The Academy Award nominees were announced on Tuesday and there are the usual strong opinions about who got snubbed, but ultimately streaming services like Apple TV+ look like the real winners again.
At this point, it’s no surprise that films that entirely bypass the theater — like Netflix’s All Quiet on the Western Front — are on the shortlist for the prestigious Best Picture award and others. Yet it’s still a relatively new phenomenon, and one that’s a welcome gesture for streaming services.
“There is clear boost from an industry credibility [standpoint] when streaming players get Oscar nominations,” says Wedbush Senior Equity Analyst Daniel Ives. “This is an arms race streaming vs traditional Hollywood studios.”
Indeed, it was only last year that Apple’s CODA was the first streaming movie to win the award for Best Picture, a move that “put Apple on the map in traditional Hollywood circles,” says Ives.
As KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Justin Patterson previously wrote, Apple’s success with CODA could be “viewed as a changing of the guard,” but it also reflects simple economics. “[F]ilms likely to garner smaller audiences and those with more creative risks are increasingly launching on streaming services. What remains to be seen is whether subscribers consistently view direct-to-streaming films and are willing to pay more for services offering them,” he wrote.
Naturally that’s less of an issue for a company like Apple than for Netflix, given the diversity of its revenue streams.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple TV+ was first to take the top prize, Best Picture, thanks to CODA, and that can never be accomplished by any other streaming service. The best they can do is to be second. CODA‘s feat was invaluable in establishing Apple TV+ and affirming it as home to top quality, award-winning fare.
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