This year's Oscars just took place a few days before, are you concerned? I believe that many people originally did not pay attention, but an emergency at the scene made it difficult not to cast their eyes.
At the award ceremony, the film Emperor Will Smith slapped the host Kris Locke on the hot search at home and abroad, because the latter as the host joked with Smith's wife at the award ceremony, the former came to the stage and smoked a mouthful.
While shocking audiences around the world, this slap also made the Oscars ceremony hotter.
Even more dramatically, it didn't take long for Will Smith to come back on stage because he won this year's Oscar for best actor for his performance in the movie "King Richard".
This slap fanned out the ratings, and also fanned out the embarrassment of the Oscars.
1
The Oscars, as the "Jerusalem" of Hollywood, can be described as the most high-profile film awards ceremony. But do you know anything about this year's Oscar nominations? I'm afraid that most people have only seen or heard of "Dune", which has been released in China, and other movies including "Canine Power", "Listening Girl", "West End Story" and so on, even not many people have heard it.
In fact, even American audiences know very little about these "candidate films".
In fact, with the announcement of the Oscar winner list, a lot of controversy immediately followed. Dissatisfaction with the selection of the film, the audience voted with their eyes, of course, it was reflected in the ratings of the awards ceremony.
In recent years, although the Oscars are still star-studded, the ratings have decreased year by year. After last year's Oscars, statistics Internet company Statista published an article that counted the ratings of the Oscars between 2010 and 2021.
It is clear that since 2015, except for 2019, the ratings of the ceremony live TV broadcast have declined significantly every year. Oscar ratings in 2021 plummeted to just 9.85 million from 23.6 million in 2020, down 58 percent. In 2010, the number of visitors exceeded 40 million, illustrating the extent to which the event lost the public's favor.
This year's Oscars were as sluggish as last year's, with ratings falling all the way down to a new low of 9.6 million after the start of the show, and it was about to break the record again.
But after Will Smith made a move that shocked the audience and netizens around the world, the show's ratings climbed all the way to 17.4 million people, and the mouth hit 7.8 million viewers.
But it seems like this slap doesn't just want to last three minutes of heat.
After that, Will Smith tearfully accepted the award and apologized to the Oscar organizing committee, worried that he would be put on the Oscars' "blacklist" because of his intentions, hoping that the Oscars would invite him to the ceremony in the future.
In the days that followed, a piece of news was exposed almost every day.
The day after the incident, Will Smith publicly apologized to Locke in a post on social media. The two's mutual friends, Sean "Diddy" Combs (Bragging Daddy), revealed at the post-Oscar party that Smith and Locke had spoken open and let go, saying that the two did not have any problems, "everything is over, I can confirm this, everything is only love, they are brothers".
(Will Smith's Chinese apology posted on Weibo)
Another day later, the famous comedian Kim Carey "fired" at Will Smith, saying that Hollywood is a bunch of spineless people, and Smith should be arrested for that slap.
The next day, oscar organizers announced that they would be disciplinarily prosecuted against Will Smith on the matter.
When everyone thought it was finally going to pass. The day before yesterday, the other party, Will Smith, spoke again, announcing his resignation from the Oscar organizers.
And just today, the major media giants have successively announced that Will Smith's new film will be shelved and postponed.
It is not known whether the news related to this matter will continue in the next few days.
It's almost like a hot search by a popular star, forcibly maintaining the public opinion heat of the increasingly unpopular Oscar.
No wonder some people think: If I were the director of the Oscars, I would be somewhat grateful to Will Smith, the living bodhisattva who saved the ratings. Don't say that the next session will invite you, the next session you can host.
This argument has a big market at home and abroad, and many people think that this is the Oscar deliberately "whole work" to deceive the ratings.
It is really not possible to blame people for "conspiracy theories", because in fact, in the pre-rehearsal of the awards ceremony, it is also this host Chris Locke, who also said this "joke", and Will Smith in the audience did not "break the defense", let alone rush to the stage fan.
Some American netizens said in a post:
I didn't believe in Will Smith's Oscar show. Which man would punch another man in the face? I think it's called a "shrew slap." The Oscars have had low ratings for years, and they're trying to revive it with that kind of performance. Don't believe everything you see.
2
The closure of cinemas under the epidemic has not only affected the performance of movies, but also made the "industry peak" such as the Oscars gradually detach from the masses.
Imagine, at the industry's highest awards ceremony, you are full of films, creators, and cast members that you know little or nothing about, will you be interested in this award? Today's Oscars are like this, and even a little bit of the audience does not like what it means the more it wants to give awards.
