MSM Film Critic Suggests Nominating Superhero Flicks to ‘Save the Oscars’ from Ratings Death

[Intestinal Fortitude]

Film Critic Suggests Nominating Superhero Flicks to 'Save the Oscars' from Ratings Death

Movie critic Owen Gleiberman is afraid the Oscars are doomed to extinction unless the Academy starts nominating and awarding popular movies.

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Film Critic Suggests Nominating Superhero Flicks to ‘Save the Oscars’ from Ratings Death

Richard Harbaugh/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty, Sony/Marvel
Warner Todd Huston2 Jan 2022128

5:19


Longtime movie critic Owen Gleiberman is afraid that the woke Oscars Awards telecast is doomed to extinction unless the Academy starts recognizing wildly popular movies, including Marvel/Disney’s assembly-line superhero flicks.

In his Dec. 31 column in Variety, the film critic assured his peers that he “hated” the box-office gargantuan Spider-Man: No Way Home, but unless movies like it start showing up in the Oscars nominations, TV audiences will continue to abandon the telecast by the millions like they have been over the last decade.

“Yes, I hated Spider-Man: No Way Home. It’s a movie that I’m a total annoying curmudgeonly naysayer about. So even though my antipathy isn’t the topic of this column, why hide it? Go ahead, throw tomatoes at me. But understand that I’m actually on your side,” Gleiberman wrote to kick off his column.

Gleiberman went on to explain why he finds the film so bad, but that really wasn’t the point of his article. Finally warming to his theme, the critic wrote, “In the past, the members of the Motion Picture Academy have considered superhero movies to be entertainment, not art, and the Oscars are supposed to be about art.”



Stills from “Spider-Man: No Way Home.” (Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios)


Art or not, though, Gleiberman goes on to say that nominating the latest Spider-Man flick may save the Oscars from ratings oblivion.

“Now, though, there’s a larger reason to nominate Spider-Man: No Way Home,” Gleiberman explained. “The Oscars are on life support, or at least they’re heading there. They need mainstream cred; going forward, it’s nothing less than the oxygen that’s going to allow them to survive.”

Gleiberman fears that the Academy has gotten way too elitist with its nominations.

Whenever this argument gets made, it’s presented in strictly utilitarian, box-office-begets-ratings terms. If you want an Academy Awards telecast that wins more eyeballs than it loses, you’re going to have to nominate some of the movies that win eyeballs. I don’t disagree with that argument, and in a sense it’s the one I’m making. But this isn’t simply about numbers. It’s about a perception that drives the numbers. Sure, if “No Way Home” gets nominated, a swath of its vast fan base might tune into the Oscars that wouldn’t have otherwise. But what I’m really talking about is the essential idea that movies are, and always have been, a populist art form. If that dimension of cinema isn’t respected, something has gone wrong.

Gleiberman also notes that one of the main reasons people tuned in to see the awards show in the past was because they wanted to see their favorite stars in real-life setings, and in days of yore, seeing the stars was not an every-day occurrence for people. But today, with the ready availability of media in any manner of format (TV, Cable, Internet, phones), seeing your favorite stars in interviews, news clips, at events, or even on vacation, is not so rare.



Academy Awards crew member cleans an Oscar statue design on the red carpet at Union Station, one of the locations for Sunday’s 93rd Academy Awards. (Chris Pizzello/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

The critic is worried that nominating a constant stream of uber intellectual films and ignoring the films that actually earn millions of fans, not to mention millions of dollars, is driving the Oscars into extinction.

“I’m not saying don’t nominate those [too-smart-for-school] films. I’m saying that if those are the only films nominated, it’s going to be another year of the Oscars’ slow-motion implosion,” Gleiberman warned.
Gleiberman wrapped up his piece warning of ratings-depressing elitism:

This year, would it really be such an unspeakable vulgarity for the Oscar slate to include “Spider-Man: No Way Home”? Not as a token mainstream gesture but because it’s a film that honestly meant something to the larger public. Why has this become such an insane idea? What’s actually insane is leaving a movie like that one out of the mix. If the Oscars want a future, it would be a shrewd strategy for them to not inflict the death of a thousand cuts on themselves by using the dagger of elitism.

As if to underscore Gleiberman’s point, Variety recently noted that in 2021, the Academy Awards didn’t even break into the top 100 most-watched shows!

With a mere 10.4 million viewers, the Oscars lost to shows including, Yellowstone, and NCIS reruns, the FBI, The Equalizer, 60 Minutes, and the Law & Order series of shows. Even Oprah beat the Oscars. Her Oprah With Meghan and Harry earned more viewers than the Oscars, as did the concert show Adele One Night Only.

