When the Oscar nominations were announced earlier this month, there was a glaring omission: Any actors of color. The result was a backlash — Will Smith and Spike Lee said they wouldn’t attend the awards ceremony, and show host Chris Rock is said to be writing commentary on the topic for tonight’s telecast. As a result, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences promised to diversify its membership.
Do the Oscars need more diversity? Why or why not? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, debate.
Hollywood will have to diversify to sell tickets
One of the best movies of 2015 — it appeared on many top 10 lists — was “Creed.” It starred a black man, Michael B. Jordan, and was directed by a black man, Ryan Coogler. The movie was widely lauded, and when it came time to hand out Oscar nominations, guess what happened?
The one white guy with a significant presence in the movie, Sylvester Stallone, was the only one to receive the honor. It’s no dig at Stallone, who gave a wonderful performance as Rocky Balboa, to say the decision was frankly baffling.
Listen, awards are subjective — even stupid. I can’t remember the last time a best picture winner came anywhere near being my own pick for the best picture of the year. Give 100 people a ballot, and you’re likely to get 100 different nomination lists.
Still, to look at this year’s nominations is to realize that much of the academy’s membership believes only white people did superlative work. That doesn’t quite ring true, does it?
The academy is making moves to diversify. That’s smart. And not just for moral reasons. You want to be successful? That means, increasingly, that you have to appeal to more than just a white audience.
This is a lesson for business — Hollywood is surely a business, the Oscars an overlong commercial for that business — as well as politics: America’s demographics are changing. Whites will still be the biggest racial group for the foreseeable future, but they won’t be the majority: Latinos and Asians and African-Americans are a big part of the population — and a huge part of any customer base. In the case of movies, it’s true that the customers want to see characters who look like them.
And if they don’t, they’re increasingly likely to take their money elsewhere.
So the Oscars shouldn’t diversify just because it’s the “politically correct” thing to do, but because it’s their surest bet at staying relevant. Forget black, brown or yellow. Hollywood should do the right thing because of its favorite color of all: Green.
—Joel Mathis
Some political diversity wouldn’t hurt either
If Hollywood wants to stay relevant, maybe the creative geniuses at Fox and Sony and Disney should come up with original stories instead of more superhero franchises, young-adult novel adaptations, and reboots of old television shows and films. Would that be too much to ask?
Yes, it probably would.
Hollywood had a great year in 2015: $11.1 billion in domestic revenues, the highest grossing year in U.S. history, as it happens. Know why? “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” alone pulled in close to $600 million over two weeks in December. “Jurassic World,” a sequel and a reboot, made $652 million. “Avengers: Age of Ultron” made $459 million. The final “Hunger Games” sequel made a respectable $280 million.
Have a look at the casts of those films. Notice anything? Anything at all?
Here’s a hint: John Boyega may be a great actor (he really is), but people didn’t flock to see “The Force Awakens” because he’s black.
It’s possible that U.S. moviegoers care as much about the racial makeup of a film’s cast as the rarified crowd of people lamenting the unbearable whiteness of the Academy Awards. It’s possible that viewers are tuning out the Oscars because the nominees aren’t diverse enough. Last year’s broadcast pulled in 36.6 million viewers from the much coveted 18-49-year-old demographic. (If you’re 50 and up, you don’t matter nearly as much to advertisers.) That represented a 17 percent decline over the 2014 broadcast and the program’s worst performance since 2008.
It’s also possible — even highly likely — that the Oscars just aren’t as relevant as they used to be.
Fewer people are watching because they aren’t seeing the films the academy deems worthy of honoring. Films like “Bridge of Spies,” “The Danish Girl,” “Trumbo” and “Joy” win plaudits for their politically correct messages, but audiences don’t share the critics’ enthusiasm.
Of course the Oscars should be more diverse. It would be nice if the academy weren’t predictably and obnoxiously left wing. But that isn’t the “diversity” we’re supposed to worry about nowadays.
Instead, it looks like we’re in for an orgy of liberal self-flagellation and Donald Trump jokes. That’s entertainment?
—Ben Boychuk
Ben Boychuk is associate editor of the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. Joel Mathis is associate editor for Philadelphia Magazine.
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