2007 Oscars: The Apathy Scale
Once again, I heard a news report that the Oscars earned disappointing ratings. That, and we will experience warmer temperatures in spring than we did in winter. Maybe it's also news that five-year-old continue to weigh more than newborns.
In the strictly American fashion, let's have three strikes for the Oscars and some good old fashioned statistics!
Strike 1: the Host. Jon Stewart is a political man. The Daily Show is officially comedy also, but it is really a televised equivalent of the Rush Limbaugh show: entertainment and news intended to support the host's viewpoint. Americans do not want political comentary mixed in with their movies - witness the epic bombs that the recent political and war movies have proved to be. In addition, Jon Stewart was a bad choice for host because the fans' favorite is still around. A recent poll by Entertainment Weekly found that 43% of respondents picked Billy Crystal as their favorite host, Stewart polling third at 17%. Crystal last hosted the Oscars in 2003 when The Return of the King won Best Picture.
Strike 2: the Nominees. The gap between what the fans watch and what the Academy deems watchable is widening considerably. I researched the respective grosses of the nominees at this site:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?page=1&view=releasedate&view2=domestic&yr=2007&p=.htm and found that the median gross for the 21 nominees for the seven major awards was $18 million. Assuming $7 per ticket, roughly 2.5 million people saw "Into the Wild," for instance. The Box Office Mojo site ranks the movies by gross from 1 to 150. Six nominees for major awards - picture, actor/actress, supporting actor/actress, director, screenplay - grossed so little that they fell below #150.
Strike 3: the Winners. Here is where the rubber meets the road: Marion Cotillard won Best Actress for "La Vie en Rose," which ranks 145th in box office gross. All of her fellow nominees except Ellen Page performed in similarly obscure pictures. Only buffs and historians like me will ever know who won Best Actress of 2007. Oscar's Best Picture, No Country for Old Men, is currently America's 40th-best picture, although it is still in theatres. It might exceed $50 million in gross.
If you compare my last posting with the reality, I predicted 6 of the 8 major awards correctly. Obscure movies were nominated, obscure movies won, and every critic knew obscure movies would win. Hence, so few viewers. The Academy has a chance to remedy this problem next year. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian will probably gross well over $100 million and rank in the top 10 in gross. Will it get big nominations, or just a few meaningless technical nods? We shall see.
In the strictly American fashion, let's have three strikes for the Oscars and some good old fashioned statistics!
Strike 1: the Host. Jon Stewart is a political man. The Daily Show is officially comedy also, but it is really a televised equivalent of the Rush Limbaugh show: entertainment and news intended to support the host's viewpoint. Americans do not want political comentary mixed in with their movies - witness the epic bombs that the recent political and war movies have proved to be. In addition, Jon Stewart was a bad choice for host because the fans' favorite is still around. A recent poll by Entertainment Weekly found that 43% of respondents picked Billy Crystal as their favorite host, Stewart polling third at 17%. Crystal last hosted the Oscars in 2003 when The Return of the King won Best Picture.
Strike 2: the Nominees. The gap between what the fans watch and what the Academy deems watchable is widening considerably. I researched the respective grosses of the nominees at this site:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?page=1&view=releasedate&view2=domestic&yr=2007&p=.htm and found that the median gross for the 21 nominees for the seven major awards was $18 million. Assuming $7 per ticket, roughly 2.5 million people saw "Into the Wild," for instance. The Box Office Mojo site ranks the movies by gross from 1 to 150. Six nominees for major awards - picture, actor/actress, supporting actor/actress, director, screenplay - grossed so little that they fell below #150.
Strike 3: the Winners. Here is where the rubber meets the road: Marion Cotillard won Best Actress for "La Vie en Rose," which ranks 145th in box office gross. All of her fellow nominees except Ellen Page performed in similarly obscure pictures. Only buffs and historians like me will ever know who won Best Actress of 2007. Oscar's Best Picture, No Country for Old Men, is currently America's 40th-best picture, although it is still in theatres. It might exceed $50 million in gross.
If you compare my last posting with the reality, I predicted 6 of the 8 major awards correctly. Obscure movies were nominated, obscure movies won, and every critic knew obscure movies would win. Hence, so few viewers. The Academy has a chance to remedy this problem next year. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian will probably gross well over $100 million and rank in the top 10 in gross. Will it get big nominations, or just a few meaningless technical nods? We shall see.
posted by Bountyhawk at 7:34 AM
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