History will remember Sunday night's Oscars ceremony for more than just who took home the hardware, but investors were quick to size up which movie studio or streaming service was tied to its biggest winners. Netflix (NFLX -7.84%) had not just one -- but two -- entries among the 10 flicks vying for the ultimate Best Picture trophy at the 94th Academy Awards presentation, but The Power of The Dog and Don't Look Up fell short.
The final-category's winner was CODA, a coming-of-age film about the only hearing member of a deaf family. It was available exclusively on Apple's (AAPL -0.93%) premium streaming services -- Apple TV+ -- since last summer. The easy narrative is that Apple beat Netflix with its lone entry in the category, but it's not a fair assessment. Both platforms were winners last night.
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And the Oscar goes to ...
Before we read too much into the movie industry's ultimate annual fete, let's start by pointing out that Netflix -- and Apple, for that matter -- rely a lot more on TV shows than movies to keep its viewers engaged. A movie is a one-time viewing event. A hit show is binge-watched over a longer period of time, with subsequent seasons to follow.
Do you really think Apple TV+ will land more subscribers to its service with CODA than it has with Ted Lasso? Can you name a single Netflix original movie that has had a bigger impact on the success of its platform than some of its hit shows including Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Squid Game, and Money Heist?
It's the television world's Emmy accolades that seem to carry more weight than Oscars, but even then, there's a big difference between what critics like and what audiences crave.
If you didn't see many or even any of the films nominated for the Best Picture category, you're not alone. None of the films among the dozen highest-grossing domestic theatrical releases of 2021 made the cut. Outside of Dune, none of the other entries cracked $40 million in domestic box-office receipts.
The artsy nature of many of the nominated films and easy streaming availability in most cases means that the only real loser here was the multiplex operator. However, you don't see too many exhibitors complaining about a lack of blockbusters among the Oscar-nominated films. They had a bumper crop of superhero and action films that attracted large audiences, even if the members of the Motion Pictures Academy steered clear of them outside of the special-effects and sound-editing categories.
Netflix will be just fine. The Power of the Dog got the nod for the prestigious Directing category. However, even if Netflix films were to walk away empty-handed -- or not even nominated at all -- it's not going to move the needle at the company. There were 221.8 million paying subscribers for the world's leading premium-video service at the end of December, and its guidance calls for it to top 224 million accounts by the time its first quarter comes to a close later this week.
No one is close to dethroning Netflix as the leading streaming-services stock. It has increased pricing for its standard plan six times over the past eight years -- a 94% increase in that time -- and subscribers aren't flinching. It doesn't need to have a pulse on what 10,000 movie critics appreciate, as long as it has years of data showing what its mainstream audience wants to binge on any given night.
Apple TV+ deserves a tip of the hat for coming out ahead, but you won't find a loser among the leading streaming services when success and popularity are always more valuable than which indie fare comes out on top in any particular year.
