Sunday night’s Academy Awards broadcast captured the biggest audience for Walt Disney Co.’s ABC network in five years, the company reported Monday.
“Fast national” ratings show 41.3 million viewers tuned in for the 3-hour-plus telecast, in which the small independent film “The Hurt Locker” beat box-office monster “Avatar” for the best-picture prize and captured five other awards. It was the largest Oscar audience since 42.1 million watched “Million Dollar Baby” take the top prize at the 2005 show.
Disney also revised its overall ratings numbers, saying that Sunday’s show scored a 23.1 household rating, which was the percentage of all U.S. homes watching the ceremony, as well as a 36 share, or the cut of homes with televisions turned on that were watching the Oscars.
At the ceremony, “Hurt Locker’s” director, Kathryn Bigelow, also became the first woman in the Academy Awards’ 82-year history to win the helming prize. Top acting honors went to Hollywood veterans Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock.
The household rating is up sharply from the 20.6 reported last year, when “Slumdog Millionaire” won best picture. The 36 share compares with 31 last year.
The last time the Oscars reached those proportions was in 2007, when “The Departed” and Martin Scorsese took top honors for best picture and best director.
Disney also said that its “reach” number, or the number of viewers that tuned in for at least six minutes of the Oscars, was 70 million. That compares with last year’s 68 million.
Disney had reported earlier that the show scored a 26.5 household rating and 40 share, but that was only in 56 key markets. Ratings from Nielsen Co. showed the five highest-rated markets were Chicago; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Boston; Kansas City, Mo.; and San Francisco. Chicago had a 37.6 household rating, while San Francisco’s was 31.8.
Final numbers from Nielsen are due out Tuesday.
It’s questionable whether this year’s numbers could prove to be a boon for both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, sponsor of the Oscars, as well as Disney. The academy had expanded its list of best-picture nominees to 10 from five in an effort to generate greater interest.
The telecast was helped by the fact that “Avatar” — the freshly minted all-time box-office champ with more than $2.5 billion in worldwide receipts — was one of the best-picture finalists and had captured nine nominations in all.
But the Oscars didn’t get the kind of numbers they usually get when an immensely popular film is in the mix. The 2004 telecast featured an 11-Oscar sweep by the last billion-dollar movie to get a best-picture nomination, “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.”
That film made $1.1 billion worldwide, only the second ever to cross the billion-dollar threshold, and its performance was reflected in Oscar ratings as the telecast scored a 26 rating with a 40 share.
The 1998 ceremony, in which previous box-office king “Titanic” also walked away with 11 statuettes, hit the ratings peak in the last quarter-century, garnering a 34.9 rating with a 55 share. Its estimated audience of 55.2 million is the highest ever since the statistic first was recorded in 1974.
The academy has seen its Oscar household ratings languish in the last two years, and it actually dipped below 20 two years ago. Many in the academy and elsewhere figure last year’s telecast suffered when critical and fan favorite “The Dark Knight” failed to get a best-picture nomination. That movie made just over $1 billion worldwide.
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