1929 Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel this is
the site of the first ever Academy
Awards or is it's more commonly referred
to the Oscars known for its glitz and
glam the Oscars also represent the best
of the best in the film industry which
makes it even more tragic to watch it
die the 2018 Oscars drew record low
ratings dropping nearly 20 percent from
the previous year and even if we
disregard the inevitable snobs and drama
surrounding the hosts every year it's
evident that the Oscars have a problem
they're rigged so why are the Oscars
such a big deal a recent study found
that Studios on average spend an extra
ten million dollars just to run an Oscar
campaign now it may sound like a lot but
it's actually not a bad investment over
the past four years Best Picture winners
generated an additional 19 million
dollars at the box office that's more
than 42 percent of total ticket sales
The King's Speech for example was
initially projected to gross just thirty
million dollars but after its subsequent
nomination and victory it went on to
make more than 400 million in the box
office today the Oscars aren't just an
award ceremony they're also a marketing
event but it wasn't always like this
The Deer Hunter a Best Picture from 1978
was the first film ever to use the
Oscars as a marketing strategy Universal
Studios worried the film would be a
commercial failure due to its grim and
depressing tone and came to a
realization that the only way to draw a
crowd was by winning the Oscar had
worked
another figure who took advantage of the
system was none other than Harvey
Weinstein the controversial film
producer was notorious for his
aggressive marketing strategies to win
Best Picture
Tao Shakespeare in Love took home the
prize in 1999 over Spielberg's Saving
Private Ryan an obvious favorite at the
time it's no surprise that Hollywood
pours so much attention and money into
the event but there is another secret
the Oscars aren't that difficult to win
that is as long as you understand the
rules of the game and the key is all in
these statistics for instance you want
to make longer films ideally over two
hours this graph charts the runtime of
all Best Picture winners since 1929 no
distinct patterns but in terms of
probability longer films have a better
chance of winning only three out of 90
winners had a runtime below hundred
minutes while twenty eight ran below two
hours and 76% of all winners since 1960
have been more than two hours long so
why do the Oscars love longer films the
answer is simple because longer films
tend to feel more important and if
there's one thing we can agree on the
Oscars love important movies almost to a
fault these are not important movies in
the context of cinematic achievements
but rather the buzz that surrounds a
film it's the same reason why film
marketers work hard to create that Oscar
buzz like the extent to which actors
went to prepare for a role or the
difficulties behind the scenes there's
no reason why runtime should have an
effect on whether a film wins the Best
Picture or not yet it clearly does this
obsession with important films is the
same reason why dramas are the king of
the award season a whopping 93% of Best
Picture winners are dramas not only 2%
or action and fantasy this pattern
extends beyond the Best Picture category
a study found that actors were nine
times more likely to receive a
nomination for their work in a drama
over it's 90 years of history science
fiction and horror movies have never won
Best Picture it's why monumental works
of cinema like Stanley Kubrick's 2001 a
Space Odyssey or Alfred Hitchcock's
Psycho were never even nominated and
this is where we start to see the
problem there is a formula to winning
the Oscars and it's a formula that
should not exist in the first place
especially in a ceremony dedicated to
rewarding good art the concept of
picking the best film to come out in any
given year is ludicrous considering how
subjective movies are the Oscars are
well aware of this and instead they
choose a different approach rewarding
the most important over the best it's an
admirable effort but it has its limits
it ignores subjectivity entirely and
promotes a criteria that makes a film
important you might have heard this
criteria referred to as Oscar Bay an
Oscar bait film attempts to appeal to
this specific formula in order to win
providing a safer investment for the
studio's these films are often adapted
from a famous source material based on a
true story even better
they include period dramas with lavish
costumes and historical biographies of
important figures bonus points for
characters with a disability since 1980
89 percent of the Best Picture winners
fit into at least one of these five
categories these films also meet a
similar criteria mass appeal Oscar
voters love critically and commercially
successful movies of every Best Picture
winner 82% have a critics rating above
80 and 78% have an audience rating above
80 as well this is a perfect
representation of how the Academy votes
for Best Picture they use a preferential
voting system where
the voters are asked to rank T nominees
in order to reward collective
preferences
this means that the least disliked films
will always win over smaller niche
movies with ardent fan followings it
also means that the Oscars will almost
always go with a safer bet
instead of films at a try for something
different this causes another problem
fatigue because the Oscars prefer
certain movies over others their
nominations and winners look pretty much
the same every year whether it's a film
about journalists trying to uncover the
truth or a historical epic about a man
against a nation it's something we've
all seen before and the same goes for
talent since 1970 about 71 percent of
Best Picture winners had a director or a
cast member who was previously nominated
for an Oscar a trend that carries until
today sure it feels great to watch
DiCaprio win an Oscar he well deserves
but seeing the same people over and over
and over again every year signifies that
other creative independent voices are
not being heard the Oscars are dominated
by enormous studios 52% of Best Picture
winners are from the six major Hollywood
film studios but that number rises to 81
percent if you include many major film
studios like MGM
the Oscars are dying and they have no
one to blame but themselves
what started out as a celebration of
great achievements in filmmaking has
turned into nothing but a business
strategy for Studios who compete for
profit and the ones who suffer the most
from it are none other than you the
viewers will no longer gain the insight
or the entertainment that was promised
and all the drama the issues and the
snubs will continue on until the Oscars
realize what their event is really all
about