Creator: Christopher Payne
Copyright: ©Christopher Payne/Esto
It may be hard to believe, but there was a time when the Oscars were as popular as the Super Bowl. The 1998 ceremony, when Titanic won the Oscar for Best Picture, had a record audience of 57.25 million. This year’s broadcast had an audience of 19.1 million. What could have caused this huge decrease in viewership?
First, let’s look at several Oscar-winning films from the 1990s: The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Schindler’s List (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), and, as previously mentioned, Titanic (1997). The early 2000s also had notable winners, including Gladiator (2000) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). In fact, even those who weren’t born when these films came out are likely familiar with them. But after that, we have to jump ahead nearly twenty years to find another Best Picture winner that has become part of pop culture: Oppenheimer (2023). The films in between weren’t huge hits and are largely overlooked to this day, which should indicate why fewer viewers have been tuning in to the Oscars.
Hollywood’s biggest night is kind of like watching a sports game but having no interest in either of the teams that are playing. Do you keep watching? No, because you don’t care who wins or loses. When audiences haven’t seen or even heard of many of the nominees, there’s little reason for them to care, and therefore, they don’t want to watch to see which film wins an Oscar or gets snubbed.
This year, only two Best Picture nominees could be considered pop culture films: Wicked and Dune: Part Two. Neither was a front-runner for the category, but the Oscars relied on both to attract viewers. The show opened with the leading ladies of Wicked: Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. First, Grande sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and then Erivo sang “Home.” The two came together for Wicked’s “Defying Gravity,” and the result was a magical, indescribable moment, not to mention one of the best opening numbers the Oscars had likely ever seen. Later this year, Erivo will be playing Jesus Christ in an upcoming production of Jesus Christ Superstar. If you missed their great medley performance and are curious about why Erivo playing Jesus isn’t as unconventional as it might seem, check out this video below:
Then, Conan O’Brien—one of the better Oscar hosts—took the stage, weaving several pop culture references into his jokes, including one about Adam Sandler in his opening monologue. Another joke relied on the audience recognizing Dune’ssandworms.
All of this suggested that the show was returning to its roots, once again aiming to appeal to a mass audience. But there was still the question of whether the Best Picture winner could be considered a pop culture film. In fact, a movie only needs to play in ten theaters for two weeks to qualify for a nomination in the Best Picture category. This was clearly to the case for many of this year’s nominees, which is why even a film fanatic like myself had never heard of most of them, including the top two frontrunners: Emilia Pérez,and Anora, which ultimately took home the prize.
At first, Emilia Pérez seemed like a shoo-in for the Best Picture with thirteen Oscar nominations. It also featured the first transgender nominee for Best Actress: Karla Sofía Gascón. However, as soon as the film was nominated, it became surrounded by bad press. Critics added it to their lists of the worst Best Picture nominees, while many Mexicans weren’t happy about a film that, despite taking place in Mexico, was filmed in France and featured only one Mexican actress. Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) found the film’s portrayal of transgender people as “retrograde.” On top of all this, Karla Sofía Gascón’s toxic posts on X from years ago—which were widely considered racist—were unearthed and then swiftly deleted. The controversy immediately eroded Gascón’s chances of winning in Best Actress and overshadowed the historic moment of the first transgender nomination in that category.
By the time I got around to watching Emilia Pérez, I expected it to be awful. Actually, it wasn’t as bad as I had expected, but it still wasn’t very good either. To summarize, it’s a musical about a drug kingpin who undergoes a sex change operation. Now, I’ll admit that it’s an original idea. As the kingpin undergoes the procedure, he fakes his own death and hides his family. But once the kingpin fully transitions into Emilia, the film becomes surprisingly conventional. Emilia realizes she misses her children and wants to bring them home. She succeeds in reuniting with them but does not tell them who she is and instead tells them that she is their Aunt Emilia. The children bond with her, but her wife, Jessi Del Monte (played by Selena Gomez), is bored and unhappy. She has an affair and wants to leave with the kids. By this point, Emilia runs an organization dedicated to finding victims who have gone missing from drug cartels and violence. She is a peaceful woman, but when she discovers Jessi’s plans, she becomes just as angry as she once was as a violent man.
The strange thing was that watching Emilia Pérez felt like watching Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), but without the humor and with far more violence. Thus, the story didn’t feel all that original. The worst thing about it, though, was the musical aspect. The songs were entirely too forgettable, and none of the cast members were particularly good singers. Zoe Saldaña may have won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Rita, Emilia’s lawyer and personal assistant, but she should never be cast in a musical. “El Mal” won the Oscar for Best Song, but one of the cringe-worthy moments of the night was when the husband-and-wife songwriting duo, Clément Ducol and Camille, began singing part of the song during their acceptance speech.
Despite the many nominations and controversies, Emilia Pérez was available on Netflix, yet very few people tuned in to watch it. It never entered the realm of pop culture and would have been another forgotten Oscar Best Picture if it had won.
Now, we turn to Anora, whichwon Best Picture, taking five of its six nominations. This film follows a stripper/escort named Anora (played by Mikey Madison), who meets Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a Russian oligarch, at a strip club. Anora speaks a little Russian, and the two bond. Ivan then hires her as his personal escort. After two weeks of sex and partying, the two impulsively get married, but Anora’s Cinderella story comes to an abrupt halt when Ivan’s family learns about their nuptials. They hire professional hitmen to where Anora and Ivan are staying and force them to annul the marriage. Ivan leaves Anora alone with the hitmen, and from there, it all goes downhill for Anora.
Anora feels like a grittier, more realistic version of Pretty Woman (1990). During the first hour, there’s a lot of explicit sex and nudity, which makes sense given Anora’s profession. In fact, it would be unrealistic if she and Ivan remained clothed. Still, there will surely be viewers who feel uncomfortable with graphic sex and nudity, even when it is artistically justified. A good deal of the movie revolves around Anora and the mobsters searching for Ivan after he leaves. Never before have I seen a film where so much time is devoted to showing nearly every character angry, frustrated, and screaming vulgarities at each other. In fact, Igor (played by Best Supporting Actor nominee Yura Borisov), a loyal henchman who shows Anora empathy, has to yell at everyone just to be heard when he urges them to stop screaming. Given all of this, it’s likely that audiences will prefer the fantasy of Pretty Woman. I think it’s safe to say that Anora won’t be remembered as a pop culture film, nor will it be a Best Picture Oscar winner that will be remembered in years to come.
During his acceptance speech, director/writer Sean Baker talked about the loss of many art houses in recent years and called for more of them to ensure films like Anora can play on their screens. If Baker feels this is a realistic goal, he’s either seriously deluded or perhaps just naïve. It’s a tough time for all movie theaters, not just art houses. Captain America: Brave New World has the highest box office of all the films released in 2025, but even it is largely underperforming compared to other Marvel movies.
Baker’s speech seemed to reflect the mentality of those who voted Anora for Best Picture. They are, of course, entitled to their opinion, but this preference for art-house cinema over mainstream movies like Wicked and Dune: Part Two doesn’t reflect with the tastes of the general public, which brings us back to the Oscars and their identity crisis. The Academy aimed for a big audience this year by bringing in big names to secure that audience, but those who tuned in only saw a film being awarded that most had neither seen or even heard of.
The Oscars will have to decide who their audience is sooner rather than later. Voters who truly believe Anora was the best movie of the year and the rest of the viewing public are two very different groups. The Academy can’t cater to both of them at once.
