Female-fronted movies are proving most popular in the UK ahead of The Oscars this weekend, according to data released today (March 7th, 2024). However, Oppenheimer is widely expected to scoop the big prize, pointing at a disparity between what captures the imagination and the critics’ choice. The insight, from advertising technology firm Quantcast, shows that if The Oscars were based on engagement with movies and their stars, the ‘Best Picture’ category would be dominated by films with a female lead. 

Poor Things, with Emma Stone in the starring role, is leading the way with 5.5m engaged devices in the UK, closely followed by Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (5.38m). This eclipses engagement with similarly celebrated movies from the past 12 months, such as Oppenheimer (3.81m) and Killers of the Flower Moon (290,000).

Interestingly, Cillian Murphy has an addressable audience of 5.21m, significantly larger than the audience Oppenheimer achieved, putting him at the front of the pack in the ‘Actor in a Leading Role’ category. Emily Blunt’s performance in the same movie seems to put her front-of-mind in ‘Actress in a Supporting Role’ category too.

More broadly, the UK addressable audience figures highlight the Hollywood stars UK consumers are seemingly supporting this weekend.

Matt White, VP EMEA at Quantcast, says, “The Oscars is one of the most highly anticipated award ceremonies of the year and as soon as the nominees are announced, people begin to speculate which movies and Hollywood stars will be celebrated on the night. Our data shows exactly that and it seems with International Women’s Day around the corner, female-fronted movies like Barbie and Poor Things are garnering the most attention in the UK.”

“This insight will be particularly pertinent for marketing teams, looking to invest in high-performance, data-driven advertising campaigns to take advantage of the buzz around the Academy Awards. Understanding which movies, actors, and actresses are being engaged with the most allows them to presume less, decipher unexpected patterns, and reach people where they are - not just where they think they might be, especially now that Google has started removing third-party cookies from Chrome.”