With all the hype for Oscars 2024 coming to an end, the biggest award night concluded on a grand celebratory note for the team of “Oppenheimer,” which bagged numerous wins. The evening at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles marked the end of awards season with the 96th Academy Awards. It indeed seems like yesterday when everyone was anticipating the big Oscar moments, bidding on who should take the Oscar trophy home. Now the results are out, and the role of publishing houses has shifted a little, as they are now covering the victories in the cinematic industry. Adding on to the latest cover from Oscars 2024, the ratings of this year’s Academy Awards are the highest they have been in four years.
What led to the phenomenal boost in the 2024 Oscars ratings?
The 96th Academy Awards was a great grand event hosted once again by Jimmy Kimmel. The ceremony witnessed the dominance of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, as the 2023 film won seven Oscar trophies, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, as expected. Poor Things came in second with four wins, including Best Actress for Emma Stone, who beat out the equally deserving Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon in the tightest race of the night. Another hyped film of last year, Barbie, unexpectedly disappointed with only one win for Best Original Song.
Held on March 10, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, the Oscars 2024 ceremony was aired live on ABC. According to Variety, the 96th Academy Awards received 19.5 million viewers on ABC, the most-watched Oscars telecast since 2020. In 2021, the Oscars telecast was severely affected, and the main culprit was the COVID-19 pandemic. It received a record all-time low of 10.4 million viewers. Despite 2020 being a year that witnessed many high-profile films in contention, including Parasite, Ford v Ferrari, The Irishman, Joker, Little Women, 1917, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Nevertheless, it somewhat managed to rise from the low numbers and garnered 16.6 million views the following year, and in 2023, the views thankfully increased to 18.8 million.
But this year’s telecast ratings were the highest in four years. The reason for this uproarious views count is the earlier start time after years of public complaints about the show running too late. Moreover, this year, the blockbuster films from last year were nominated, which raised excitement among the audience since they were familiar with the nominations. Nonetheless, the major credit for the Oscars’ highest ratings goes to the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon. Since both “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” were released at the same time last summer, a feud among the audience still surrounds the simultaneous release of both films.
The latest Oscars ceremony saw a rare feat, representing the biggest cinematic event of 2024, as “Barbenheimer” received a total of 21 nominations. “Oppenheimer” triumphed with seven wins, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr., Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Score. Meanwhile, Barbie confounded everyone with only one win for Best Original Song, “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell.
Though Greta Gerwig’s Barbie couldn’t meet the audience’s Oscar expectations, Ryan Gosling compensated for the disappointment by rocking the crowd with his electrifying performance of “I’m Just Ken.