Two years ago in 2020, the Oscar-nominated films were still diverse, including war, sports, marriage... Look at the themes of this year's nominated films, LGBT, deaf-mute families, black themes... Of course, the subject matter is not an essential problem, it is good to look good; however, these films are basically slow-paced, unique style art films, extremely picky about the audience.
Of the ten films nominated for Best Picture, only Dune has a high degree of discussion.
Some people may think that Oscar nominations for art films are normal, but six or seven out of ten nominations are, too many anyway. You know, just two years ago, the nominated films in 2019 included many exciting racing movies such as "Speed King" and war films with a strong sense of substitution such as "1917".
(Film "1917")
The oscars used to be "laymen can see the hilarity, insiders can see the doorway" movies, "Saving Private Ryan", which was nominated for best picture in 1998, is now the benchmark of war movies, the best film "The Lord of the Rings 3" in 2003 is the final chapter of the entire Lord of the Rings epic, the three series of global total box office totaling 2.92 billion US dollars, which shows its popularity, as well as the best film of 2009, the protagonist every time the bomb is nervous "Bomb Disposal Force", these belong to the audience to see comfortably, Professionals also love movies. In recent years, this type of film has almost disappeared from the Oscars.
This year's Oscar-winning Best Picture, "Hearing Girls," is an unoriginal remake of essentially an ordinary, unobtrusive, film about a deaf-mute family. But in terms of topic selection and shooting, this is another "clever" movie, and the deaf and mute characters in the film are played by real deaf actors. At the same time, the film's sign language consultants are mostly like the film's heroines, who are "normal hearing people" born into deaf-mute families (which is also the source of the film's name "CODA", that is, Children Of Deaf Adult).
(Set photo of "Hearing Girl")
"The Power of the Dog", which is also nominated for the film, although the popularity is not high, after all, it has won the best film before the Oscars, including the Golden Globe Award, the British Academy Film Award and other famous awards. Maybe it's just because the "full white" starring cast of "Canine Power" is not as "correct" as a film that deeply involves people with disabilities, or maybe it is because the subject matter and rhythm are difficult to impress the Oscars, in short, the Oscars are secretive about their own standards and preferences.
(Promotional poster for "The Power of Dogs" with honors and acclaim received)
What the two films have little in common is that there is almost no discussion on social media.
Twitter is rife with complaints like this:
Many of the nominated films are films that mainstream audiences have never heard of. You'll never see a movie like Spider-Man: Homeless win a major award like best picture, even though it's popular among fans and the nature of the movie has changed a lot. In the past, good films with medium and high budgets had a more level playing field. Now, awards are won either by global blockbusters that appeal to the masses or by low-budget independent films. There is almost no crossover.
(Netizens complain about the low popularity of the nominated film)
3
Of course, good evil is the highest film awards ceremony in the United States, and how can American audiences not buy it will not have slipped so much in recent years? This brings us to the concept of "ratings", which is the data formed by live television.
And this data, with the vigorous development of streaming media in recent years, has been "drained" very strongly.
Some American netizens tweeted on the day of the awards ceremony: "The Oscars are only broadcast on ABC (American Broadcasting Corporation), why not on Disney+ or Hulu (a well-known streaming platform in the United States)?" Do they complain about low ratings? Well, a lot of people don't watch regular TV anymore, and we're not going to pay $60 a month to get some extra TV services just to watch the awards ceremony. ”
Today, when streaming media is very mature, the Oscars still insist on "exclusive" television, is it stupid or does not know how to be flexible?
To understand this, we have to talk about the relationship between ABC and Oscar.
(The Oscar-ABC collaboration will continue until 2028)
Each Oscar nomination and selection is carried out by the "American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences", the members of the academy are composed of outstanding film practitioners from all over the world, we are familiar with Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Zhang Ziyi are all members of the academy, and the best films every year are also voted by the members.
In this way, the college seems to be an unprofitable organization, so where does the money come from to hold the ceremony? That brings us to ABC. ABC is the host of the annual Academy Awards, the Academy is funded by annual awards ceremony broadcast fees, and ABC's revenue comes from the in-stream ads at the ceremony.
According to reports, although the ratings of the Oscars have declined in recent years, the advertising revenue has increased year by year, which is why the audience is becoming less and less buying, and the Oscars can continue to be held. The 2017 Oscars generated $128 million in advertising revenue, including $114 million at awards ceremonies and $14 million for red carpet ceremonies. At the 2018 Oscars, a total of 26 brands spent about $141.8 million, up more than 10 percent from advertising revenue in 2017.
So since it is you ABC who pays money, do you put a few more platforms and get more network playback brush traffic?
In fact, ABC TV really has its own streaming platform. But compared with giants such as Netflix and Hulu, ABC's streaming media has no sense of existence, so why not "drain" yourself through the Oscars?
