The Problem with Oscar

Interesting bit HERE about the fact that the Oscars are hurting because nobody watches them anymore:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which puts on the show, doesn’t admit it, but the tweaks are born of a concern about one thing and one thing only: TV ratings. The academy makes a mint each year off the broadcast, traditionally one of the year’s biggest shows. But the trend line for viewership has been heading downward for more than a decade. The academy’s not in the poorhouse or anything; it can still charge an ever-growing premium for advertising, of course. But the show’s not cheap, either, and those declining ratings are a very real indicator of the once fabled awards show’s fading glory.

Here’s the academy’s biggest, and growing, problem: The movies winning Oscars are movies that nobody has heard about — and, as a result, nobody is tuning in.

On one hand, to me that's somewhat noble in that nobody should be voting for an Oscar based on how many tickets it sold.  On the other hand I go to the movies about as often as I pay someone to punch me in the fucking nuts, so what do I care.  As you already know, I can count the number of Best Picture winners I actually saw in the theater on one hand. 

I do agree with the article here:

Secondly, and worse, there’s the sequel problem. Hollywood’s love of the sequel (and movies that might produce a sequel) is well known. These films have increasingly come to dominate moviegoing. The last year a quote-unquote normal movie for adults was the year’s highest-grossing film was “Saving Private Ryan,” way back in 1998. 2007 was a landmark: The top five films were all sequels, reboots, wannabe franchises, or films based on superhero comics or toys — and there were five more in the top 20.

The fucking sequel/prequel cottage industry is absurd. As I type this, Johnny Depp is mailing in Pirates of Whatever, 17.  As I wrote HERE re: America might be getting better, thanks to Downton Abbey:

With this and the Susan Boyle experiment coming out well,  if we can make a successful movie that's not a sequel/prequel/pre-sequel/se-prequel/fucking superhero franchise flick, we'll have the hat trick.

I mean, for fuck's sake already.  Tho I do stand by my assertion that a Boomerang sequel needs to happen. (And Midnight Run!)

Here's me being hilarious with Boomerang. You're welcome, Earth.