The ratings have dipped for the Oscar broadcast in each of the last two years and a new poll points to more bad trends for the Academy. A new Harris Poll asking more than 1,000 Americans who they think will win the Oscar for Best Picture found that most Americans believe Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima will take home the big prize.
This is a bizarre and troubling result given the fact that Iwo Jima has yet to crack $10 million dollars at the box office. That means that most of the people who took part in this poll haven’t even seen Letters From Iwo Jima pointing to an viewer apathy that really could put a dent in Oscar watching.
Of course the more damning evidence of viewer apathy comes from the fact that Letters From Iwo Jima actually finished third in the poll. Third behind I don’t know and none of the above. It breaks down like this..
I don’t know 21%
None of the Nominees 20 %
Letters From Iwo Jima 19%
The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine 13%
The Queen 8%
Babel 6%
The numbers come to favor The Departed amongst voters who say they are likely to tune in, which is in line with the box office attention each of the nominated films have received, but that does little to alleviate what is a growing trend of apathy toward the biggest awards show in the industry.
Christopher Kelly, writing in the Fort Worth Star Telegram makes an interesting point that I think illustrates why potential viewers are apathetic. In an article titled "Oscar Voters Can’t Hear Applause?", Kelly talks about the rising number of popular films that were worthy Oscar nominations but were shoved aside by a prevailing attitude that indie and edgy are better than mainstream and popular.
The Pursuit of Happyness, The Devil Wears Prada, Borat, and Casino Royale are all great examples of popular films that were worthy of big category consideration but never gained any kind of buzz during the long run up to the nominations. Dreamgirls, the ultimate in populist appeal seemed to have locked a nomination and somehow got bumped. This is likely attributable to Kelly’s point about the new academy’s favoring of edgy, low budget indies.
Of course, the Oscars are not about mass appeal, but about the best pictures; however, from a purely business standpoint if the Academy chooses its idea of integrity over mass appeal, it will have to deal with audiences that continue to tune it out.
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