1. “You say awards show. We say infomercial.”(你看的是颁奖，我们看的是商业)
The 86th Academy Awards ceremony brought downtown Los Angeles to a standstill Sunday as hundreds of limousines carried some of the most taut, wrinkle-free—and valuable—faces on the planet to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. But the event does more than provide a platform for tearful speeches: It helps drive Netflix couch potatoes into cinemas to see both relatively low-budget movies like “Philomena” and 3D blockbusters like “Gravity” during a traditionally slow time of year, says editor at Boxoffice.com.
2. “We’re the reason you can’t get a discount.”(因为有了我们，电影票价才如此高)
Throughout most of the year, discount bulk movie tickets are often offered on daily-deal sites and elsewhere. But come Oscar season, such deals tend to become scarce, experts say. “If movie theaters discounted tickets now, it would defeat the purpose of the biggest promotional event of the year,” says a partner at management consultancy Silicon Associates who previously worked for a talent agency in Los Angeles.
3. “Glitz looks better with popcorn and in 3D.”(3D让票价越来越贵)
The glitz and glamour of the movie business comes at a price. As the cost of special effects and movie star contracts continues to rise, so does the price of movie tickets—and refreshments. And while some patrons might sneak their own candy into movie, “if you didn’t have concessions, theaters would have to raise admission prices to make them economically viable,” says Morningstar analyst Liang Feng.
4. “Oscar parties don’t come cheap.”(奥斯卡晚会可不便宜)
The famous Vanity Fair awards party is emulated in homes all over the country. Many of the 40 million-plus people expected to watch the 86th Academy Awards will do so in large groups, drinking champagne and nibbling on Oscar movie-themed appetizers.
5. “There’s a reason you’re thirsty during the Oscars.”(插播的饮料广告帮我们赚钱)
PepsiCo takes over as the sole soda advertiser, with a 60-second commercial starring Cuba Gooding Jr.. Advertisers have spent over $750 million on the Academy Awards telecast over the past decade, and the number of advertisers featured has ticked up as well, from 13 in 2008 to 21 in 2013, Kantar Media reports. This year, a 30-second spot costs around $1.8 million, up from $1.65 million in 2013.
6. “Oscar fever could boost your cable bill.”(有线电视正以此盈利)
It’s not just movie theaters that are trying to benefit from the Oscar buzz—streaming and cable companies want in on the action too. According to one survey by CouponCabin.com, a website offering coupons from major retailers, 30% of moviegoers say they watch “on-demand” movies via a cable or satellite provider. “Movie producers have been more aggressive at shortening the time between the theater release and the on-demand release, partly due to the decline in DVD sales,” says the Morningstar analyst.
7. “Product placement isn’t just for movies.”(这是植入广告的大好机会)
Selling more movie tickets is only a small part of Oscar night. The pre-Oscar red carpet footage—during which glamorous stars are routinely asked by obsequious interviewers, “Who are you wearing?” — is one long infomercial for clothes, jewelry and shoes, say some experts. It’s the QVC for A-listers. In fact, if a designer can get a star to don a piece from their latest line, it can boost sales more than traditional advertising, says Susan J. Ashbrook, author of “Will Work for Shoes: The Business Behind Red Carpet Product Placement.” “The Oscars are the Super Bowl for fashion,” she adds.
8. “The best movies don’t always win.”(最好的电影未必得奖)
Art films often do get recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Best Picture, experts say, but true independent movies that may be a critical hit tend to evade Oscar’s gaze. Among the movies snubbed this year: “Fruitvale Station,” a film about a young, unarmed African-American man who was shot dead by a white transit police officer in the San Francisco Bay area. The film won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and Best First Film at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Also left out of the Oscar nominations in the Documentary Feature category was “Stories We Tell,” directed and written by Sarah Polley, a film about her family’s secrets. It received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Non-Fiction Film, the National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary Film, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Documentary Film and the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay.
9. “Oscar has a potty mouth.”(主持人得口无遮拦)
The right host can make or break the show. After several choppy years of viewership, the Academy Awards boosted audience figures last year when actor and comedian Seth MacFarlane hosted the event. Some 40.3 million people tuned in, according to Nielsen data, a 2.5% increase over 2012. But some critics found MacFarlane’s jokes sexist and racist. Even with the boost from MacFarlane, the Awards show was still far from its all-time highest ratings of 55.2 million in 1998, when “Titanic” won 11 Oscars and became the highest-grossing film ever.
10. “This gold statuette is worth millions.”(小金人可是价值连城)
There’s a lot of cash riding on the winner of this year’s Best Picture award. A Best Picture win at the Academy Awards is practically the best advertising a movie can get, especially if the studio’s pre-ceremony marketing push is taken into account. In fact, even a nomination can be worth its weight in gold. On average, winners of the Best Picture Oscar over the past five years earned around 50% of box office revenue before the Oscar nominees were announced, 32% once they were nominated and another 18% after winning the Oscar, according to market research company IbisWorld. Best Picture nominees from the 2008 to 2012 award seasons had an average budget of $56.9 million and box office sales of $127.7 million, a 56% profit from box office sales alone, it found.