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.”
“The best thing about Netfix are the foreign movies and TV shows. This is because they actually have actors and actresses who can ACT.”
That is so true! Most of what we watch is foreign, mostly British and Australian. Not necessarily old.
Some good Polish series, too, like “High Water”.
This is another reason why I cut Comcast cable TV last May.
The other is they own NBC and I do not want to support them.
I just wish I had another option to get high speed internet other than a satellite dish or cable. No fiber optic available at my house.
https://www.starlink.com/
When Hollywood is bankrupt, the entire state will be windmills and nut trees.
When Hollywood is bankrupt, the entire state will be windmills, trees and occupied by nuts.
BFL
The Oscars used to be for movies that were in theaters and with actors that most of America recognized. Then, the SAG Awards, the Independent Film Awards, or other smaller awards shows, would recognize smaller films that few had heard of. Now, the Oscars have all of those movies as well, and the movies that audiences in America might actually have seen, are never recognized.
A large part of that is because adults do not go to movies in significant numbers anymore.
NEVER EVER cared for movie theaters.
At home there is no bratty kid kicking the back of my chair, no crinkling candy wrappers, no talking or putting their feet up on the chair next to me.
They can all close IMO.
A few weeks ago it occurred to me to ask my 12 year old son “who the movie stars are” that he is aware of. Answer: none. He didn’t and doesn’t know of any, new old or indifferent.
Did you miss the 50’s? Actors were purged because of their political beliefs. (…because they were in sympathy with an implacable publicly stated enemy of America and her freedom.) People didn’t want to pay to listen to anti American propaganda.
Hmm...good points. I doubt they’ll listen to either of us, though.
Yes. The request will be made to an AI (like the chatbot, but brighter) to write in a fashion mimicking a specific writer’s style, given the plot, number of main characters, and location, and circumstances, and then waiting for the script. Some review later plus some tweaks and re-writes . . . a script is born.
Dead? I see no shortage of movies on Netflix, Hulu, etc. Another yogi Berra wannabe.
Oh but they can’t resist tinkering it up “with the message”, having “representation” for the “modern audience”. This is how they’ll screw it up. Just look at “Rings of Power” and they screwed the pooch on that one.
Let’s be honest, Blockbuster would have lasted another 10-20 years as a profitable business if the movie industry would have released movies to them within weeks of theatrical release (like they started doing with RedBox).
My wife and I have been married for 36 years. As you said, we USED TO do date nights on a regular basis...mostly because when we were younger I traveled so much, so we tried to get a date in whenever we could. As we have gotten older, and wiser, we have date night about once every quarter. The rest of the time we enjoy an evening alone, sometimes watching movies, or like last Friday night, we each sat in front of the fireplace reading a book. It was a good evening and we both enjoyed the time together.
One of the biggest reasons, and I know this from others in that mid-50’s age bracket, we live within our means and therefore can’t afford a weekly/monthly date night.
My wife and I are in our 80’s and like most couples from your age to ours, we need to watch how we spend our money.
After our sons reached the age of not wanting to go to movies with parents, we tried to go once a quarter and ended up about twice a year to see a movie due to terrible movies for a middle age and conservative couple. The cost went up about every 6 months.
There were two nice old fashioned movie theatres in a half hour drive. Somehow they were connected. One would show a movie during the early afternoon at a good price. The other had some good movies at night. If you missed one, we could go catch it at its sister site.
Even sharing a Coke and a bag of popcorn went from about $60 a couple to just under a hundred with the night movie being the most expensive. Add the cost of two + gallons of gas to get to and from the theatres, went from going a lot to seldom.
Covid basically shut these theatres down as prices went up to handle couples being 6’ from other couples. The last one cost us $100.
My wife said forget it, and we started streaming movies from Amazon to several Brit low cost monthly fees. The best deal is a monthly 5$ donation to our local pbs station. We get to stream everything they have for free as contributing members. Acorn is an excellent and low cost streamer.
CBS is the only big time channel, where we watch a few shows via Amazon and their Paramount link. The price is so low, I don’t remember the monthly charge if there is any.
We watch zero Woke sport channels/whatever.
There’s no doubt the pressure to message will be intense. The woke crowd can screw up a one-car parade.
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