Another year of audience gains for The Oscars. According to the national ratings from Nielsen, the live 96th Academy Awards telecast, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and ignited by seven Oscar wins for Oppenheimer, scored 19.5 million viewers. Comparably, this marks three consecutive years of growth, with a rise of four percent from the 18.7 million in 2023.
Once the DVR usage is factored in, expect The Academy Awards to surpass 20 million viewers (with, as a result, a larger year-to-year increase).
One advantage for The Academy Awards this year, perhaps, is the surging box office tally for Oppenheimer. This story of American scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb, is now the highest grossing film to be named Best Picture since Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004. The estimated gross, to-date, is reported at $954 million worldwide.
Then, of course, there is also the worldwide appeal success of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. The film led 2023 at the box office, with a reported $1.446 billion. Comparably, it is now the 14th highest-grossing film of all time.
Historically, Best Picture winners that score at the box office translate into more tune-in for The Academy Awards. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which tallied 1.156 billion worldwide, attracted 43.5 million viewers. At the time, that was a four year high. Earlier, in 1998, Best Picture winner Titanic rose to a still high 57.2 million viewers.
Also of benefit this year was an earlier start, 7 p.m. ET, for The Academy Awards. ABC is reporting that viewership peaked during the show’s final half-hour, with 21.9 million total viewers. Traditionally, HUT (Household Using Television) levels tend to rapidly decrease when primetime concludes at 11 p.m. ET. More eyeballs are readily available earlier in the evening.
While an audience of 19.5 million this year (minus the aforementioned DVR usage) certainly pales in comparison, just three years earlier, in 2021, the audience plunged to an historic low 10.4 million.
In the two decades since, no Best Picture winner has grossed more than $500 million at the global box office until Oppenheimer.
” won Best Picture as one of a record-tying 11 Oscars and became, to date, the last Best Picture winner to also be the highest grossing film at the box office that year.
In the two decades since, no Best Picture winner has grossed more than $500 million at the global box office until “Oppenheimer,” which rode director Christopher Nolan’s overwhelming global popularity, its critical acclaim, and yes, the “Barbenheimer” memes, to a $957 million global box office total.
grossed more than $954 million worldwide, dwarfing its $100 million production budget and becoming one of the highest-grossing rated R movies of all time
It was the the third consecutive year of audience growth for The Academy Awards. Based on the from Nielsen Media Research, seven Oscar wins for box office bonanza Oppenheimer, including Best Picture, translated
Historically, the peak for this annual showcase for the best in cinema was 57.2 million viewers in 1998 when box office king Titanic was named Best Picture. But