As the Oscars approach, the stars of “The Whale” and “Elvis” are closely matched in audience demand, with sentiment largely positive.
As the Oscars draw near, all eyes are on the actors vying for the nod from the Academy that will jumpstart their career. While the awards represent endorsement by industry experts and not the general public, the people and productions recognized at these award ceremonies have become more aligned with popular opinion in recent years, Parrot analysis shows. Analytics. Zooming in on the Best Actor category, we see a close two-way race for the audience favorite.
Two nominees in the Best Actor category stand out from the rest in terms of audience demand, as measured by Parrot Analytics data, which factors in consumer research, streaming, downloads and social media, among others. other interactions. Brendan Fraser and Austin Butler had around 70 times the demand for average talent, an exceptional level that puts them in a class well ahead of other nominees and in a category that only reaches a small fraction of talent, with Butler holding a slight lead. .
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Throughout this awards season it has been a close matchup between these two actors:
Butler won the Best Actor, Motion Picture – Drama category at the Golden Globes, leading to his demand peaking at 145 times the average.
Fraser nearly matched this after winning the Critic’s Choice Award and emotional speech on January 15 when its demand reached 140 times the average.
Most recently, Fraser won the SAG Award for Best Actor on February 27, bringing his demand up to 114 times the average.
Another dimension we can look at when comparing how these two actors compare is audience sentiment, a measure of the positive or negative feelings viewers have about them. All of the nominees in the Best Actor category have net positive sentiment so far this year, which makes sense since awards season is a victory lap for most of these actors as they celebrate recognition for the work. what they did last year.
Demand for Best Actor Nominees, US (Parrot Analytics)
Paul Mescal had the most positive audience sentiment this year. This is a good example of the tradeoff talent can face between increased awareness (increased demand) and positive sentiment. As actors increase their audience base. they attract more people who are neutral or even negative towards them. Paul Mescal and Bill Nighy had the lowest demand but highest sentiment among this year’s nominees: a smaller audience engages with them, but that audience is more likely to feel positive about them.
Fraser and Butler had the highest demand and quite high positive sentiment as well. When it comes to how the public feels about these actors, there’s no clear winner between the two.
Audience Sentiment, Best Actor Nominees (Parrot Analytics)
One way these two actors have distinguished themselves is in the makeup of their audiences. Butler has a more female audience, a nearly two-to-one ratio, while Fraser’s fans are more evenly split.
Butler’s audience is made up of a surprisingly even age distribution, split almost evenly among the four generational cohorts we considered. While one might have expected his audience to be younger, given his own age and acting history on Disney Channel and in teen dramas, it seems his breakout role as Elvis has earned him older fans in the over-age age group. 40 years.
Audience demographics, Austin Butler and Brendan Fraser (Parrot Analytics)
Fraser has a remarkably strong Millennial fanbase. Almost 70% of her audience was in the 23-39 age group. Anecdotally, her Gen Z co-star on “The Whale,” Sadie Sink, he didn’t know who he was at his first table read. Hopefully her return in this role will allow her to expand her fan base beyond her core audience, starting with his co-star.
Christofer Hamilton is a Senior Insights Analyst at Parrot Analytics, a WrapPRO partner. For more information on Parrot Analytics, visit the data and analytics center.
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