Because, it can't be the master on its own, and it has a "father" on it - that is, ABC's parent company - Disney. Yes, ABC, though fully named ABC, was actually acquired by Disney in 1995 for $19 billion. (Sure enough, the end of the world is Disney.) ）
In recent years, Disney has also been spending money on its own streaming platform. Watching streaming giants like Netflix rush to make money, Disney certainly wants to enter the field and get a piece of the pie.
Especially under the epidemic, theaters are closed, and watching movies at home has become the only choice for a considerable number of people to watch movies, which has also expanded the streaming media market.
But so far, the record is not good. Of the streaming market share, Netflix accounts for 25%, Google's YouTube accounts for 21%, Hulu accounts for 10%, and Disney's Disney+ accounts for only 7%.
At the same time, Disney+ is also controversial, before the "Mulan" wind evaluation is not good, Disney is difficult to say about the public online income; after Scarlett Johansson sued Disney without her consent to launch "Black Widow" on Disney+, resulting in their own financial losses.
Daddy's streaming platform is too busy to take care of itself, can you let your son's platform compete with me?
Disney has been operating hard for many years, and disney + that has "thrown coins" billions of dollars can only drink soup behind the streaming media giants, and ABC, as a traditional TV industry giant backed by Disney, instead of participating in the fierce competition of streaming media, it is better to cultivate its own acres and three points in the TV industry.
In addition, ABC is also "honored" as "elderly station" in the United States, with an average user age of about 43 years old, allowing middle-aged TV users to tinker with streaming platform subscriptions, which is really difficult for some strong people. ABC, which holds the right to host the Oscars, also has to think twice, in the case of ratings have declined, if the Oscars are synchronized to Disney+, then the dismal ratings on their side will further decline. Moreover, as a streaming platform, Disney+ has long-term profitability depends on the quality of the online films, and whether the "one year is not as good as a year" Oscar can pull the subscription volume up is also a question mark.
Like most awards ceremonies, the Oscars themselves were nearly three hours long and dissuaded many people, and important awards such as best picture and best actor and actress were awarded at the end. Television can not provide such a real-time discussion atmosphere as live network broadcasting, rather than enduring three hours of "ignorance" and various political views output, it is better to "turn" to online media and social media, directly through the short videos and photos shared by others to get the Oscar's "highlight moments", which further reduces the Oscar ratings.
Moreover, the great development of streaming media and social media not only divides the "traffic" of live TV, but also provides a platform for "spitting" and "whipping corpses" for the Oscar live broadcast, the more you Oscar pays attention to various "correct" and focuses on the output of political views, the more obvious the public opinion of network users will rebound.
During the Oscars ceremony, twitter was filled with topics like "Take your Oscars, thank you friends and shut up on TM... No one wants to hear your political roar! "Such quarrelsome, war-provoking remarks.
(Oscar's political show)
End
Some American netizens commented: "Since the 1970s and early 1980s, Hollywood has no longer been a 'star'. People aren't as interested in the things of really rich actors and actresses. As a result, awards ceremonies have been declining for decades. ”
Indeed, as he said, when the wisdom of the people is more displayed through the Internet, the "talent" of the big stars and big directors on the award stage can no longer be regarded as the capital of looking down on the audience from above.
So we will see a big decline in Oscar's ability to "make terriers" today.
The Oscars are like Hollywood's "Spring Festival Gala", in addition to selecting outstanding film practitioners every year, they also have the role of reviewing the major events and small events in the film industry throughout the year. For example, Shaw, the founder of Hong Kong Shaw Films, who died in 2014, appeared in the Oscar tribute to the deceased that year. Another famous scene is in 2016, the host ridiculed Matt Damon for pushing away the opportunity to star in "Manchester by the Sea", which can take the film emperor, and instead filmed the "Great Wall" with poor reputation and box office.
But the Oscars are no better now than they were then. Before 2018, the Oscars will also have a talk show actor as the host, and the golden sentences will continue to be lively (such as the famous talk show host Jimmy Chicken Feathers who teased Matt Damon). But since 2018, the Oscars have eliminated the fixed host, allowing stand-up comedians and movie actors to serve as hosts at the same time, and there was not even a host last year. In addition, due to the epidemic, the content of the live performance has also been greatly reduced, making the whole ceremony seem very boring.
Why?
Because in the Internet age, what terrier has been "consumed" by the majority of netizens countless times. Just like we are often "chewing rotten stems" in spring evenings now, it will only make the audience feel low-grade and bored.
When the Oscars had to rely on a "broadcast accident" to get attention flow, they had already lost. The ordinary work of the film and television elites has not been able to complete the audience, and if they want to save the ratings, they can only "live hard", after all, such as going on stage to give a big forced pocket this kind of operation, the audience is really unexpected.