The 2023 Oscars left us another year with a nondescript gala where favorite films in the pool won prizes. Some favourites, yes, that have particularly attracted attention this year due to the lack of titles with special appeal and even repercussions at the box office.
Avatar: Water Sense And Top Shooter Maverick They stood out as representatives blockbusters among 10 titles nominated, but none of them ever had a ticket for the figurine. Finally, All at once everywhere This is the best film of 2023 according to the Academy..
Best movie of the year? The brightest? Have you given any preference to the impulse to represent new cultures, visions, in the face of an obvious historical trend that the Academy is trying to get rid of? Who knows. We’re not here for that, but we’re here to test the ever widening gap between box office results and Oscar results. Something that certainly also makes the gala itself and its winners less and less interesting.
We will do it with data. The following graph shows the evolution since titanic (1997) to present, featuring a collection of Oscar-winning films for Best Picture:
The trend is clear. From titanic James Cameron, which was the highest-grossing film in history until the first part Avatar and after the cycle Avengers: Endgame from Marvel to the meager collections of this year's award-winning film, codewho barely had a bypass through the rooms, parasites or green booktwo award-winning films before the pandemic-induced context change.
Only gladiatorand the third tape Lord of the Rings (Return of the King), whose award was seen as the test of the entire trilogy at the time, seem to be milestones. But among other names, the trend is bearish.
There are many reasons. The impact of the pandemic on cinema attendance is most evident, apart from the emergence of streaming platforms. streaming. But the split between the box office and the Oscars is also evidenced by the comments and tug-of-war that have surfaced around superhero films, for example.
If it were possible to designate a turning point, it would undoubtedly be 2009, when Avatar - that she really considered herself the favorite at that moment - she knelt before Locker for the wounded.
Round trip: Winning an Oscar no longer makes people run to the movies
However, this also causes a trip in reverse. Winning films also don't generate much interest once they've been awarded or nominated.
From the announcement of the nominations at the end of January to the gala concert, The 10 nominees for this year's best picture grossed $82 million at the box office. in the United States. Of this amount, 71 million is accounted for by Avatar: Water Sense. For more context, the film collected more $2.2 billion globally.
By comparison, in 2020, before the pandemic, nominees grossed about $201 million at the US box office after nominating in mid-January. The Oscars were presented on February 9 of that year, weeks before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and labor began.
A completely different scenario compared to what it was in the past. For example, films like 1917, hidden figures And The good side of thingswho were nominated for that award alone brought in 50% or more of their box office earnings after receiving the nomination.
This year, all but one of the Best Picture nominees earned less than 13% of the box office after nomination.. They say, one of the lowest-budget top-winning films, generated 77% of the gross after nominations. That is about 3.9 million dollars.
It is likely that most of this demand was transferred to streaming and rental options. But even against all odds, evolution exists, further separating the Academy from the public, on a journey that takes each of them years on different paths.
Source: Hiper Textual
