When the 96th edition of the Oscars begins this March 11, attention will not only be on whether Oppenheimer confirms her status as favorite or whether Little Creatures delivers the big surprise.
An even bigger unknown is what the audience approval ratings will be, the main index of the popularity of award ceremonies in particular and the validity of open television in general.
Because although the gala has had a consistent recovery since it reached its lowest point in 2020 with just 10.4 million viewers, it has never managed to recover the 40 million it had reached in 2014 in the United States alone. Last year, when the data became known that almost 20 million viewers watched the gala, it was a cause for celebration for Hollywood, because it denoted a slow but constant recovery of what is clearly a big business. The Economic Development Council of the City of Los Angeles has published a study that indicates that every year the Oscar injects 120 million euros into the local economy, but that data does not include what the academy itself earns. The ABC television network, owned by Disney, has exclusive rights to broadcast the awards until 2028 and in 2023 it raised $137 million in advertisements. According to The New York Times, the chain must give 80% of this figure to the academy, the entity that brings together 10,500 film professionals. The final profit, however, is much lower, because holding the gala in all its splendor requires about 52 million, which includes sets, the cost of the statuettes at 830 euros each, the after-party known as the governors' ball, which costs 1.65 million, 23,000 euros in fabrics for the red carpet, but only 14,000 euros for the presenter and numerous previous events, such as a lunch to which all the nominees are invited and which costs 240,000 euros.
The studios invest in promoting their films in a very long campaign that actually begins at the big festivals in Cannes, Toronto and Venice, and if they are lucky, continues with the Golden Globes and all the other galas distributed in January and February. Although precise data is rarely released, it is known that Netflix invested 27 million euros between 2018 and 2019 to try to make Roma win the Oscar for best film, although its executives had to be content with three smaller statuettes. .
However, the bet was appropriate, because it was part of a strategy that sought to consolidate the platform as a producer of high-quality original content, and was not so interested in obtaining a specific profit with that title, which cost only 14 million.
Although the general public believes that what is invested in promoting competing films is more than recovered if they win awards, that is not always the case. Although no one forgets that decades ago American Beauty obtained 43% of its total collection after taking five statuettes including the jackpot, last year Everything at the same time everywhere only added an additional 3.6 million to the 128 that it had already won. bagged after returning to the billboards in January after winning the Golden Globe, but nevertheless the seven golden statuettes obtained changed the positioning in the Hollywood panorama of the until then small distributor A24.
In the same way, the battle that Universal is carrying out this year with its Oppenheimer against Warner Bros. with its Barbie in the race for awards seeks above all things to return to the big studios the position of power that to a certain extent they have lost.
At the same time, the return for actors who obtain a nomination or win at the Oscars is not only economic. Even when it comes to figures like Robert Downey Jr., who has already achieved everything financially, a victory this March 11 would give him the only thing he needs to have a perfect career.
