Bill Kramer

Source: Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Scienes

Bill Kramer

Academy CEO Bill Kramer gave an update on the Academy100 campaign to raise $500m by the organisation’s centenary in 2028 and told a media conference on Thursday: “We have to redefine the metric of success.”

Kramer, who assumed the reins in 2022 and recently renewed his contract through July 2028, has made international outreach and diversification of revenue two of his cornerstone policies.

The executive told the Financial Times Business of Entertainment Summit in Los Angeles on Thursday that so far the campaign, launched in May at Cinecittà in Rome, has raised around $160m. “It’s designed to create a larger general portfolio endowment… It’s set up to sustain the Academy beyond the 100th Oscars.”

Kramer has been touring global festivals like Cannes and Venice in a bid to increase the international component of the organisation’s 10,500 membership. He has ensured the Academy has staked a presence at major film festivals like Cannes and Venice, and there are events planned across the world in locales like Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Kyoto and London.

Kramer noted, “We have to redefine the metric of success for the Oscars. For many years it has been about how many people watched it on linear television.”

While this year’s ceremony attracted an average of 19.5m viewers marking a 4% rise on the 2023 show, viewership trails pre-Covid numbers by a substantial amount.

Kramer emphasised that Disney-owned ABC was an excellent telecast partner – its current contract expires in 2028 and it has been reported the deal brings in $75m each year for the Academy – and said that whoever would become the Academy’s next partner would involve a lucrative deal for the organisation.

“We should be thinking how many people are engaging with our year-round content – linear, streaming, social, in-person,” he said. “It’s about thinking our metric for success beyond one night on linear television.”

The executive also name-checked the Academy Museum as a strong source of revenue.

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