The Academy Awards’ Impact on Film and Actors
Erika Ziolkowski
Ever since the 1920’s, movies have shaped American culture, and the demand for picture entertainment resulted in an increased impact of movies on society, changing technologies, and the first ever Oscar ceremony in 1929. The once $69 dollars a guest ticket (in today’s dollars) and 15 minute in length ceremony has evolved to be an unpurchasable event for the common bystander, and an hours long gala. With the 2016 Oscars winners recently announced, revenue generated from the nominated films, and the salary of winning actors are substantially impacted.
Nominated and winning Oscar films alike benefit from increased sales before, during, and after the annual Academy Award Ceremony. Best Picture Oscar winners “earn about $13.8 million post-Oscar win than their nominated counterparts” (Oscars 2016). Films that won made “38.1 percent of [box office revenue] once they were nominated, and 18.1 percent after winning the Oscar”. Furthermore, even pictures just nominated and non winning reap the benefits of the Academy Award Ceremony’s wealth. Collectively, nine films from 2014 “earned a further $145.7 million at the box office after being nominated”. Additionally, the lower the budget of a winning movie experiences the largest monetary boost. Losing pictures that invest in a higher budget may result in the opportunity cost of greater monetary gain in the end. Overall, the impact of the Academy Awards on both nominated and winning films is economically and culturally significant.
Nominated and winning Oscar films aren’t the only group affected by the financial extent of the Academy Awards. After receiving an Oscar, actors receive an alarming increase in their salaries as well. An actor’s paycheck is significantly bumped “81 percent after a win”, their salary increasing up to $3.9 million dollars, and Best Actresses, $500,000. While there are many factors that determine the raise an actor gets after winning an Oscar, clearly gender, in addition to age when the $400 Oscar statuette is awarded, the amount being awarded is obscene. Just because an actor is being credited for a performance well done, does not mean that his already impressive salary should increase by an additional 81%. Even though the prices of seating have inflated over the years, doesn’t mean the percentage of salary increase should as well.
In conclusion, as entertainment continues to drive American society, the Academy Awards-- what once started as a small recognitionatory ceremony-- has evolved into an economic beast, where films and actors alike, in an entertaining ceremony, will continue to be financially applauded for a job well done.
Works Cited:
"HISTORY and OU." HISTORY and OU. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2016
"Oscars 2016." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, n.d. Web. 03 Mar.
"Want to Go to the Oscars? Better Be Nominated for an Award." New York Post. N.p., 18 Feb. 2015. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
Actors and actresses earn a butt load of cash for doing a movie that is actually good and doesn't suck, and although movies are the prime source for American entertainment, that money could be used for bettering our country by, oh I don't know, helping homeless, poor, unemployed, pretty much help anybody who isn't making millions of dollars a year. Overall, nice piece mame person whoever whatever.
ReplyDeleteIt's extremely interesting to see the different benefits of winning an academy award has on the gross revenue of the movie and the more money added to actor/actress annual incomes. America's ability to advocate an award to the Oscar's caliber, is incredible. So much money is made from these productions. There's such a vast amount of talent, and innovation being made in America's limelight today. Really strong piece Erika.
ReplyDeleteIt's extremely interesting to see the different benefits of winning an academy award has on the gross revenue of the movie and the more money added to actor/actress annual incomes. America's ability to advocate an award to the Oscar's caliber, is incredible. So much money is made from these productions. There's such a vast amount of talent, and innovation being made in America's limelight today. Really strong piece Erika.
ReplyDeleteI never thought of the Oscars as an event that dealt with economics. After reading your article I realized that once an actor or actress is announced as winner the reason they are so happy is because of the recognition their movie will get and the bump in salary that they will receive. The Oscars and the Grammy's are both huge publicity events that happen once a year. We, society, has bought into it as we watch from our living room the event take place and go out and buy movies we didn't see in theaters because they won an award. It's amazing what we as society focus our attention on. We are the reason these "celebrities" are rich and there are others in poverty and that's kind of upsetting to think about, but I'm glad your article drew my attention to it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the demand for movies from our society, and I agree with what the awards once were and what they have changed into. You had really good evidence shown. And it is amazing how much these actors/actresses will make and how these people can instantly make more money winning these awards. But why not use that money for something needed in our society. Like helping the homeless out, or making or community better as a whole. These people make million and millions of money that they just waste. But some people in this world need that money to survive. Overall, very good interesting piece Erika!
ReplyDeleteSince The United States has a mixed economy, most of the economic questions are answered by the citizens. Therefore, it is obvious that the common consumer is interested in being entertained through events like the Oscars and films in general. I think that even if the salary raise is insane, it is the everyday consumer who invests his or her time and money into watching these films involving these actresses and actors. If there wasn’t as much money invested into going to the movies or buying a movie at the store, then their salaries wouldn’t be as crazy as they are. However, consumers do invest in these movies since they have the right to do so, giving the actors/actresses an increasing amount of revenue.
