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Entertainment for Senior Citizens
Senior Citizens Showing Little Interest in Oscars,
Even with Senior Contenders
Oldest nominee, Clint Eastwood, could win
for director and best film
 Feb.
22, 2007 – Senior citizens are not very interested in watching the
Academy Awards this year; only 32 percent say they plan to watch,
according to a Harris Poll. The reason, according to 39 percent of these
seniors, is they don't watch many movies, which conflicts with other
surveys that show seniors are big movie fans, they just like to watch at
home. There are, however, some of our own senior citizens nominated for
the prestigious Oscars.
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Senior
citizen Oscar nominees |
|
| |
Best Actor -
Peter O'Toole (Venus) born Aug. 2,1932.
Best Actress
- Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal) born Dec. 9, 1934.
Best Actress
- Older boomer Helen Mirren (The Queen) born July 26,
1945.
Best
Supporting Actor - Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) born
March 26, 1934.
Best Director - Clint
Eastwood (Letters from Iwo Jima) born May 31, 1930
Best
Director - Martin Scorsese (The Departed) born Nov. 17,
1942.
Best Director - Stephen
Frears (The Queen) born June 20, 1941
More about
each nominee can be found at -
http://en.wikipedia.org/ |
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Harris says that in the race for Best Picture
Oscar, there is no clear "runaway" hit according to the American public.
One in five U.S. adults (19%) say "Letters from Iwo Jima" should win the
Oscar for Best Picture, while 13 percent each say the Oscar should go to
"The Departed" and "Little Miss Sunshine."
Eight percent of adults say "The Queen" should win
Best Picture and four percent say the award should go to "Babel."
The largest groups, however, are the 20 percent who
say none of the nominated movies should win, and the 21 percent who are
not sure. Though the nominated movies may have critical acclaim, it
appears that mass popular appeal has eluded them.
A survey by Blockbuster, the video rental store,
found "The Departed" edging out "Little Miss Sunshine" for best picture.
(See the Blockbuster survey below the report on the Harris Poll.)
In the Harris Poll, over one-quarter (27%) of those
in the West say "Letters from Iwo Jima" should win, while the rest of
the country is much more evenly divided.
A different front-runner emerges among those who
say they are planning to watch the Oscars this year also. One in five
Oscar watchers say "The Departed" should win, while 17 percent say it
should be "Little Miss Sunshine," and 16 percent say the award should go
to "Letters from Iwo Jima."
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Related
Story |
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More Seniors Go to the Movies as Attendance Drops
Sharply for Others
Senior citizens, however, led trend in
preferring movies at home
May 16, 2006 – Senior citizens – 65 and older –
were trendsetters for preferring to watch movies at home. In a 1995
survey, 73% of seniors said they preferred to watch movies at home,
while the survey found only 69% of all adults preferred home movies. Now,
seniors and all adults surveyed by Pew Research Center are up to a 75%
preference for home movies. Interestingly, however, more seniors are
going out monthly to the movies in 2006 (13%) than they did in 1995
(10%), while the trend is reversed for all ages – just 26% in '06 versus
31% in '95. Read
more...
|
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Best Actor
In the race for Best Actor, the lone senior citizen
nominated, Peter O'Toole, does not do very well with the publc. There is
a clear favorite, with 38 percent saying Will Smith should win for "The
Pursuit of Happyness." Thirteen percent each say the Oscar should go to
Forest Whitaker for "The Last King of Scotland" and Leonardo DiCaprio
for "Blood Diamond."
Veteran actor O'Toole is next as seven percent say
he should win for his role in "Venus," while one percent believes Ryan
Gosling should win for his role in "Half Nelson." Over two in five (44%)
Oscar watchers also say Will Smith should win the Oscar, followed by
Leonardo DiCaprio (20%).
Best Actress
Again, the senior citizen nominee, Judi Dench, does
not get much public support. A near senior, Helen Mirrin, 61, appears to
be a contender.
One-quarter (26%) say the Oscar should go to Meryl
Streep for "The Devil Wears Prada," while 18 percent say it should go to
Mirren for "The Queen."
Further down the list, nine percent each say the
award should go to Kate Winslet for "Little Children" and Penelope Cruz
for "Volver" and five percent say Dench should take home the Oscar for
"Notes on a Scandal."
Of those who say they will watch the Oscars this
year, 31 percent say the Best Actress award should go to Meryl Streep
and 29 percent believe it should go to Helen Mirren.
