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Disney (and others) at the Box Office - Current State of Affairs
- Thread starter Disney Analyst
- Start date
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
It puzzles me that so many cite political content as the reason the Oscars have lost viewership. Probably the most political moments in the ceremonies’ history occurred in the ’70s, long before the drop in figures.
Chi84
Premium Member
If you “could care less that means you do care at least a little.” Weird Al Yankovic, Word Crimes.
Agent H
Well-Known Member
Yes. I’ve always been confused when people say “I could care less” when what they mean is “I couldn’t care less” for example I couldn’t care less about the Oscars.
Chi84
Premium Member
Neither could I
TalkingHead
Well-Known Member
I sure wouldn’t want my job to depend on the fate of Thunderbolts.The final box office tally is in from overseas through March 3rd for Captain America: Brave New World.
After it's third full weekend globally, it looks fairly certain it won't get to Ant-Man Quantumania territory. It still could reach $400 Million globally by the end of its box office run though. That would be a loss of around $50 Million for Marvel's latest.
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Captain America: Brave New World (2025) - Box Office and Financial Information
Financial analysis of Captain America: Brave New World (2025) including production budget, domestic and international box office gross, DVD and Blu-ray sales reports.www.the-numbers.com
It’ll have more competition by then (Captain America had, what, three weekends practically all to itself?) and I don’t think the general public is more interested in Pugh than the Captain America brand. But she does have a following outside of MCU so we’ll see.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
I’m in this category also, grew up watching it, couldn’t care less now.
Not sure if that’s because there’s simply so much to watch now that I have better options, I dislike how politically one sided Hollywood has become, I dislike so many of the condescending and smug Hollywood actors now, I’ve never heard of most of the movies they give awards to, I’m becoming a grumpy old man, or most likely a combination of all of the above…
I watched a 2 minute recap on the news and can honestly say I was bored by the end of those 2 minutes, I can’t imagine sitting through 3-4 hours of a Hollywood awards show now.
brideck
Well-Known Member
She's very much one of the actors that gets me to the theater at any rate. I expect Thunderbolts* will be the first MCU movie I'll have gone to in awhile as a result.
brideck
Well-Known Member
I'm sure this'll just prompt another post about how it's not 1975 anymore, but oh. Hey. It turns out that ratings were actually up this year.
variety.com
And... I see that they didn't update the headline, so:
Oscars Hit 19.7 Million Viewers, Up 1% From Last Year
19.7 million viewers tuned into Sunday's Oscars, a 1% increase from last year, according to finalized reporting from Nielsen.
variety.com
And... I see that they didn't update the headline, so:
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Wendy Pleakley
Well-Known Member
It's just like if a movie bombs, it's a cue to blame politics. If a movie does well, any political commentary is conveniently ignored.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
They did update the headline after you posted it.I'm sure this'll just prompt another post about how it's not 1975 anymore, but oh. Hey. It turns out that ratings were actually up this year.
Oscars Hit 19.7 Million Viewers, Up 1% From Last Year
19.7 million viewers tuned into Sunday's Oscars, a 1% increase from last year, according to finalized reporting from Nielsen.
And... I see that they didn't update the headline, so:
But this doesn't surprise me, its going to be the younger generation that leads in the demographics from now on and so it makes sense that they also saw an increase in viewership via alternative forms of watching rather than on a traditional TV.
donaldtoo
Well-Known Member
Have you ever seen “Forrest Gump”…?
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Aside from that young Indian lady who accepted an award for someone (I can't remember who) and gave a short protest speech on the plight of the American Indian, which elicited boos from the celebrity audience, I can't think of any big political moments or themes during the 1970's shows. And then John Wayne got all upset about it, which fueled the stunt further.
I may have just forgotten, and I'm sure there was something besides the Indian lady, but the tone and shift was noticeable and rather off-putting in the 2010's. I don't remember the 70's Oscars being that way year after year, much less the 80's or 90's.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I'm sure this'll just prompt another post about how it's not 1975 anymore, but oh. Hey. It turns out that ratings were actually up this year.
Oscars Hit 19.7 Million Viewers, Up 1% From Last Year
19.7 million viewers tuned into Sunday's Oscars, a 1% increase from last year, according to finalized reporting from Nielsen.
And... I see that they didn't update the headline, so:
Nielsen found a million kids watching the Oscars on their computer screens and phones? These poor children don't have a proper TV set? Or were they grounded in their room and watching under the covers?