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ReplyDeleteThe Oscars have a big impact on our economy through a movie’s ticket sales; usually, a best picture movie earns over $100 million in theaters, some even making that within the first day. Once seen as a successful, Oscar-nominated movie, people who have not seen the movie go to see it, generating a second wave of movie goers to that particular film, thus causing that extra bump in a movie’s overall profits. The oscars not only celebrate these revenue achievements, but the work done by individual actors and those working as part of a film crew. In many cases, not only actors, but behind-the-scenes movie makers (directors, makeup artists, animators, costume design, etc.) receive a boost in their salaries as well once receiving an Oscar.
ReplyDeleteThis was an interesting topic i think, It is interesting to know how once receiving an Oscar how much more money you are worth. It is amazing to see the benefits of what being famous has these days and it makes celebrities strive to constantly improve themselves. It is interesting to see how invested average civilians can be into a person that they make that person worth up to 150 million dollars more than there were before.
ReplyDeleteThis post was very good at grabbing the readers attention and I feel that people reading this were drawn in on the content. Personally I didn't know much about the Oscars so it was very interesting learning about how they started so small back in the day and how they have grown to be such a large part of the american entertainment business today. Something that especially caught my attention within the text was when it talked about how actors who win or are even nominated for an award benefit significantly. To the point where these actors can gain up to an 81% salary raise and there movies popularity go off the charts. Overall this blog post was a job well done.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this, it was crazy to see how much actors/actresses salary gets bumped up so high just by one win. I always thought they just got an award and more recognition. But we, the consumers, play a major rule in that. Just by seeing their movies, voting for them and so much more by making them increasingly popular. As consumers, we don't even notice how we're impacting their lives, we just want our favorite actor to win and all we get is the satisfaction of knowing that they won, while they increase their total disposable income just like that. While all that extra money could've been spent on other resources to make the economy better. But, the Oscars definitely is an event that increases the GDP greatly. And I'm sure Leonard DiCaprio got a huge increase on his salary for finally wining his first Oscar!
ReplyDeleteI knew that the Oscars had big impacts on revenues of movies, but I didn't know that it actually helped that much. Also I think there are a lot of long term benefits that could come from a win for an actor as well. For example if an unknown actor gets a surprising win in some category it could jump start their career and have even bigger of an effect. Eventually with a rising need for more entertainment and the growing wealth in this industry I think that in the future the Oscars could have an even larger effect on parts of the industry and change the way this ceremony is perceived.
ReplyDeleteThe Oscars are a big event that happen every year, so I knew the great economic impact it had on the revenue for movies, but it had a much bigger impact that I imagined it having. I didn't know a nomination without a win still propels a career like it does. For the event to have started so small, it has made a huge increase in popularity and impact on actor lives and careers. For example, Leonardo DiCaprio didn't win his first Oscar until this year, and he was looked upon differently because he hadn't won an Oscar yet. Now that burden is gone for him.
ReplyDeleteI have never really thought about the impact of the Oscars. Typically I don't care about watching this award show. However, this year was a first. I managed to see a majority of the nominees in theater or previews. After all the nominees are announced, billions of dollars are made just because people want to watch and judge for themselves. I am sure most film producers are happy just to be a nominee due to the large amount of money that can be made from it. It's nice because a lot of unknown actors get a chance at winning this crazy award. Each year, the award show grows and grows, same with the amount of money made in the box office.
ReplyDeleteVery explanatory post, it helped me really understand what all goes into the Oscar's and what all the benefits are. For example, I had no idea that winning an Oscar results in immediate raise in the actor/actress pay. I thought that was really cool, and gave good insight to waht the Oscar's accomplish every year. I also learned about the winning films and their popularity growth. While I understood that popularity an profit would rise for those films I wouldn't expect it to rise 38.1 percent. The piece really clarified how much influence the Oscar's really have.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Oscars impacted movies that won the awards, but I had no idea that the actors and actresses got an 81 percent boost in salary because of it! Entertainment is a big part in modern society and is a big factor in the economy. Since everyone likes to go out and do stuff with friends and family. As movies grow more popular so will the Oscars because more people will tune in to see if their favorite actor/actress or favorite movie gets nominated or even wins an Oscar in one of the many categories.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the entertainment industry is a big impact on society, and I know that it has shaped culture now. I agree that an actor's salary should not increase by 81% if they win an Oscar, because they are already getting a lot of money and it's pointless. Being a celebrity already has all of its perks and they don't need more money than they can handle.
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ReplyDeleteWow, never knew that there would be any sort of business that would take place because of the event. What I found most interesting is that there money rate before for the actors that win are lower than what they would get after. I mostly think its because it plays in the determine of demands. One of the 5 are income, everyone wants it so everyone will buy, and so if a person wins a Grammy award, Hugh movie producers will want you and the people at home will want to see that same guy because he's so good and then they would want to buy that movies and that would make the actor , the producer and that store company thats selling the movies happy. And that would help grow wealth in the economy a little bit.
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible to think about how the actors and actresses get a salary boost because of the Oscars, this helped me understand the Oscars more in depth than I would have before reading this. This is a popular event on television and I'm sure most of the people reading this were drawn to it because they either watched it or wanted to learn more about it. I never would have thought that actors and actresses would come away with benefits from simply winning an award. This piece really clarifies and makes it clear how many people watch the Oscars and how influential the Oscars are.