Oscar Host
The choice of host tends to get almost as much
scrutiny as the awards themselves. With Ellen DeGeneres hosting this
year, about two-thirds (67%) of adults say it makes no difference in
their decision to watch the Oscars, while 17 percent say it will make
them more likely to watch and 15 percent say it will make them less
likely to watch. One-quarter (24%) of women, however, say the choice
will make them more likely to watch as do one-third of those who say
they are going to watch the Oscars.
Watching the Oscars
|
"Are you
planning on watching the Oscars this year?" |
|
|
Echo
Boomers
|
Gen X
|
Baby
Boomers
|
Matures
|
|
Total
|
(18-30)
|
(31-42)
|
(43-61)
|
(62+)
|
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
Yes
|
43
|
48
|
48
|
43
|
32
|
No
|
54
|
51
|
48
|
53
|
64
|
Not Sure
|
3
|
1
|
3
|
3
|
4
|
Decline Answer
|
*
|
-
|
-
|
*
|
-
|
More than two in five (43%) U.S. adults say they
are planning to watch the Oscars this year, while just over half (54%)
say they are not planning on watching. Perhaps not surprisingly, Oscar
viewers are more likely to be female than male, with over half of women
(52%) expecting to watch, while almost two- thirds of men (64%) expect
not to watch.
Why do people watch the Oscars? More than half
(54%) of those who planning to watch the Oscars say it is because they
enjoy movies and like to see the recognition, while 46 percent say they
watch to see the actors and the actresses.
One-third (32%) say they always watch them, three
in 10 tune in for the fashions and 29 percent say they just love award
shows. On the flip side, 38 percent of those who are not planning to
watch say it is because they don't enjoy watching award shows, while
just under one-quarter (23%) don't watch the Oscars because they don't
watch many movies.
One in five (18%) say they don't watch because the
show is just too long, 16 percent say it is because they always forget
they are on and 11 percent don't watch the Oscars because they don't
know any of the actors and actresses.
Other results from The Harris Poll(R) are:
● Education plays a role in the choice for Best
Actor and Best Actress winners. Over one-quarter (26%) of those with a
post graduate education think Forest Whitaker should win Best Actor and
the same number think Helen Mirren should win Best Actress;
● There is a generational difference in who will
watch the Oscars. Just under half of Echo Boomers (those ages 18 to 30)
and Generation X (those ages 31 to 42) (48% each) are planning on
watching, while 43 percent of Baby Boomers (those ages 43 to 61) and
just one-third (32%) of Matures (those ages 62 and older) will watch;
● Seven in 10 (71%) of those in the West who are
planning to watch the Oscars say this is because they enjoy the movies
and like to see them get recognition;
● One-third (32%) of Echo Boomers don't watch the
Oscars because they always forget they are on, while two in five Matures
(39%) don't watch because they don't watch many movies.
TABLE 1 - BEST
PICTURE OSCAR
"Which movie should win the Oscar for Best
Picture?"
|
|
Region
|
Oscar Viewers
|
|
Total
|
East
|
Midwest
|
South
|
West
|
Oscar
Watchers
|
Non-Oscar
Watchers
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
Letters from Iwo Jima
|
19
|
16
|
18
|
17
|
27
|
16
|
22
|
The Departed
|
13
|
16
|
11
|
15
|
9
|
20
|
7
|
Little Miss Sunshine
|
13
|
13
|
14
|
16
|
6
|
17
|
10
|
The Queen
|
8
|
9
|
7
|
9
|
9
|
11
|
7
|
Babel
|
4
|
3
|
5
|
3
|
7
|
9
|
1
|
None of these
|
20
|
18
|
27
|
16
|
21
|
13
|
25
|
Not Sure
|
21
|
24
|
17
|
22
|
21
|
14
|
26
|
Decline to answer
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
*
|
2
|
Note: Percentages may not add up to
100% due to rounding.
*Less than 0.5%.
TABLE 2 - BEST
ACTOR OSCAR
"Who should win the Oscar for Best Actor?"
By Education and Oscar Viewership
|
Total
|
HS or
less
|
Some
college
|
College
grad
|
Post
grad
|
Oscar
Watcher
|
Non-Oscar
Watcher
|
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
Will Smith for "The Pursuit of Happyness"
|
38
|
| | 
Feb. 14, 2007 - Julie Christie stars as Fiona in
"Away from Her," a movie planned for release on May 4 that will touch
the hearts of many senior citizens. It is described as "a beautifully
moving love story" that deals with memory and its circuitous, enigmatic
paths over the course of a long marriage.