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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is launching a $500 million global fundraising campaign to shore up its finances and address a decades-long decline in viewership for the annual Oscars telecast, which generates most of its revenue.
The academy has already raised about $100 million, with individual donors including billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, Bill Kramer, the academy’s executive director, said in an interview. In addition, sponsorship deals have been signed with global luxury brands, including the Dorchester Collection.
According to Statista, the Oscars’ television audience has shrunk from nearly 44 million U.S. viewers in 2014 to 19.5 million this year. The current contract between the nonprofit academy and ABC, Walt Disney’s television network that broadcasts the Oscars, ends in 2028 – the 100th anniversary of the awards show – and negotiations for an extension are expected to begin soon.
Kramer describes the current ABC deal as “very healthy” and called the agreement with Disney “an amazing partnership.” But he said the academy decided it needed to embark on a new initiative as streaming upended the film and television business “Campaign to diversify revenues”.
“No healthy company or organization should rely on a single source of support to a degree that could cause concern if that support were to diminish,” he said.
The academy’s push to reach global donors and sponsors comes at a time when other nonprofit arts groups are facing funding challenges.
The Metropolitan Opera in New York twice withdrew emergency funds from its foundation last year due to a liquidity shortage. The executive director of the Sundance Film Festival, which has struggled to recover from Covid-19 disruptions, resigned in March due to funding problems.
“The Academy sits in two worlds, the film world and the world of nonprofit arts and culture, and both are experiencing radical shifts in business model and radical shifts in audience,” Kramer said.
In addition to the Academy Awards, the group also operates the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which opened in 2021, and supports educational programs for young filmmakers.
Hollywood has been rocked by the disruptions brought by the shift to streaming, the pandemic and last year’s strikes that shut down productions for months. But Kramer said streaming has also helped make the film business more global, creating opportunities for the group he leads.
The academy, long criticized by international filmmakers for focusing too much on U.S. films, is trying to adapt to the shift toward a more global audience, Kramer said.
“That’s reflected in our Oscar nominations and wins,” he said, noting that about 30 percent of the Academy’s members now live outside the U.S., double the number a decade ago.
parasitea South Korean film won the Best Film award in 2020, and at the last Oscars it was two foreign films, The zone of interest And Anatomy of a fallwere nominated for the main prize.
“The academy recognizes the fact that we live in a much more global world, a much more globally connected world,” said Kramer, and is now seeking funding outside the United States.
“This is a global game,” he said as he prepared to launch the fundraising campaign in Rome on Friday. “This is a way to signal to the world that we are a global arts nonprofit and work with a global base of supporters.”