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With today’s “urgent reminder” directed to its membership, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences again is doing its damnedest to get out the vote. The Oscar event is still a battlefield of “gold, sweat and tears” as portrayed in Oscar Wars, Michael Schulman’s new book, despite the ominous industry challenges.
Indeed this year’s Oscars already have conveyed a surreal energy – witness Jamie Lee Curtis’ renewed stardom at age 65. Yet, having collected its formidable array of honors, even the cast of Everything, Everywhere All at Once may feel gratitude depletion by March 12
Still, the coming Best Picture winner may have relatively modest impact at a moment when the giant cathedrals of show business are struggling to reduce their mountains of debt and meet the threat of a writers strike.
“The Oscars saved my ass,” effused Joe Levine in 1967 when The Graduate pulled an Oscar upset (Levine ran the indie Embassy Pictures, which funded the Mike Nichols movie).
The lexicon of Oscar winners has since changed radically. A win today, in Bob Iger’s argot, would “reinforce monetization capability for our legacy platforms.” To Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav, a Best Picture will translate into “preserving optionality through the strategic mix of distribution and windowing.”
Translation: The Oscar show seems almost a distraction at a time when media giants are frazzled by a pervasive weakness in advertising and the inflation in streaming numbers.
Oscar speeches in general seem trivial when compared to the massive blueprints set forth first by Zaslav a year ago, then by Iger more recently. When stripped of corporate jargon, Hollywood has been impressed and intimidated by the similarity of long-term aims.
“Success requires all hands on deck as we increase our synergy target to at least $3.5 billion from $3 billion,” reported Zaslav. Disney a year later mandated a headcount reduction of 7,000 as Iger thwarted battles for board seats. He still carried a $37 billion net debt from his previous deal-making sprees.
WBD lately reported limited subscriber growth but could boast a more robust slate of theatrical movies for its first quarter, including a deal to make multiple Lord of the Rings movies.
Hits still win applause in show business — even prospective Oscar wins. But the era is long past when executives would exult over true studio-generated films like The Departed at Warner Bros (2007).
In recent years, to be sure, the winning Oscar films have defiantly reflected an indie sensibility – Birdman, Moonlight and even the 2011 silent movie titled, appropriately, The Artist. Last year’s winning movie, CODA, was backed by Apple TV, the ultimate snub to Hollywood tradition.
The ‘CODA’ team on Oscar night after the film’s Best Picture win
Mike Coppola/Getty Images
A generation ago it was not uncommon for a studio to warn employees that they were required to support the company’s Oscar candidate. Studio loyalty was part of the Hollywood mandate.
Loyalties at that level are no longer part of the bargain. As The Economist reminds us, Disney today “is the most successful culture factory the world has ever known.” And no ‘culture factory’ has ever demanded voter loyalty.
To Schulman, a talented writer for the New Yorker, “the Academy Awards are a vaunted tradition celebrating a great modern art form.” He adds: “They’re also a game, a fashion show and an orgy of self congratulation by rich and famous people who think too highly of themselves.”
But even “the rich and famous” may struggle at moments when “optionality and monetization” run into roadblocks.
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