Disney (and others) at the Box Office - Current State of Affairs

Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Farerb said:
Fine. All of you are right.

Katherine Hepburn and Vivien Leigh could only wish they could give such a stellar performance as Mikey Madison's (I would have even posted gifs and videos but that would have been inappropriate). Anora is the new Casablanca.
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I think you're being overly dramatic here. The industry is constantly changing and so are its award shows, I mean they have to after 100 years. If you don't agree with their picks for winners, so be it, it happens every year for someone. But lets not pretend like this is the first time that a non-popular and potentially controversial movie won the Oscars top awards, its not a recent phenomenon.

As I mentioned I think you're more looking for the People's Choice Awards as they seem to be more in-line with what you would consider mainstream popular picks.
 
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easyrowrdw

Well-Known Member
Farerb said:
The Oscars should be for the “mainstream popularity”. It’s the biggest awards show of the year for film so the winners should reflect that. 20 years ago Best Picture would have been WICKED (the epic big budget musical) or even DUNE but the Academy is so determined to be “edgy” now that they are missing the point of their own existence.

For better or worse, the Oscars are not the place to pluck obscure films from the film festival circuit and put them on THE biggest pedestal in Hollywood. In a few years, ANORA will be forgotten. Who still remembers or talks about CODA? Or MOONLIGHT? Or NOMADLAND? Or even EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE?

You know what people DO remember? TITANIC, GLADIATOR, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, CHICAGO, SCHINDLER’S LIST, FORREST GUMP, DANCES WITH WOLVES, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, THE GODFATHER, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, CASABLANCA, etc...

Movies that have a wider social & cultural impact are the ones that stand the test of time, and those are the movies the Oscars should be recognizing. Who out there is quoting lines from ANORA or NOMADLAND?
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I won't say they should do that because I think there are plenty of small movies that are deserving of recognition. But I think your point is well-founded. There used to be a bigger overlap between quality (Oscars) and popularity (box office).
Disney Irish said:
I think you're confusing the Oscars with the People's Choice Awards which actually is about mainstream popularity.
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All the movies the poster listed won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Mainstream popularity and quality are not mutually exclusive. Is it movie-goers' fault for not watching enough good movies or the studios for not making enough movies that are both good and appeal to a wide audience? I'd say it's probably a bit of both.
 
LittleBuford

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
Phroobar said:
I don't think I'm ever seeing Anora and is definitely not safe for Disney forum discussion. IMDB shows severe nudity and profanity with 693 swear words, 479 f-words and 491 uses of words I can't type on this forum. Why would I want to watch that? It's like how some people here though Poor Things was a must watch movie suitable for the entire family.
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No-one said or implied the bolded. One can like a film while acknowledging it isn’t suitable for the whole family. Such films may not be up your street, but that doesn’t mean they don’t or can’t appeal to others.
 
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easyrowrdw

Well-Known Member
Phroobar said:
I don't think I'm ever seeing Anora and is definitely not safe for Disney forum discussion. IMDB shows severe nudity and profanity with 693 swear words, 479 f-words and 491 uses of words I can't type on this forum. Why would I want to watch that? It's like how some people here though Poor Things was a must watch movie suitable for the entire family.
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No way. That can't possibly be true! That would be crazy 😂
 
Animaniac93-98

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
TalkingHead said:
Flow winning best animated feature is kinda wild when you realize it was made with open-source software by a small team of artists. I still haven’t seen it but heard good things. Amazing that it beat Pixar and Universal entries. Really goes to show how much the Academy voting body has changed in the last ten years.
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Flow was very good. I'd be hard pressed to choose between it and Wild Robot for Best Animated Feature.
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
easyrowrdw said:
I won't say they should do that because I think there are plenty of small movies that are deserving of recognition. But I think your point is well-founded. There used to be a bigger overlap between quality (Oscars) and popularity (box office).

All the movies the poster listed won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Mainstream popularity and quality are not mutually exclusive. Is it movie-goers' fault for not watching enough good movies or the studios for not making enough movies that are both good and appeal to a wide audience? I'd say it's probably a bit of both.
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Yes there used to be more overlap, but I listed a few also that won and didn't have mainstream popularity again for example Midnight Cowboy in 1969. We have to stop thinking that the Academy Awards are some popularity contest for the most mainstream films, its not and has never been.
 
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DKampy

Well-Known Member
Disney Irish said:
That too, but even by the late 90s (when peak viewership happened for the Oscars) there was already starting to be a glut of channels with the major 3 (4 if you include Fox which just started) and all the basic cable and premium cable channels and video-on-demand starting to be offered nationwide. So it was already going to hit a downward trend by that point as people realized they weren't stuck to watching one of three things.
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I think one of the biggest factors could be that any clip that people care about is readily available immediately following…. I believe some start showing up during the telecast
 
Agent H

Agent H

Well-Known Member
Disney Irish said:
Yes there used to be more overlap, but I listed a few also that won and didn't have mainstream popularity again for example Midnight Cowboy in 1969. We have to stop thinking that the Academy Awards are some popularity contest for the most mainstream films, its not and has never been.
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Yes. This is the exact reason I’ve never watched.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Ratings are in for the '25 Oscars. They declined 7% from last year's 19.5 Million. This year they got 18.07 Million viewers, which includes both the ABC live color HD Telecast and whatever the mess they were doing on Hulu was.

variety.com

Oscars Hit 18.1 Million Viewers, Down 7% From Last Year

18.1 million viewers tuned into Sunday's Oscars, the show's first viewership drop in four years.
variety.com variety.com

A total viewership of 18.07 Million means that about 5% of Americans watched the Oscars last night.

