Spring Break
Oscars: Winning films best of the best-marketed?
by Ben Strassfeld
Staff Writer
Arts | 11/11/08
Posted online at 1:21 AM EST on 11/11/08
Once upon a time, long, long ago, the Oscars were a simple, understated awards ceremony held to honor the best Hollywood movies of the year. The show was simple, without much glitz or glamour and with no red carpets in sight. The awards were, in effect, a way for Hollywood studios to pat themselves on their collective back and congratulate themselves for a job well done. There was little money involved, advertising campaigns were nonexistent and the awards and nominations did little to affect box-office grosses.
Yawn.
Today, the Oscars are big business. The ceremony draws huge television ratings, usually second only to the Super Bowl, with enormous amounts of money changing hands on network advertising. News agencies as reputable as The New York Times and as gossipy as E! and Access Hollywood devote columnists and reporters to cover the event year-round. One recent Brandeis alumnus, Scott Feinberg, writes a column for the Los Angeles Times that provides constant news and forecasts regarding the awards ceremony.
But it isn't just news agencies that are devoting an increasing amount of time and money to the Oscars; in recent years, the awards have become big business in Hollywood. There used to be a time when studios made films for the sole purpose of making money, and the Oscars were merely seen as an added bonus to celebrate their success. Now, though, Hollywood creates what are called "prestige" pictures, films designed from the ground up to receive Oscar acclaim. These prestige pictures are, in fact, often only able to achieve box office success through Oscar nominations. For examples of this, one need only compare the box office success of last year's Oscar-nominated films like No Country for Old Men or There Will be Blood to the relative financial failure of Oscar-ignored films like Into the Wild or The Savages. Studios often spend in the tens of millions on advertising to help secure Oscar nominations, knowing that the money spent can pay off big time if the Academy embraces their film.
Yawn.
Today, the Oscars are big business. The ceremony draws huge television ratings, usually second only to the Super Bowl, with enormous amounts of money changing hands on network advertising. News agencies as reputable as The New York Times and as gossipy as E! and Access Hollywood devote columnists and reporters to cover the event year-round. One recent Brandeis alumnus, Scott Feinberg, writes a column for the Los Angeles Times that provides constant news and forecasts regarding the awards ceremony.
But it isn't just news agencies that are devoting an increasing amount of time and money to the Oscars; in recent years, the awards have become big business in Hollywood. There used to be a time when studios made films for the sole purpose of making money, and the Oscars were merely seen as an added bonus to celebrate their success. Now, though, Hollywood creates what are called "prestige" pictures, films designed from the ground up to receive Oscar acclaim. These prestige pictures are, in fact, often only able to achieve box office success through Oscar nominations. For examples of this, one need only compare the box office success of last year's Oscar-nominated films like No Country for Old Men or There Will be Blood to the relative financial failure of Oscar-ignored films like Into the Wild or The Savages. Studios often spend in the tens of millions on advertising to help secure Oscar nominations, knowing that the money spent can pay off big time if the Academy embraces their film.
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