ReplyDeleteI found this post very interesting because it is crazy to see how something that once started out as a not big deal has turned into an influential factor in an actor's career. I also find it interesting that the demand is increasing so greatly because of film being more prominent in everyday life. I would be interested to see predictions for what people think will happen in the future. Great post!
ReplyDeleteIt's awesome to see how big the academy awards has gotten. And to see that guests pay $69 dollars a guest for a 15 minute ceremony really shows that the tickets are inelastic and that people are willing to pay whatever. And that the price isn’t going to be affected by the increase in price. This also bring us a good topic in that the winner that companies have to take and invest in being the best to possibly win the wards which can give them a high opportunity cost in which you talked about very well in your Blog Post. Overall nice job on showing the economic impact of the academy awards.
ReplyDeleteThe Academy Awards has really changed the way that movies are now made. The movies are almost made to try and get as many awards as you can like Mad Max. Not only does this say good things about the movie, but it does increase the demand for people who haven't watched it yet and then they will watch it after the awards. The awards really do affect how the movie is made money wise and beyond. Overall this post is really interesting because it shows how movie makers can change their movies to get more awards and how important these awards are.
ReplyDeleteDid not know that the actors and actresses get that much of a boost in their salary just from the Oscars. Great job explaining the demand in wanting to see movie after the Oscar for the audience. I would have liked to see more about how they pick individuals to win different categories in the Oscars. There has been some controversy about racial and gender discrimination on the type of people that vote for the winners and the type of movies that actually get chosen to even become nominated. Overall great explanation on the Oscars I understand more than I did before.
ReplyDeleteThis was an interesting piece. I never realized how the Academy Awards and winning an Oscar had such a large impact on actresses, actors, and films in general. I was unaware of the fact that actors were paid much more than actresses and received $3 million dollars compared to their $500,000 after being awarded an Oscar. This is probably a similar situation for other entertainment businesses like awards for best album or male singer.
ReplyDeleteThe Academy awards have been growing bigger every year, from the droids of Star Wars making a cameo to Toy Story making an appearance on stage. Also they changing how movies are produced. It's crazy to think that people would pay so much to see actors awarded for their success in movies, and increasing spending on movies that have already been out of theaters, even past DVD release dates.
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DeleteWow this was really interesting. I never considered how it would affect future earning based on winning or not. It's crazy what a difference one award can make. I can definitely see the increase in demand after the award show however as it acts as a sort of marketing by attesting to the quality of the movies.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that the Oscars started out so small! Having just watched it, I can see how much it has changed over the years. I believe what the host (Chris Rock) did this year was extremely clever. He had his daughter sell girl scout cookies during the show, and the actors clearly did not have any 5 dollar bills in their wallets, for the host came up with $65,253 dollars. The fact that so much money is given to these actors is insane. I know they work hard and deserve it, but the fact that these actors get a 81% raise if they earn an Oscar Award is ridiculous, because they already earn so much. It is simply not necessary. This just gives another reason why the gap between rich and poor is so great.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing how much money actors can gain if they are nominated or win an Oscar. Also, the annual event allows for jobs to be put in place which decrease the unemployment during the months of preparation. Also movie theaters are able to hire more people across the country because of the great revenue they gain right before and after the awards are given. Truly the Oscars is the perfect marketing strategy for movies in the theaters. Since Netflix and Hulu has gained much popularity, the theaters rely on these award shows to bring in consumers to see the current movies that have not been released out of the theaters yet.
ReplyDeleteIt amazed me seeing how small the Oscars were in the past, to how they are today. The past you could come in and watch the Oscars and now it has turned into this magnificent show that actors look forward to every year. Other than the time duration, it amazes me how much money these actors get paid for being either nominated or winning an Oscar. If one were to win an Oscar they would get a 81% raise on top of there already high salary, which gives another reason for the rich and poor gap. Since this event has become so big it takes a long period of time to prepare and take down the event. This event allows for job creation in the area, which increases employment and temporary job creation.
ReplyDeleteIt amazed me seeing how small the Oscars were in the past, to how they are today. The past you could come in and watch the Oscars and now it has turned into this magnificent show that actors look forward to every year. Other than the time duration, it amazes me how much money these actors get paid for being either nominated or winning an Oscar. If one were to win an Oscar they would get a 81% raise on top of there already high salary, which gives another reason for the rich and poor gap. Since this event has become so big it takes a long period of time to prepare and take down the event. This event allows for job creation in the area, which increases employment and temporary job creation.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy to think how the Oscars have become so big compared to what they used to be before. I can only imagine what they will be like in the years to come. I didn't know that the actors/actresses that won received an 81% increase in salary. That is crazy. Along with movies of a higher budget there is a big risk with the potential of losing money if no one likes it. They could lose a lot of money and need to have a lot of confidence in themselves in order to do good. I wasn't a fan of the Oscars this year. With there being no African-american nominees, it caused a lot of drama. With Chris Rock as the host, he over did it and used his role to basically make fun of the academy and came across a bit racist to me.
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