Are the Oscars a ceremony for the wealthy?

The race for the Oscars already begun. The nominees have already been announced, and what many call the TikTok or Gen X syndrome is once again evident. Young and low to middle class people prefer to allocate their money to pay to access streaming platforms instead of going to the movie theatre to see a movie.

However, this syndrome did not affect the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. You only have to look at the nominees to realize that, For example, in the category of Best Picture all the candidates belong to the traditional studios, while streaming platforms managed to get fewer nominations for their movies than in previous years, when the pandemic prevented people from going to theaters. Long gone is the 2022 edition, when the winner for Best Picture, CODA, made Apple TV+ the first online company to win this award.

The Oscars are for the wealthy

This presents a risk for streaming platforms. Morning Consult revealed that viewers who are more interested in this cinematic event have a higher purchasing power than those who are not. 25% of people earning $100,000 or more per year said in January that they "usually" or "always" tune in for the awards ceremony. This percentage drops to 15% for people who make less than $50,000 a year.

In other words, while it is true that there is a drop in viewership for the Oscars ceremony, the global intelligence firm stresses that "it’s still important to fight for the prestige crowd, given that they punch above their weight in revenue generation."

A ceremony viewed by few

Despite the expectation that it raises around the world, the data from the survey that Morning Consult held between January 14 and 15 to 2,204 U.S. adults reveal that only one 35% of participants plan to watch the 95th Academy Awards next Sunday, March 12. Of this percentage, only 17% say they "usually" or "always" watch the ceremony.

However, the Oscars also serve to measure the percentage of people willing to invest in streaming companies. As the company claims, 19% of die-hard fans of the ceremony said they spent more than $60 on online streaming subscriptions in the last month. This number is slightly higher than the 14% of adults in general who claim to invest the same.

The Oscars, a determining factor for movie theaters and streaming platforms

It is just as important for Oscars fans to know is that the award-winning films are available on platforms such as Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV+. Eighty-one percent of respondents who consider themselves fans of the event said that knowing they could watch one or more of the nominated films by subscribing to a platform influenced their decision to join. The percentage is almost halved if we talk about the general population, since only 49% of adults look at the number of movies available on streaming services when subscribing.

Fans of these awards also tend to visit theaters more. The survey shows that 52% of viewers who frequently watch these awards go to theaters more often than the rest of the population. The figures there are indeed worrisome. Only 30% of adults visited the cinema in the last month and the percentage is even lower if you focus on Gen Xers (26%) and baby boomers (15%). Could this data and their few nominations change the mindset of streaming platforms regarding the Oscars? Only time will tell.