Will Smith slaps the Oscars back into the limelight
(Photo: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)
After another year of the Academy Awards getting all-time-low ratings, something big needed to happen. This year, Will Smith slapping the shit out of Chris Rock for mocking his wife takes away the spotlight from Apple TV’s CODA winning best picture while streaming platforms are taking away the spotlight from theaters.
Chris Rock and Theaters get a slap in the face
After Jada Pinkett Smith appeared at the Oscars with her head shaved because of alopecia, Chris Rock joked that she looked ready for “G.I. Jane 2.” Provoked, Will Smith walked on stage and slapped the comic in the face then yelled at Rock to “keep my wife’s name out your f**king mouth.”
While accepting his first Oscar for Best Actor in King Richard shortly after, Smith was moved to tears during his speech. Smith said how he wanted to be “an ambassador of love” while apologizing to the room for his outburst. “Art imitates life. [...]I look like the crazy father just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.” (READ: This isn’t the first time Rock mocked Pinkett Smith.)
But last Sunday, the star of the night should have been CODA from Apple TV for winning Best Picture. The dramedy is a monumental story in itself, about an only hearing child of a deaf family, but it’s also the climax of years of identity crisis for the film industry—with tech giants like Amazon and Apple upending entertainment business practices and Hollywood hierarchies. No movie that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival has ever won the top Academy Award nor has Apple been nominated before this year.
The pandemic has disrupted traditional studios—Paramount, Warner Bros., Sony, etc.—into rerouting films to streaming services instead of the theaters. AMPAS has once again allowed films to skip the perfunctory theatrical release to be eligible for the Oscars. The worry now is that theaters could become the land of superheroes and remakes or anyone with the budget to take a loss from ticket sales.
Netflix took a massive L that night, after banging on the academy door and pouring millions of dollars into original content in the last few years, only to lose the top prize to a rival. But what’s the big deal? An Oscar reaps Hollywood prestige and egotism but little else, especially for business.
After all, streaming services are data-driven enterprises. The Power of the Dog returned to Netflix’s top 10 list for one week after it got 12 nominations but ranked just below a 2010 action thriller called Faster featuring Dwayne Johnson.
Once upon a time, the Oscars were a showstopper—the only chance to see movie stars outside of their roles. But viewership has declined by more than 80% from its peak. Now, we consume media at different times, without a shared sense of culture. Most people would rather find out what happens in an email like this one and watch Will Smith go viral on Twitter.
