bad new for the Oscars, good news for everyone else

You don’t often get good news stories but this is definitely a good news story. The 2018 Academy Awards telecast set a new record – the lowest ratings in its history.

Maybe people don’t want to watch four hours of political preaching? Maybe the people who actually watch movies don’t share the belief of those who make movies – that every movie should be an excuse for political messaging, that every single awards show and every interview given by Hollywood celebrities should be an extended political lecture?

And there is one other thing that Hollywood execs need to bear in mind. The dismal ratings for the Oscars indicate declining interest among American movie-goers but Hollywood these days is heavily dependent on foreign markets, such as the Chinese market. And those markets have little patience with being hectored politically by self-righteous Americans.

There’s also, as mentioned in a comment by бармаглот to my previous post, the all-new inclusion rider madness – stars will be able to have it included in their contracts that a movie must include specified levels of diversity. This should do plenty of damage, particularly to the foreign box office.

Hollywood needs to die. Perhaps we are seeing early signs that this is actually going to happen. One can only hope.