Barbenheimer and a slew of good nominees brought viewers back to the Oscars

Say what you will about the 2024 Academy Awards, but the problem (if any) wasn’t the nominees. From Anatomy Of A Fall to Zone Of Interest, this year’s slate was among a robust crop of Oscar contenders in years. These were a diverse bunch, ranging from an I.P.-based franchise hopeful to a challenging experiment on the banality of evil to two three-hour talkies about American-born crimes of the 20th century. No wonder the Academy Awards is posting its highest ratings in four years.

Per Variety, 19.5 million people tuned in to witness Ryan Gosling’s ascension to the top of Mount Ryan with a blistering performance of “I’m Just Ken.” The number is up 4% from the previous year when another movie that people actually liked, Everything Everywhere All At Once, took home top prizes.

Moreover, the Academy spread the love around. While many assumed Oppenheimer would sweep the night, there was a good mix of who won awards. Sleeper hits like American Fiction and Holdovers took home Oscars, while burgeoning cultural talking point Poor Things nearly derailed all of Oppenheimer’s momentum. Heck, how bad can an Oscars where Hayao Miyazaki wins Best Animated Film really be?

It was the most-watched since the 2020 Oscars, when, surprise, another movie people like, Parasite, unexpectedly cleaned up. Additionally, the Academy acknowledged the moviegoing public’s obsession with serious comic book movies by nominating Todd Phillips’ Joker 11 times. That year, they had a strong Best Picture line-up, too, with diverse nominations of crowd-pleasers and challenging adult fare. Sure, there was no slap or La La Land flub, but in the end, if a boring Oscars means many deserving artists received recognition. We’ll take boring any day.