Yup. This is fine. Hollywood is back and doing great! Or something. 🤔
 
Agent H

Agent H

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Ratings are in for the '25 Oscars. They declined 7% from last year's 19.5 Million. This year they got 18.07 Million viewers, which includes both the ABC live color HD Telecast and whatever the mess they were doing on Hulu was.

variety.com

Oscars Hit 18.1 Million Viewers, Down 7% From Last Year

18.1 million viewers tuned into Sunday's Oscars, the show's first viewership drop in four years.
variety.com variety.com

A total viewership of 18.07 Million means that about 5% of Americans watched the Oscars last night.

Yup. This is fine. Hollywood is back and doing great! Or something. 🤔
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I agree that overall views have dropped on standard tv but what does that have to do with the state of Hollywood overall?
 
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DKampy

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
Ratings are in for the '25 Oscars. They declined 7% from last year's 19.5 Million. This year they got 18.07 Million viewers, which includes both the ABC live color HD Telecast and whatever the mess they were doing on Hulu was.

variety.com

Oscars Hit 18.1 Million Viewers, Down 7% From Last Year

18.1 million viewers tuned into Sunday's Oscars, the show's first viewership drop in four years.
variety.com variety.com

A total viewership of 18.07 Million means that about 5% of Americans watched the Oscars last night.

Yup. This is fine. Hollywood is back and doing great! Or something. 🤔
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I would expect that….last year had Barbenheimer
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Agent H said:
I agree that overall views have dropped on standard tv but what does that have to do with the state of Hollywood overall?
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It's an issue of cultural relevancy, and the impact of big Hollywood movie studios on the American culture. They are losing their grip and their audience. Do they know that? Are they course correcting? Or just doing more of the same?


DKampy said:
I would expect that….last year had Barbenheimer
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It's also a continuation of a general trend since 2000, that became a dramatic downward trend after 2015.

In 1946, 35% of Americans listened to the Oscars on a live nationwide radio broadcast.
In 1975, 23% of Americans watched the Oscars on TV.
In 1998, 21% of Americans watched the Oscars.
In 2015, 12% of Americans watched the Oscars.
In 2024, 6% of Americans watched the Oscars.
In 2025, 5% of Americans watched the Oscars.

www.thedailybeast.com

‘Wicked’ and Conan Couldn’t Save the Oscars' Ratings

18.1 million people watched this year’s Academy Awards—a 7% drop from last year.
www.thedailybeast.com www.thedailybeast.com
 
Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
TP2000 said:
It's an issue of cultural relevancy, and the impact of big Hollywood movie studios on the American culture. They are losing their grip and their audience. Do they know that? Are they course correcting? Or just doing more of the same?




It's also a continuation of a general trend since 2000, that became a dramatic downward trend after 2015.

In 1946, 35% of Americans listened to the Oscars on a live nationwide radio broadcast.
In 1975, 23% of Americans watched the Oscars on TV.
In 1998, 21% of Americans watched the Oscars.
In 2015, 12% of Americans watched the Oscars.
In 2024, 6% of Americans watched the Oscars.
In 2025, 5% of Americans watched the Oscars.

www.thedailybeast.com

‘Wicked’ and Conan Couldn’t Save the Oscars' Ratings

18.1 million people watched this year’s Academy Awards—a 7% drop from last year.
www.thedailybeast.com www.thedailybeast.com
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I think some of these numbers need to be put into context.....

From your same article you just posted above -

"Still, 18.1 million was enough to make the Oscars the most-watched and primetime entertainment (meaning non-sports and non-news) telecast of the 2024-2025 TV season thus far. It also had the highest rating among adults age 18-49 this season with a 3.92, up 3% from last year. And when isolated to adults 18-34, it was the highest-rated Oscars in five years with a 3.17. "

variety.com

Oscars Hit 18.1 Million Viewers, Down 7% From Last Year

18.1 million viewers tuned into Sunday's Oscars, the show's first viewership drop in four years.
variety.com variety.com

This means that overall TV viewership is down and no other broadcast has brought in this viewership so far in 2025 outside of sports. And among the most sought after and lucrative demographic of adults 18-34 its the highest-rated Oscars of the post-pandemic era. So its likely your generation that is dropping off, not the younger generation which is gaining and good for Hollywood.
 
brideck

brideck

Well-Known Member
Farerb said:
30 years ago the nominees would have been Wicked, Dune, Conclave, Challengers and one of the obscure movies that were nominated this year (sure even Anora perhaps, though The Brutalist is more likely). Then Wicked would have won. Are you implying that Wicked isn't a good movie or didn't deserve to win just because it's popular? Come on...
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A little confused by this list -- neither Conclave nor Challengers made more than $50m domestically, so that makes them pretty obscure by most accounts. By that measure, you're better off replacing them with things like Nosferatu, A Complete Unknown, or Civil War. [Speaking of the latter, I totally would have been onboard with Cailee Spaeny getting a Supporting nod for her work in that, especially since it was a weak category this year.]

Anyway, the Academy doesn't usually reward the first part of a known series with Best Picture. If Wicked's going to be seriously considered for one, it'll be with next year's installment. (see: Lord of the Rings)
 

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