Whether you’ve seen some or all of the movies nominated at the Academy Awards Ceremony seems to influence actually watching the awards ceremony. Many of the nominated movies were unheard of by viewers until the ceremony aired. Perhaps the ceremony itself is an attempt at recognition and promotion of films for viewers to alas check out at the movie theatres. Fewer people watch television than ever before. Since the early 2000s, fewer people watch regular television stations. When they do watch television, there are more choices without commercials such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Hulu, etc. More movies and television is available on demand, without commercials. Thus, the promotion of the newest release movies gets viewed a lot less than twenty+ years ago. If less people are watching commercials then they are not often hearing about these new movies.
Another reason viewership has decreased is when favorite movies are overlooked, and movies unheard of are chosen instead for nominations. If movies or the actors/actresses who act in them support any politicians or political movements that viewers do not agree with. Other than Top Gun’s Maverick and Avatar being some top viewed favorites, there were many others this year nobody had ever heard of. But that was not always the case.
Titanic was a favorite among movie goers. In 1998, over 55 million viewers watched The Academy Awards Ceremony to see if Titanic would win, and in fact, it won eleven Oscar awards out of the fourteen it was nominated for. The Titanic won best picture with Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio.
Perhaps in an attempt to gain increased viewership ratings, Titanic is made an appearance with a 25th anniversary re-release in theatres just in time for Valentine’s Day this year. Actors and actresses cannot win another Oscar for the same performance in the same movie however. Few remakes of movies get nominations for awards either. However, movies that are released close to the Academy Awards Ceremonies often have a higher chance of getting nominations, especially if released in the fall, according to goldderby.com
According to statista.com “In 2023, around 18.7 million Americans watched the Academy Awards ceremony. Oscars viewership fluctuates year by year, however the last time the ceremony drew in a U.S. audience of more than 40 million was back in 2014. The figure recorded in 2021 was the lowest yet, and marked a drop-off of over 50 percent from the 2020 audience”.
There has been a decline in viewership since 2000, the year it was at an all-time high of 46.33 million viewers. Social media coverage has proven effective during the ceremony, and also before and leading up to the event. Social media coverage brings forth viewer conversations about the awards ceremony during the ceremony, and potential viewers that see social media posts will turn on the television station to see what they are missing. We call this FOMO. Fear Of Missing Out. It’s huge. Right now you are thinking of googling more information on the ceremony for this exact reason.
Stats provided from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/253743/academy-awards–number-of-viewers/#:~:text=In%202023%2C%20around%2018.7%20million,million%20was%20back%20in%202014.
