While the Oscars are still the top awards in the movie industry, the organization has been in a period of transition over the last few years. Between trying to diversify Academy membership and trying to improve Oscars ratings of its awards telecast, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has tried a lot of different things to make itself more relevant, but now the Academy is reportedly considering what could be a massive rule change that would be a boon to theatrical distribution, and equally bad news for streamers.
Currently, to be considered for most Academy Awards, including Best Picture, a movie must simply be available to view in theaters for one week in New York or Los Angeles. However, according to Puck (via Berry Hertz on Twitter) a rule change is being considered that would require films to screen in 15 or 20 of the country’s top 50 markets to be considered.
This would obviously be great news for the theaters that would screen the films. It means more theaters across the country showing the films. It would also mean many markets would get these movies a lot earlier. Currently, many of the movies nominated for the Oscars get their nominations before the films are given a wide release, so audiences haven’t had a chance to even see them.
On the flip side, this is potentially bad news for streaming services like Netflix or Apple TV+ that have been strong awards contenders in recent years. When the platforms have movies they want to be considered for the Oscars, it’s easy enough to give them the required limited release, then pull them from theaters before releasing the movie on the streaming site for everybody else to see.
This rule would make getting a movie in for consideration a lot more expensive for those platforms, and it would also mean a lot more people would be able to watch the movie in theaters, and potentially not watch it when it hits the streaming platform. If you live in one of those top markets you wouldn’t actually need to have a Netflix subscription in order to see Netflix’s highest-profile films, and one can't imagine the streamer would like that.
Academy CEO Bill Kramer is reportedly in favor of the plan, but the new rule would need to be voted on and approved by the Board of Governors in order to actually go into effect.
Despite some high-profile theatrical successes like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water, theaters could still use a boost, and that may be part of the reason for this new rule. But in addition, getting nominees in front of more people earlier might actually get more people into theaters to see them, which in turn could boost interest in the actual awards. The Oscars have tried a variety of things, including considering new awards for "blockbuster" films as a way to accomplish that goal.
