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With the 90th Academy Awards coming up this weekend, WalletHub has released its 2018 Oscars Facts report, which includes an infographic filled with absurd facts about the event as well as a Q&A with a panel of entertainment experts.
Oscar turns 90 in 2018. And like many seniors who came of age in a different era, this golden guy has had a tough time adapting. Hollywood’s biggest bugaboos – racial and gender equality – are far from resolved. But the movie industry’s stars say time’s up, and the nominations for the 90th Academy Awards include a record number of women and minorities.
The best director category includes both a woman and a black man for the second time, with each group being represented for just the fifth time. And Jordan Peele is the first black person nominated for directing, writing and producing in the same year.
Whom Oscar goes home with remains to be seen, of course. The same also goes for whether PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 84th time tallying the votes will produce another Moonlight-esque switcheroo. But you don’t have to wait to get in the Oscars spirit. There are lots of great movies to catch up on, plus plenty of interesting Oscars stats to dig into.
Here are some highlights from this year’s report…
— $100M: How much Hollywood spends on award-season lobbying each year
— $44M: Total cost of Oscars ceremony
— $10M: Cost of the look for an A-list actress attending the Oscars
— $2.6M: Cost of a 30-second commercial during the Oscars telecast (48% less than the Super Bowl)
— $24.7K: Cost of the 16,500-square-foot Oscars red carpet
— $75K: Price for a couple to attend the Vanity Fair Oscar party
— $900: Current value of the 24-karat gold-plated Oscar statuette
— 2nd: Year in which both a woman and a black man were nominated for Best Director
For a closer look at a variety of issues related to the Academy Awards, from demographics to dollars and cents, WalletHub posed some interesting questions to a panel of leading business and entertainment experts. View their responses here.