Awards shows aren’t what they used to be…now dominated by smaller box office earners and indie projects, things have certainly changed. Of course, that’s not 100% accurate, as this year (2020) the Academy nominated the box office hits Joker ($1.07 B) and Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood ($373 M) for Best Picture. But they also nominated Parasite ($148 M), Little Women ($133 M), and Jojo Rabbit (44.4 M), which pale in comparison to the earnings of the other two (specifically Joker).
Another thing that has changed is the classicness (did I just invent a word?) of the films from 1998 to 2019/2020. I’m not trying to discount the Best Picture nominees this year, as they are all well-deserving, but will we still be talking about them in 22 years? Because people sure as hell are still talking about the 1998 nominees, which consisted of Titanic, As Good as It Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, and L.A. Confidential. These are five CLASSIC movies that are still relevant and are regularly on cable TV (which proves people still want to watch them). I’m not so sure people will be talking about any of the 2020 nominees besides maybe Joker and OUATIH (because of Tarantino) in 2042.
And this is coming from someone who loves all these movies (1917 and Parasite in particular)! But if I’m being honest, I just don’t see them having that big of an impact on society the way the films from 1998 did. This was still a time in history where everyone saw the biggest movies in theaters because there weren’t streaming platforms or really even cable yet. So, people either had to see it in theaters or wait to rent them at Blockbuster – oh those were the days. Therefore, everyone had seen the movies that were nominated! Now we’ve got Netflix movies as Best Picture nominees, which is great on the one hand because there are so many more outlets for aspiring actors/directors, but on the other hand, some of the “best” movies of the year were barely even seen. If movies were nominated for Best Picture based on their box office numbers today, like it was in 1998, then Marvel would have a clean sweep across all categories.
To put things into perspective, the 1998 Academy Awards had over 57 MILLION viewers, compared to roughly 30 million viewers in 2019. And that’s because people actually saw and cared about the movies that won back then. I’m willing to bet 75% of the people that watch the Oscars this year will not have seen Parasite, Little Women, Jojo Rabbit, or Marriage Story (probably closer to 85%). Hell, I had to go to a theater that only shows Korean movies just to see Parasite, so I can guarantee most people haven’t seen it, despite it being phenomenal. This was absolutely not the case in 1998. Titanic was the first movie ever to eclipse the $2 billion mark in the worldwide box office which is absolutely insane if you take into account that this was in 1997. If you adjust for inflation, Titanic made $3,465,089,086 in 2019 value. That’s outrageous. And every other movie made over $200 million (in 1997, no less) except for L.A. Confidential ($126 Million).
Titanic made Leonardo DiCaprio (LDC) and Kate Winslet household names/immortal, Good Will Hunting launched Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s careers, and Jack Nicholson gave one of the best performances of all time in As Good as It Gets. Those are movies that will be talked about until the end of time and are widely considered some of the greatest films ever. I’m not sure you could make the same case for the 2020 nominees. Joker will always be remembered because Joaquin Phoenix gave the performance of a lifetime, as the mentally ill, mass-murdering Arthur Fleck…but none of the other films had performances that made the films all that memorable.
It has been known that the Academy Awards have dipped in ratings in recent years, and they very well know why: the nominated movies in 2020 aren’t as popular as the movies that were nominated in 1998. But the trade-off is quality in cinema. The Best Picture nominees are all better movies than Avengers: End Game (fight me if you want), but you could argue that End Game is more entertaining. There’s a reason that End Game made roughly $2.8 billion, making it the highest grossing movie of all time. Don’t get me wrong…I love Marvel movies, but they’re not traditionally what the Academy votes for in these types of awards shows. The difference between now and then is that movies were both box office darlings AND outstanding films. I’m not sure what the solution is to bring back the glamour of the Oscars, but maybe they should nominate an End Game every now and then for a nice little ratings booster. The 1998 Academy Awards were truly the epitome of what an awards show should be – classic movies, star-studded casts, and box office hits. It’s no wonder it was the most viewed show of all time.
They really don’t make acceptance speeches like this anymore
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