The increasingly woke Oscars telecast has been declining by the millions for the better part of a decade. But last year it fell off a whopping 60 percent over the previous year. In 2020 the Oscars earned an audience of 23.6 million — then an all-time low for the awards show. But last year, it clocked in at an astonishingly low 10.4 million viewers.

While it might seem likely that this year’s Oscars show could reel in a few more viewers than last year’s debacle, Gleiberman is correct that the Oscars is still on a downward trend and if it doesn’t do something to staunch the bleeding, it will fade into quickly obscurity.

 

[Intestinal Fortitude]

even if they did not make woke crap; they still have bad stories and very bad acting

 

[JF&P]

Hollywood embraces woke.... Like everything else... They will go broke.

 

[Blacknarwhal]

At least Gleiberman seems to have copped to the notion that if you don't pander to a big enough audience, you die. Financially, that is.

 

[The Snack Artist]

If hollyweird disappeared not many besides themselves would notice.

 

[Deena in GA]

I think he's totally missing the point of why so many people don't watch the Oscars anymore. We are beyond tired of the actors and actresses being complete political leftist hacks and them talking down to us.

 

[Intestinal Fortitude]

what was once Hollywood is gone

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Longtime movie critic Owen Gleiberman is afraid that the woke Oscars Awards telecast is doomed to extinction

Failing to see a downside.

 

[Firebird]

Hollywood can go TU for all I care

 

[Murt]

band aid on a sucking chest wound

 

[Donghe Surfer]

Make all film nominees be LGBT-blah-blah-related, so that it can die that much quicker.

 

[Red Baron]

Lots of good comments already.

I would add the simple fact that broadcast TV and traditional cable are failing business models, other than for sports.

Awards shows are irrelevant now. Nothing will change that.

 

[Dobbin]

Frankly Scarlet, I don't give a damn.

Dobbin

 

[Shooter]

never understood how a group of people giving each other a award was supposed to be interesting TV.

 

[Calhounshd]

It's simple, just rig the definition of art. Democrats rig everything else so don't let a little thing like art purity stop you now.
Haven't watched in years, but if they had an Oscar category for "Best Youtube How To video" I might watch a bit.
Speaking of art, Jack Klugman would have been a far better model for the statue once he came on the scene.

 

[tech]

Then let it friggin' die.

Then let the actors follow suit.

 

[mattbert]

I could never understand why anyone would watch the mutual-appreciation-society event. It must be crushing to the narcissists that people don’t really care about watching them give each other awards.

mattbert

 

[Griz3752]

Making the Oscars relevant? Saving the presentation show's ratings?

Maybe work on the products that whole marketing schema/insider back-patting bull is based on.

I remember thinking CGI was going to be the end of Movies as I knew them; looks like it might be looming. I think it's funny that the most popular show, TV or Movie, in America is Yellowstone.

It's also a little sad.

 

[The Hammer]

They might as well. Superhero movies are the only ones people are bothering to go see, it seems.

I saw the latest Spider Man. I mean, it was good, but not all-time great by any means. The fact that it's breaking records speaks to the fact that people haven't been out to movies in over a year, or that movies have been so stinkin' awful for so long that they eat up a decent one.

 

[TKO]

what was once Hollywood is gone

Whorewood is still an immoral trove of scum...same as it has been for a long time. It has just gotten worse.

 

[Griz3752]

never understood how a group of people giving each other a award was supposed to be interesting TV.

And there, in a nutshell, is the whole answer.

 

[Griz3752]

I saw the latest Spider Man. I mean, it was good, but not all-time great by any means. The fact that it's breaking records speaks to the fact that people haven't been out to movies in over a year, or that movies have been so stinkin' awful for so long that they eat up a decent one.

A fundamental issue is there are no new stories.

Almost anything that has had success of late has been a redo or is part of a 'Franchise'. A good movie may require some action or a lot, depending on the story line but first & foremost is a script, then actors, not personalities or celebrities, dedicated to doing the work. People building a personal brand so they can sell crap fragrances or hawk burgers for another chicken chain (or vice-versa) don't count. Oh yeah; how does George Clooney buying an interest in a Tequila brand make it better?

That last part is probably because the vast majority of the target market, we, the ticket buyers, work at jobs or careers, even callings but not brand building.

Most of us don't care if the world or even anyone outside our sphere knows our names; I think most of us only care if its spelled right on the cheque and those are deposited in a timely fashion.

See how easy it is to get me ranting? Now you have an idea of what my wife puts up with.

Thank God she loves me and is patient.

I need coffee now

 

[Toosh]

Sooooooo, they want us to give a trophy to everyone for just showing up - but then they want us to show up as they give out those trophies? Just more stupid-$hit thinking.

 

[Griz3752]

Film Critic Suggests Nominating Superhero Flicks to 'Save the Oscars' from Ratings Death

Movie critic Owen Gleiberman is afraid the Oscars are doomed to extinction unless the Academy starts nominating and awarding popular movies.

www.breitbart.com

the concert show Adele One Night Only.

