Why was it good news for theater-owners and cinephiles that the Oscars this past week scored their lowest ratings ev-ah? Because 2020, the year of Covid, the year when nobody (except a few brave or foolhardy souls like me) went to the theaters (nor should they have, unless they could do so safely), surely meant the end of the theater-going experience. That’s what some supposed “insiders” were saying, some know-it-alls. But the tanking of the Oscars tells a different story. People didn’t tune in to the awards show because they didn’t care about which movies or performers won, and they didn’t care which movies or performers won because they hadn’t seen those movies or those performers in them.
People sitting at home and livestreaming movies did not lead to the same level of interest in recognizing those movies. It’s as simple as that. The message is clear: the movie industry needs movie theaters to keep the audience invested.
Those of us who love seeing movies on the big screen should celebrate this. The Oscars’s loss is our victory. Had the ratings for the Oscars been as good as in past years, or better, it would have meant that Hollywood could get by just by livestreaming. Now Hollywood knows better.
When is that new Wolfman movie supposed to come out, again?