"That's what killed Dennis Day....Contempt for the audience!"
Posted on 02/09/2023 10:33:22 AM PST by Borges
The Oscars have been in shocking decline for years—from plummeting ratings, representation issues, the irrelevance of Old Hollywood in the face of streamers (not to mention the Andrea Riseborough controversy, Envelopegate and Will Smith’s handsy tantrum). Recently, Former Paramount CEO Barry Diller offered his own prognosis of the beleaguered industry showcase. Spoiler alert: The situation’s terminal.
“It’s an antiquity,” the current IAC and Expedia chairman told Firing Line‘s Margaret Hoover of the awards process. Citing the Riseborough Affair, Diller noted the internal collapse the movie and awards-show industry have long been suffering. “All awards ceremonies were based on this hierarchical process of a movie going to a theater, building up some word of mouth if it was successful, having that word of mouth carry itself over,” Diller said. “That path no longer exists.”
This isn’t the first time Diller has warned that the sky is falling on the film industry. In 2021, he proclaimed to NPR that the movie business was dead with no path toward revival. Where some may lay blame on increasing ticket prices, the pandemic, the surge of streaming platforms’ critical and consumer popularity, Diller notes the perfect storm created by all of these, underscored by the quality over quantity dilemma.
“I used to be in the movie business where you made something really because you cared about it,” he told NPR. The very definition of movie, he went on, “is in such transition that it doesn’t mean anything right now.”
The sudden cultural ambiguity of movies and how we both define and value them is having an impact on how we access them as well. Last year, Regal Cinemas parent company Cineworld Group filed for bankruptcy after struggling with low admissions and a limited slate of films. As a result, nearly 40 theaters across the country will be shuttered this month. Meanwhile, the number of movies released to more than 2,000 theaters is down more than 30 percent from 2018 and 2019.
So what does all this have to do with the Academy Awards? Part of it comes down to the fact that the show won audiences by relying on a correlation between a movie’s popularity and its success on the awards show circuit. “That disappeared a while ago,” Diller said. As a result, “[The Oscars] are no longer a national audience worth its candle because that audience is no longer interested.”
Though the Academy recently welcomed a new CEO, Bill Kramer, intent on embracing change so as not to be capsized by it, the question now involves what, exactly, would have to change to recapture interest. “This is a different moment in time for the film industry,” Kramer told LAMag recently. “We’ve just survived a pandemic; theatrical releases don’t look the way they used to… Streaming is becoming a big part of our life. We need to evolve and be at the center of those conversations while still recognizing and supporting and preserving cinema. I think we can do all of that.”
And though the Oscars could keep limp along for a while yet, that particular fondling of trophies is already too sad for many to see. When asked what, if anything, the celebrity gala could do anything to survive, Diller replied that the ceremony’s only chance is to aim for a smaller, less discerning audience:
“It should be for the industry,” he said, “and not for the consumers.”
Diller knows this business like the back of his hand and does not mince words.
Oscars? You mean the Hate Trump three hours? Add with a diatribe of hate hillbilly Racist Republicans? No, I don’t watch them or their preachy movies.
The “movie” industry isn’t dead, the theater industry is dead. Think of it as an offshoot of the WFH craze. If young people liked going out why would they have taco orders driven to them.
They went woke and we know what happens next.
Don’t tell Diller that the real reason we don’t go is ‘cuz nobody wants to be politically harangued instead of being entertained.
His head will explode when he gets that.
That is how the Pulitzer Prizes work. OTOH, their awards ceremony doesn't do much in the way of audience share.
Strange how the analysis in that article misses the obvious - insulting half your viewers is not a recipe for success.
These idiots are truly clueless. Go woke go broke.
“[A]im for a smaller less discerning audience”? Guffaw! Most of us know woke crap when we see it.
They should take it back to a restaurant and do it privately we don’t need to see these Stinkers
Maverick was good. Cruise even thanks people before the movie for coming to see it in theaters.
Imagine that.
When I have a big screen, surround sound and Blu Ray copies of Casablanca and other classics, why spend the $ and go out?
Think of the revitalized careers of dead actors, using their voices and likenesses "filmed" on virtual sets. No more primadonna demands, no more petulance, no more preening, no more locations . . .
Long-loved and respected actors can live again, and absolutely will.
Will Smith’s profane outburst and assault on Chris Rock last year put the final mail in the coffin of this ego fest. Show business kids making movies of themselves you know they don’t give a f*** about anybody else.
I seldom go to a theater now. In fact I can hardly remember the last movie I saw at a theater.
“It should be for the industry,” he said, “and not for the consumers.”
That is exactly what killed the movie industry. They quit making what we want to pay to see. Big mouth ideological and political actors, idiotic woke baloney, a constant superhero glut, no movies with a story that isn’t full of lecturing leftist BS.
People are tired of watching leftists give each other awards for crappy performances and showering us with filthy smut.
Make a good entertaining movie and people will come, Top Gun: Maverick being a prime example.
"That's what killed Dennis Day....Contempt for the audience!"
There was an awards ceremony during the Trump Administration where Bobby deNiro stood up onstage and used gutter profanity to curse the president.
Stunts like that also work to lose viewers. The only thing worse than the event is deNiro not being criticized by the academy one bit for his inappropriate outburst.
Funny how this author did not put his finger on one of the major reasons for the "slide". There are very few movies that I actually want to see, anymore. I used to go to the movies regularly; but, not anymore. Awful stories that I am not interested in; awful language, the sound in the theater breaking my eardrums.
When COVID allowed some theaters to open with limited seating, hubby and I went to see a film. I hated the whole mask thing: couldn't breathe, got sweaty, I know that any virus is a lot smaller than the weave on any mask. So, I was carrying my mask, as was hubby, and a couple of teenagers yelled at us to put on our masks. I am in my late 60's and do not appreciate being yelled at by a bunch of teenagers. So, hubby said he was never going to another movie. Hollywood, and the lackluster product that they are producing, is just making that a lot easier.
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