News
Drab Oscar pix shifts spotlight to actors
By Robert Marich
Feb. 16, 2009 – A USA Today story suggests that this year’s Oscar excitement is about the actors, which is probably true because the movies nominated for Best Picture don’t seem to have much buzz. Not surprisingly, advertising interest in this year’s Oscars ceremony, which ABC Television will televise Feb. 22, is weak.
ABC reportedly cut the price of a 30-second ad to $1.4 million from $1.8 million originally that was the rate last year. The recession is a factor, but the lackluster Best Picture nominees are probably also a cause. To help sales, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences lifted a 50-year-old ban on movie ads for this year's Oscar telecast, but so far only two are known to have spots: Paramount drama The Soloist and DreamWorks animated Up.
The Oscars is one of TV’s biggest-draws because as a live awards ceremony viewers tend not to record for possible delayed viewing. Its audience is tilts to women, who are attracted by the glamour and star clothing.
Notes the USA Today article, “Not only will this year's best-picture nominees produce one of the lowest box-office totals ever — meaning hardly anyone has seen them — but the non-buzz surrounding Bollywood-does-Dickens front-runner Slumdog Millionaire and its main rival, the romantic fable The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, is rather deafening… Indeed, a number of stars managed to overshadow their Oscar-hopeful vehicles.”
The article by Susan Wloszcyzyna does find excitement with actors. There are the comeback kids: Mickey Rourke, Robert Downey Jr. There are dueling divas: Kate Winslet vs. Meryl Streep. There’s the tragedy of Heath Ledger’s death after his impressive The Dark Knight performance.
Further undermining the mass appeal of the Oscars this year, the acclaimed Dark Knight and audience hit Gran Torino from Clint Eastwood were passed over for major Oscar nominations, as the academy members tastes significantly diverged from the audience. As Marketing to Moviegoers: Second Edition notes, Oscar telecast ratings are highest when major studio releases lead the Best Picture lineup, such as Titanic. Audience levels are low when indie films lead the pack, such as when Crash won in 2005 and Chicago in 2002.
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