How can the Oscars get their Ratings back.

[Vakanai]

Your user name checks out.

We've kind of been talking about that up thread. Have the Oscars changed or have tastes changed? I'd say it's a little bit of both. You say you haven't heard of the films from 2010 on? Well, what would you nominate from that period. I'd imagine that for the most part, they would be the types of movies that the Academy has avoided for its entire history. I would argue that you have likely changed a bit as a film viewer. Perhaps you're a bit less adventurous. Because even as far back as last year, they were nominating Scorsese films and Tarantino films and Spielberg films. It's not like these are obscure filmmakers.

But also, the film landscape has changed. The middle has been surgically removed from cinemas. But more importantly, the movies Hollywood is spending money on making are not movies worthy of Oscars, in my opinion. The most expensive movie of 2000 was Mission Impossible II (which falls more in line with what's happening today), but the second most expensive movie was Gladiator. In 2019, the second most expensive movie was Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. No one is shelling out 250 million dollars to make an original movie that would get the attention of the Academy anymore. 2003 was the last time that one of the Top Grossing movies won an Oscar and there have been only 2 nominees that have been on the Top Grossing movies list since 2009. Again, I ask is the problem the Oscars or is the problem the industry?

Joker was a top grossing movie and won two Oscars. Although that one is a special case.

[C_Miller]

Joker was a top grossing movie and won two Oscars. Although that one is a special case.

I was specifically talking Best Picture, but yeah, you're right. That was one of the 2 nominees since 2009 which was a Top 10 Grossing movie. Which also wasn't entirely true. I forgot about 2018 which had two movies from the Top 10 nominated for Best Picture. However, 2018 was a polarizing Oscars and casual film fans as well as big Oscar nerds were pretty upset with those picks too, which goes to prove that you really can't please anyone when you have to sum up a year's worth of films into no more than 10 movies.

That said, I am genuinely interested what people want nominated now. If your list from 2019 would have included Avengers Endgame, Captain Marvel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, John Wick Chapter 3, or things of that ilk, I don't know if there will be a way to bring the two groups together. I mean, I still think 2019 was about as close to perfection as you can get. Parasite, Ford v. Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood felt like the closest that we'll get to those medium movies making a come back. The Irishman and Marriage Story appeared on streaming, so it's hard to say, but it was Scorsese going back to his roots and Marriage Story was an updated take on Kramer vs. Kramer, which was the highest grossing movie and Best Picture winner in 1980.

[Surf]

2007 (the Departed) is the last movie I have seen that the Oscar's nominated for best picture. (I was excited when it won)

I think No Country for old men, or slum dog millionaire is the last movies I heard of nominated for best picture (Still haven't seen them)

Hmmp, speaking of a username, It's it rich a guy who goes by Captain Nostalgia hasn't ever seen No Country for Old Men? A period movie set in 1980 no less.

If you like The Departed, then you might have a new favorite film in the wings.

For me The Departed doesn't have much re-watch value like a pair of other Scorsesse joints. Casino is my favorite movie of his and a personal top 5 all time. I've sat through cable edits of Goodfellas on Lifetime.

No Country is fuckin' fantastic, brutal but fantastic. Love all of Carla Jean's lines.

"I got a bad feeling, Llewelyn."
Then Thanos is all "Well I got a good feeling, so that should even out."

[AndrewCrossett]

There should be an award show especially for genre shows... SF, fantasy, superhero, horror, animated, etc. Both movies and TV/streaming. I think maybe the Hugos give out prizes for those but nobody pays attention because it's mostly focused on writing. This would be like a parallel Oscars for geeks, with most of the same categories but focused on speculative storytelling.

[Vakanai]

There should be an award show especially for genre shows... SF, fantasy, superhero, horror, animated, etc. Both movies and TV/streaming. I think maybe the Hugos give out prizes for those but nobody pays attention because it's mostly focused on writing. This would be like a parallel Oscars for geeks, with most of the same categories but focused on speculative storytelling.

That's an award show I'd watch.

