lockdown, the show had 18.4 million viewers, according to the Nielsen company.
An aspiring screenwriter, John Bennardo, discussed his feelings towards the Oscars with the AP and echoed the general ‘ho-hum’ atmosphere surrounding this year’s ceremony.
“I love the movies and aspire to be on that very Oscars stage receiving my own award some day,” Bennardo said. “I watch each year and take it in, enter contests where I try to pick winners and try to see all the films. But something has changed for this year.”
The AP interviewed other fans of movies whose excitement for the Oscars has dropped.
Priscilla Visintine, 62, said: “Definitely the shuttering of the theaters created my lack of interest this year. I didn’t get any sense of Oscar buzz.”
Other interviewees claim that the “drawn-out runtime,” “a lack of representation,” and “offensive jokes” are further reasons for the steady decline in ratings.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Since 2014, the past six Best Picture Winners have grown steadily more niche, with few exceptions: 12 YEARS A SLAVE (2014), BIRDMAN (2015), SPOTLIGHT (2016), MOONLIGHT (2017), THE SHAPE OF WATER (2018), GREEN BOOK (2019), and PARASITE (2020).
In particular, MOONLIGHT, THE SHAPE OF WATER and PARASITE not only contained immoral content that alienated general audiences, they also tackled serious topics about modern culture.
Movieguide® encourages audiences to exercise discernment because moviegoers have the loudest voice in what movies are released.
The overall aversion to the Oscars supports Movieguide®’s Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry statistics, which show that uplifting movies marketed to families—and that include spiritual values acknowledging God—earn the most money.
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