One of the very few bits of entertainment on TV in the last year or so except for the rare bright light like Yellowstone

Meghan & Harry or anything similar is just watching rotating train wrecks

 

[PghPanther]

Comic books made into movies used as an attempt to boost the public in watching their awards???

Good gawd...........don't they understand the value and human impact of a movie such as "Its a wonderful life"?

How lost they have become..............in infantile fantasy........

 

[Shooter]

thinking, I do remember the last time I watched the Academy awards, John Wayne won Best actor for True Grit, 1970. hasnt been a actor I cared enough about since then to watch

 

[Melodi]

The Oscars used to feature movies people actually wanted to see and usually had been to see; they also were fun and entertaining.

I figured they would either be massively revamped or canceled after I heard that one bit of a speech by some actress at the start of this past one when she said something about if you are feeling uncomfortable, well that's OK because they wanted you to feel uncomfortable.

My reaction to that was that if I had actually been planning to watch the awards and heard that I would have said: "Sorry, I do not watch entertainment to be made uncomfortable, CLICK!" as in click off the TV or change the station.

If you combine that with awards for films that almost no one has ever heard of or paid much attention to the outside of the Hollyweird "we are pretending to make art" bubble, there's no reason for people to waste their time with this.

Comic books won't save them, going back to nominating films people actually watch and having an entertaining show without lectures just might, if it isn't too late already.

 

[Housecarl]

Joseph Campbell "The Power of Myth, "The Hero With a Thousand Faces". Religions are telling the same story through the ages, the human experience

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLePFb3rlFbw4G1aPfn-9HIH5epz0vFXKq

 

[Firebird]

I have never understood the attraction of these comic book movies

 

[Blacknarwhal]

They might as well. Superhero movies are the only ones people are bothering to go see, it seems.

I saw the latest Spider Man. I mean, it was good, but not all-time great by any means. The fact that it's breaking records speaks to the fact that people haven't been out to movies in over a year, or that movies have been so stinkin' awful for so long that they eat up a decent one.

That's more "people haven't been to movies in a year", I'd say. The Covid overreaction almost killed theaters. Just drove past my area one and there's a big sign on the side that says "Theater Open". Parking lot is often half-empty, though. I'm concerned for its long term future, but I haven't been to a theater since "Geostorm" in 2017.

Part of THAT, of course, is the ongoing Catch-22. Theaters need movies to be worthwhile, Studios want to release movies when theater crowds are brisk. But theater crowds won't be brisk until there's something worth seeing. But have you seen the list of expected releases for 2022 so far? It's pretty wild.

Upcoming releases - IMDb

IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers.

www.imdb.com

 

[Blacknarwhal]

I have never understood the attraction of these comic book movies

Big explosions, amazing effects, attractive young actors and actresses, and storylines that are both familiar and new. That should cover it.

(ed: Though sometimes it DOES come off as desperate. I reference here the upcoming "League of Super-Pets" animated film featuring Superman's dog Krypto and a collection of "shelter pets". For some reason there's a dog named Ace in here, which was the name of Batman's dog for a while. This is, apparently, a DIFFERENT Ace.)

 

[Blacknarwhal]

A fundamental issue is there are no new stories.

Almost anything that has had success of late has been a redo or is part of a 'Franchise'. A good movie may require some action or a lot, depending on the story line but first & foremost is a script, then actors, not personalities or celebrities, dedicated to doing the work. People building a personal brand so they can sell crap fragrances or hawk burgers for another chicken chain (or vice-versa) don't count. Oh yeah; how does George Clooney buying an interest in a Tequila brand make it better?

That last part is probably because the vast majority of the target market, we, the ticket buyers, work at jobs or careers, even callings but not brand building.

It's true, though. We call out Hollywood as liberal, even communist, all the time. But Hollywood is really very capitalist. They're extremely concerned with profit and loss, especially since their primary product is usually spectacularly expensive to produce.

I wrote a screenplay once, which I showed to a couple of directors I knew from my days as a movie critic. They were genuinely surprised and said that actually producing it would likely be very cheap. I asked how cheap very cheap was and they assured me the job could be done for $1 million with virtually no problem.

That's where "cheap" starts in Hollywood. It's small wonder they're constantly looking to find ways to make money when that's their cost of product figure. So they stick with stuff they're sure will win. If a movie was a hit, its sequel won't go too far wrong. If the sequels start losing steam, go with a prequel or a reboot.

"New stories" are risky. Hollywood hates risk.

(edit: I just went through some of the upcoming movies for this year. There's going to be a third Young Guns movie. There hasn't been one of those since 1990, and they're making a sequel to a 32-year-old sequel.)

 

[Blacknarwhal]

unintentional duplicate; please disregard.