Beyond the highly debatable selection of the film Anora (2024) in key and multiple categories at the 97th Academy Awards, there lies an irrefutable fact. It is the noteworthy commercial success of Anora (2024) globally. The film was made on a budget of $6 million.
Even before it won multiple Oscars, the film had collected $46 million worldwide in theatres. Multiple Oscars merely boosted its collection by an additional $6 million, taking its total collection in theatres globally to $52.5 million.
This means that even before the film won awards in key categories at the 97th Academy Awards, it had emerged as a bona fide success by earning more than seven times its budget, globally. This noteworthy success of the film in theatres globally confirms a sustained trend in cinema which has become almost a global phenomenon: The trend of an increasing base of an audience which does not value ‘intimate’ or ‘intense’ experiences in films. For this audience, ‘understanding’ a film is a barometer sufficient to pronounce a verdict about the film.
In this way, this audience has reduced the whole journey of watching a film to an ‘intellectual exercise’ rather than an ‘experience’, which is the vital criterion in evaluating a film’s worthiness. This aspect is amply reflected in the film Anora (2024). The film is about a sex worker (named Anora, played by Mikey Madison) who harbours unrealistic expectations from a spoilt and hedonistic son (named Vanya, played by Mark Eyde.