Wednesday Morning Rant [Joe Mannix]

The WGA strike is dominating the entertainment news, but there is another item that was announced some time ago that is being fully enforced this year: the box-ticking requirements for movies to be considered for "Best Picture" at the Oscars. These were proposed in 2020, but become hard requirements this year.

In order to be considered for the "Best Picture" award, the Academy mandates a ton of Wokism. Everything must be "diverse" and "inclusive" for the movie to be considered for the award. The lead actors. A plurality of the supporting cast. The thematic content of the movie. The crew and executive teams. Interns and apprentices. Marketing and distribution teams. Studio executives. Top to bottom, back to front, everything must be Woke.

All this is coming as the Oscars are failing. Viewership for the Oscars on TV is well below where it used to be. In 2020, viewership fell below 20 million for the first time. 2021 was a nightmare year for the show, drawing well under 11 million. 2022 drew a bit over 16 million. This year - at least in part thanks to "slap heard 'round the world" and the fact that there was actually a full slate of movies after the COVID stupids - was better still, drawing a bit shy of 19 million people. The awards show used to pull in the high 30s and low 40s. In millions. It was nearly as big as the Super Bowl.

The ratings are recovering from the COVID lows, but the show is still less than half as popular as it was in its heyday. Since the halcyon days of a decade ago, it has been in a downward slide - unchecked if one controls for the COVID stupids - and the declines hit the accelerator hard with #MeToo/Time's Up.

They have learned nothing from the audience and financial losses of the past several years. If anything, they have learned an opposite lesson: that they must go harder at "diversity" and "equity" and all the other buzzwords. They have gone so hard at this that they will not even consider a non-Woke movie for the "Best Picture" award. The movie and everything involved with it shall be Woke or it shall not be considered for the flagship prize. As time goes on, expect this to expand to more categories.

None of this works, not that it matters. Entertainment companies - like their cousins in news - are not in the business of making money. They are in the business of pushing propaganda. The losses have been stacking up for years. It doesn't matter. Everything is secondary to the message. One studio - Warner Brothers - is nearing outright collapse and might be trying to get back into the money-making business, but none of the other major studios are there yet. They may never get there.

If they do, they will never be permitted to win "Best Picture" and probably more categories as time goes on. If studios break away from Woke At All Costs as the losses become insurmountable burdens, more movies will become ineligible - even if those movies are good. The studios might survive if they back down, but the Academy cannot back down.

Eventually, major studios or the new outfits that fill the voids left by their collapse will mention in passing that they're not bothering to pursue Academy awards, consigning the Academy to utter irrelevance.

Or they all just ride it down together until they get consolidated into one or two big state-supported propaganda organs.

posted by Open Blogger at 11:00 AM

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