The Oscars witnessed a triumphant performance from films like Universal Pictures' Oppenheimer, which took home seven wins. While traditional studios raked in the awards, streamers were nearly shut out of the Oscars: Netflix (NFLX) earned 32 nominations, but walked out with a single statue. Chris Fenton, producer and author of "Feeding The Dragon," and Andrew Stachler, CEO of Max Stax Media, to join Yahoo Finance Live and discuss the Oscar's fallout.
Fenton notes that Oppenheimer's seven wins "rewarded this premium experience" of watching a movie in theaters despite the availability of streaming services. Fenton points out that franchises such as "Dune," "Mad Max," and "Joker" have the potential to achieve similar levels of success at next year's Oscars for their "premium, out-of-home experience."
With massive advertising dollars spent to promote talent, Stachler explains why such spending is necessary. He notes that as talent wins awards, "it impacts their careers" and brings attention to the studios that create the movies. However, Stachler acknowledges that the way Oscar wins used "to drive theatrical box office campaigns" no longer has the same effect nowadays.
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Editor's note: This article was written by Angel Smith
Video Transcript
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- "Oppenheimer" and the studio behind the smash hit, Universal, were the big winners at last night's Academy Awards, taking home seven Oscars, including the highly coveted Best Picture award. But while traditional studios raked in the statues, streamers were nearly shut out of the Oscars this year. That's despite racking up 32 nominations. Netflix walking away with the only award of the night for the streaming giants.
Joining me now are Chris Fenton, movie producer and author of "Feeding the Dragon," and Andrew Stachler, Max Stax Media CEO. Thank you both for joining me this morning. So Chris, I first--
CHRIS FENTON: Thanks for having us.
- --want to start with you here. Of course. You're very welcome. Chris, I want to start with you in terms of was this a surprise here to have some of these traditional studios essentially sweeping the awards here and leaving the streamers out in the cold?
CHRIS FENTON: Well, I thought it was a fantastic weekend for me because, quite frankly, I got to go see "Dune 2" in an IMAX theater, and then I watched the Oscars last night. And it really rewarded this premium experience, this out-of-home ability to go out to theaters and see this incredible IMAX movie that was shot in 65-millimeter film.
So you created this "Oppenheimer" film that obviously won a lot of awards. But then on top of it, it also showcased the fact that successful box office and a premium out-of-home experience, to get away from that in-home entertainment, really provides the opportunity to get these massive awards.
So if I'm looking at "Oppenheimer" this year, I might put my bet on "Dune 2" this upcoming year. I might put my bet on the "Mad Max" franchise, and even "The Joker" later in October. These are going to be amazingly successful films that are in the social zeitgeist and provide this really premium out-of-home experience.
- And Andrew, as we do tend to see viewers now sort of picking and choosing which sort of things they want to see at the movie, something like a "Dune 2" or an "Oppenheimer," these huge ones that really benefit from this sort of thing, leading up to, though, to the Oscar nominations or the campaigning there, what sort of investments do these companies and studios have to make here? And how do they tend to pay off in the long run when they do win an Oscar?
ANDREW STACHLER: Yeah, I mean, you have to invest, you have to campaign. And the talent is a big part of that. I mean, they're out there shaking hands, kissing babies everywhere, being on a real charm offensive. And if they're not in partnership with you, it's really hard to run these campaigns.
But then obviously, there's a lot of advertising that's involved in them, too, and those go hand in hand. In terms of payoff, at the end of the day, these are talent relations campaigns. You want talent to bring their projects to your studio first. And talent does want to win these things, and it does impact their careers.
So that is really first and foremost. They used to drive theatrical box office much more. And the theatrical rollout campaigns were designed to be in sync with nominations and wins. They're still a little bit of that. "Poor Things" is still in some theaters. They'll get a little bit of a bump. But the campaigns are less designed that way these days. Theatrical is less a huge bottom line than it was as well.