Regardless, I've created an updated chart of the Oscars annual viewership since 2000, in case anyone wants to print this out and put it on their fridge.
And here's Fun Facts for you to use at your next dinner party:
19.7 Million people is 5.7% of the US population in 2025
19.7 Million people is 17% less people than the 23.6 Million who watched the Oscars in 2020
19.7 Million people is 58% less people than the 46.3 Million who watched the Oscars in 2000
19.7 Million people is the amount of visitors Disneyland got in total from 1955 to 1961!
Disney Irish
Premium Member
Ok Boomer, or maybe realize that not everyone consumes media via a TV anymore, this isn't 1972 where a household only consumes media via a single TV and everyone gathers around it to watch the Brady Bunch. Media is consumed in many different ways today, and the younger generations are less likely to own an actual TV instead choosing to use one of their many other devices to watch media.Nielsen found a million kids watching the Oscars on their computer screens and phones? These poor children don't have a proper TV set? Or were they grounded in their room and watching under the covers?
Regardless, I've created an updated chart of the Oscars annual viewership since 2000, in case anyone wants to print this out and put it on their fridge.
And here's Fun Facts for you to use at your next dinner party:
19.7 Million people is 5.7% of the US population in 2025
19.7 Million people is 17% less people than the 23.6 Million who watched the Oscars in 2020
19.7 Million people is 58% less people than the 46.3 Million who watched the Oscars in 2000
19.7 Million people is the amount of visitors Disneyland got in total from 1955 to 1961!
View attachment 847172
But still it shows the Oscars, something you should be raving about, seems to be making a trend back in the right direction with viewership on the rise. And that its the younger generation that is paving the way for this. So you can rest assured that there may actually be a resurgence of your classic Oscar parties you mourn aren't happening anymore.
brideck
Well-Known Member
You're a Nielsen "family," so if you read the instructions you should understand how this all works.
Anyway, there's a pretty decent correlation (R^2 = .6566) between number of movie tickets sold and viewership of the following year's Oscars (using data back to 1995), which makes pretty good sense to me. If people come back to the theaters more and more, then these ratings should go up correspondingly.
The biggest outliers were:
Positive: '98 Oscars, which drew at least 15m more viewers than you'd expect. We'll call that the Titanic effect.
Negative: '20 Oscars -- most (but not all) of the Oscars have been a touch below expectations since the '16 ceremony, which... huh, I'll just let people draw their own obvious conclusions there. [The '02 ceremony is actually a very close second, which was impacted by the invasion of Iraq starting just 3 days before the event.]
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TP2000
Well-Known Member
They sent me a small box, only slightly larger than a deck of cards, that is plugged in to my Internet router, from which my various Xumo boxes in the house operate via WiFi.
This is perhaps because during their second and far more elaborate survey I told them I do not watch TV shows on my phone or computer, because I don't.
I can easily imagine that if a Nielsen Family says yes on that part of the survey, they coordinate some other type of tracking device or format for them. Who knows how that works? But for me, it's just my TV sets. YMMV.
I think what we're seeing the past few years is just a continuation of the trend that began in 2015. It crashed during Covid, and they've recovered from that. But the trendline is clear, and they still haven't returned to their pre-Covid viewership of 2020.
If you ignore the Covid Crash of 2021-2023 and observe the smoothed out trendline, it was a gradual decline from 2000 to 2014, then a complete nosedive from 2015 to 2025. Will the Oscars ever get back to the 23.6 Million they had in 2020?
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TP2000
Well-Known Member
I excuse it away in my mind after being kicked out of church in the 70's for my sinful lifestyle choices.
I mean, if I'm going to Hell anyway, why not break a few more rules just for giggles?
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
Her purported Native ancestry has been disputed by multiple family members. Mary Louise Cruz.
Supposedly John Wayne was waiting in the wings and six men had to stop him from forcing her off stage.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Oh, I had no idea. No wonder I'm tired more often now.
The trendline is still down from its already crashing pre-Covid numbers for the 18-49 demographic.
In 2020, the Oscars had 23.64 Million viewers, with a 5.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
In 2025, the Oscars had 19.69 Million viewers, with a 4.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
Having your 18-49 demographic shed several Million viewers over a five year period is not something to be happy about. Especially if you are Disney and back in 2016 you agreed to pay $100 Million per year for the TV rights contract through 2028 to watch your audience disappear.
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