[DrNewGod]

Honestly, the Oscars should return to their roots and revert to a private industry insiders' event at a large banquet facility. Live stream clips of the exclusive event licensed to YouTube and Facebook would probably pull more ad dollars than televising it (or even streaming it) ever again will.

Of course, returning the Oscars to its roots also probably returns it to being a power contest between various factions as to who can extort the most votes. But then, that never actually changed.

[Captain Nostalgia]

Your user name checks out.

We've kind of been talking about that up thread. Have the Oscars changed or have tastes changed? I'd say it's a little bit of both. You say you haven't heard of the films from 2010 on? Well, what would you nominate from that period. I'd imagine that for the most part, they would be the types of movies that the Academy has avoided for its entire history. I would argue that you have likely changed a bit as a film viewer. Perhaps you're a bit less adventurous. Because even as far back as last year, they were nominating Scorsese films and Tarantino films and Spielberg films. It's not like these are obscure filmmakers.

But also, the film landscape has changed. The middle has been surgically removed from cinemas. But more importantly, the movies Hollywood is spending money on making are not movies worthy of Oscars, in my opinion. The most expensive movie of 2000 was Mission Impossible II (which falls more in line with what's happening today), but the second most expensive movie was Gladiator. In 2019, the second most expensive movie was Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. No one is shelling out 250 million dollars to make an original movie that would get the attention of the Academy anymore. 2003 was the last time that one of the Top Grossing movies won an Oscar and there have been only 2 nominees that have been on the Top Grossing movies list since 2009. Again, I ask is the problem the Oscars or is the problem the industry?

I suspect the decline of the movie industry has a lot of to do with it.

As far as the political stuff goes, Hollywood does tend to be a few steps left to the average democrat let alone republican, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is some far left credo going on....but as I have not followed the Oscar's for over a decade, I can't comment on it.

I think the decline of the Oscars (If they are indeed in decline) is more likely to do with what you touched upon. The movie industry in general has been hit hard by illegal streaming, downloading, and in general people not wanting to go to theatres to see films anymore....

so imagine it's not just blockbuster movies that are in decline, but probably a lot of the alternative and creative scripts are getting turned aside. As a music person I can vouch for this by saying the it wasn't big pop stars like Kayne West who went in decline, but rather alternative creative bands like Portishead....in a declining industry, business doesn't want to take the risk on something different.

[Rev9]

My solution would be to split Oscars into broader categories like 'Peer choice edition(directors/screen writers/actors selecting) 'Critics choice edition(critics,cinemaphiles) and 'People's choice edition' (fan polls).Right now I feel there is a high table deciding what movies are Oscar worthy that just don't convince me as a transparent or consultative or a broad consensus reaching process

[LordMikel]

Here is a good article that basically says what I feel. Movies should be nominated for Oscars because everyone is seeing it and saying it is good, and not, no one has seen it and some critics are saying it is good.

But nominate more popular movies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...2e9_story.html

When you look through the article and focus on the 70's, which had great movies that won, that says a lot.

Also I feel, "Best Stunts" would be a great new category.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/its-...nts-oscar.html

I don't even understand reluctance here.

[inisideguy]

Its really a new world out there. The oscars are an archaic awards thing that less and less people care about. So not sure there is an answer. I don't care about them. I will browse who won in some categories and maybe try and check a flick out but there is so much stuff to watch anymore its just not as important.

[inisideguy]

Here is a good article that basically says what I feel. Movies should be nominated for Oscars because everyone is seeing it and saying it is good, and not, no one has seen it and some critics are saying it is good.

But nominate more popular movies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...2e9_story.html

When you look through the article and focus on the 70's, which had great movies that won, that says a lot.

Also I feel, "Best Stunts" would be a great new category.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/its-...nts-oscar.html

I don't even understand reluctance here.

Those ideas might give them a temporary boost. But really I don't think the younger generation cares who is nominated or wins awards.

[green_garnish]

It's really funny how much the Oscars make people angry. It is so easy to not care about them. It is the easiest thing that you will ever do in your life.

Angry? I am ambivalent. I don't care about them, as you say.

