Topic Of The Day: How The Studios Can Fix Their Campaign Strategies

Hello, Bloggers, welcome to another episode of Topic Of The Day. For today's topic, I will continue my thoughts on the Oscars and how they could use some fixing. Because the problems they have start with the industry, I'll delve into how the studios can fix them with their Oscar campaigns.

Now, they often nominate films that come out within the last three months of the year across the board in every major category while films that come out earlier are either nominated in a handful of categories or not at all which is a real shame.

Here is one way they could fix that: Let's say they look at their films that come out from three periods: January to March, April to June, and July to September. They look at the film from each period that has the highest Rotten Tomatoes rating AND did the most business at the box office, then send out screeners for those films to almost each major branch and below-the-line branches where it could have a chance of getting in.

But let's say one of the big distributors (Universal, 20th Century Fox, etc.) doesn't have a critically acclaimed financial grosser that came out within, say, the January to March period. They could look at the returns of films from their specialty divisions  (Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, etc.) and see if they did solid business so that they can create awareness for their indies as well as their blockbusters.

In fact, the major distributors could use this same strategy for their specialty division films: Find out which indie did the most business in each monthly period, both critically and financially, and send out screeners to voters from the major branches (Producers, Actors, Writers, etc..) as well as any below-the-line branches where the film may have a chance.

But what happens to the films that came out in the last three months of the year? Well, the studios could take one film that comes out within that period and use it as a wild card and give it a major push. They could also do that ahead of time. That way, they might avoid cases like Selma which was rushed into its awards aeason and despite its high critical reception, was still too late to the party.

If this strategy were to take place, it could help the Oscars in the ratings department because they would end up nominating films that people actually saw and the studios don't have to waste all their energy on movies that come out at the end of the year and get campaigns before critics and the public actually see them.

They did recently nominate films like Mad Max: Fury Road and The Grand Budapest Hotel, which came out earlier in their respective years, so the studios may be heading in the right direction since they're the ones that give certain films the biggest push. But if they were to go by this strategy, then it might allow them to go even further.

What do you guys think? Do you agree with this strategy of studios picking the top film from each monthly period? Please be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section. Thanks for reading!