AdvertisementTheir last big hope: That if the awards featured big movies people have seen or at least heard of, audiences might return.
That was supposed to happen this year, when monster hits "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" were both up for multiple awards, including Best Picture.
And the producers for ABC's broadcast smartly leaned into it, by doing things like bringing in "Barbie" nominee Ryan Gosling to sing and dance, to general acclaim.
On the other hand: That means this year's telecast still drew considerably less than the 23.6 million viewers who watched the 2020 show, which didn't have anything like "Barbie" or "Oppenheimer," box-office-wise.
Back then, a couple of the Best Picture nominees were ones regular folks may have seen in theaters, including "Ford V. Ferrari" and "Joker."
Persons:
Oppenheimer, Barbie, Ryan Gosling, Ford, Ferrari, Oscar, hasn't, COVID, we're
Organizations:
Hollywood, ABC