The Oscar's were - and still are too a great extent - an insider event. Who do my peers think did the best job in my field?

That's a reasonably valid award. But when it became a public spectacle, the votes were cast - and received - with an entirely different intent.

[Powerboy]

I was specifically talking Best Picture, but yeah, you're right. That was one of the 2 nominees since 2009 which was a Top 10 Grossing movie. Which also wasn't entirely true. I forgot about 2018 which had two movies from the Top 10 nominated for Best Picture. However, 2018 was a polarizing Oscars and casual film fans as well as big Oscar nerds were pretty upset with those picks too, which goes to prove that you really can't please anyone when you have to sum up a year's worth of films into no more than 10 movies.

That said, I am genuinely interested what people want nominated now. If your list from 2019 would have included Avengers Endgame, Captain Marvel, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, John Wick Chapter 3, or things of that ilk, I don't know if there will be a way to bring the two groups together. I mean, I still think 2019 was about as close to perfection as you can get. Parasite, Ford v. Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood felt like the closest that we'll get to those medium movies making a come back. The Irishman and Marriage Story appeared on streaming, so it's hard to say, but it was Scorsese going back to his roots and Marriage Story was an updated take on Kramer vs. Kramer, which was the highest grossing movie and Best Picture winner in 1980.

It's genuinely interesting because I think the Academy should nominate the movies they genuinely believe are the best ones regardless of popularity. But, again, we're talking about how they could increase their ratings for the Oscars ceremony. Of those movies you listed, I saw Avengers: Endgame, Godzilla and Captain Marvel. I haven't seen any of the others. For me, there is no fix to this. The only time I care is when threads like this start and only because it's something to discuss. I genuinely don't have any interest in forcing myself to watch movies I'm not interested in just because I "should" watch them.

I do get a bit miffed when self-important celebrities lecture people about how certain movies should be made less so people will have less of a choice and have to watch their movies for lack of choice, which is what it really amounts to regardless of how they phrase it.

Interestingly enough, I haven't watched the People's Choice Awards in decades either (do they still exist?) because everybody knows they're the blue collar awards for the peasant movies that aren't invited into the castle. Though I kind of wish they'd just call the People's Choice winners "Best" instead of "favorite" because that's giving power to the Oscars just by that choice of words.

[Frobisher]

First off, does it really matter whether people watch the Oscars? As mentioned, it’s fundamentally an insider bash where the studios battle over the prestige of winning awards. There’s little point in using the ceremony to promote the big blockbuster films, because they already have our money, so it kind of reverts by default to being something resembling an artistic contest.

As the mid-budget films don’t really exist anymore, this has recently meant that the nominations go to these super low budget films, which are basically art house, but still bankrolled and executive produced by the studio system. As this year basically all of these films have gone to streaming, I’ve seen more of them than usual. Mank, Sound Of Metal and Nomadland are really good, in very different ways, and I’m glad there is a space for film like this to exist still. However, these are not crowd pleasers (a friend said she found Nomadland boring - “nothing happened”), and the Oscars are not shaping what people watch by championing low budget films - the market does that itself.

If Oscar viewership is down, might it just be that people are not so interested in watching the self-indulgence of the stars and glitterati ponce around on the red carpet anymore? And maybe that’s a good thing.

[C_Miller]

Here is a good article that basically says what I feel. Movies should be nominated for Oscars because everyone is seeing it and saying it is good, and not, no one has seen it and some critics are saying it is good.

But nominate more popular movies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...2e9_story.html

When you look through the article and focus on the 70's, which had great movies that won, that says a lot.

Also I feel, "Best Stunts" would be a great new category.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/08/its-...nts-oscar.html

I don't even understand reluctance here.

See, that's where we're going to disagree. I think good movies are still winning. People just aren't seeing them. Which comes down to the question of are the popular movies getting worse or are audiences' tastes changing?

I really want someone to give me their alternate Best Picture nominations. I've asked a couple of times and no one has really given an answer. The Dark Knight has been brought up a couple of times, but that was over a decade ago.