Who is going to win at the Oscars? Which movies will shape the film industry’s annual bonanza of red carpet dresses, celebrity tears and emotional acceptance speeches?
The 88th Academy Awards — which take place on February 28 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood — is one of Hollywood’s biggest nights and though we won’t know the winners for another few days, what can the billions of searches that take place each day on Google tell us about the nominated actors and movies?
Our data team at Google Trends has put together the perfect place for exploring which movies, artists and directors are top searched across the US — and the key questions we all want to know about them. All live updating throughout the awards ceremony this weekend.
And the Best Picture goes to....
The Best Picture award shapes how the next year’s movies are made and which films receive a spring boost from renewed interest and ticket or video sales. It’s been awarded every year since the very first Oscars in 1929 and is usually the final award at the ceremony.
The award is closely linked to the prize for Best Director too — only four films in Oscars history have been awarded Best Picture without their directors being nominated. In case you’re interested, those are Wings (1928), Grand Hotel (1932), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), and Argo (2012).
So what does the Google data tell us about this year’s nominees? As they were announced, the shortlist was led by The Revenant — director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s harrowing tale of survival and revenge in the uncharted wild west, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and a memorable bear.
But it might not be a runaway victory for The Revenant, as it faces stiff competition from The Big Short, Brooklyn, and journalism drama Spotlight — as well as post-apocalyptic adventure Mad Max: Fury Road. And while the Revenant has pulled ahead in search in recent months, the other movies aren’t giving in easily, with each overtaking the other at regular intervals, as this chart shows.
However, that peak interest isn’t reflected across the country. Looking across the full year, Mad Max: Fury Road is still the top searched movie in most states.
Best actor and actress
As one of Hollywood’s biggest nights, one can’t go unprepared, especially if they’re nominated. So as Hollywood’s finest ready their potential acceptance speeches, just in case, the rest of us are searching to find out more about the stars. While we don’t know if our lists will reflect who the academy members choose, they do tell us which of the nominees fascinates the world most. You might expect the stars who often top the box office list to be most searched on Google, but that’s not always what happens. Right after the nominations were announced, the top actress on Google wasn’t well known celebrity Jennifer Lawrence for Joy, but Brie Larson, a lesser known star before her acclaimed role in Room. Jennifer Lawrence leads search interest once again going into the Oscars.
See how the Google search popularity of these actresses changed throughout the year.
For actors, the list reflects our interest in top searched movie The Revenant — at least partly driven by the fact that top-searched actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been nominated three times for an Oscar but so far has never won. Will this be his lucky year?
Actors also changed popularity often this year, with Leo almost exclusively leading the pack.
Best director
With The Revenant nominated for Best Picture, it’s no surprise that director Alejandro González Iñárritu tops the list for Google search. But just as there is fierce competition in the movie itself, the list of top searched directors on Google is very close, too.
The Oscars is a time to celebrate all those people - whether nominated or not - who impacted the film industry and entertained us over the last year. The awards show itself is also a cultural highlight, and we take a look at what people were searching about the Oscars.
The host with the most
It’s the second time that Chris Rock has hosted the Oscars and as soon as it was announced, the world took to Google to find out more about the comedian and actor. Questions ran the gamut, from how tall he is to how much he earns and even a few unsure searchers who wanted to confirm his position as host.
Beyond Hollywood
Which city cares most about the Oscars? It probably won’t come as a surprise that Hollywood consistently has the highest search interest in, well, Hollywood. But other metropolitan areas are in there too, from New York to Chicago to San Francisco (where Oscars parties are a yearly tradition).
And interest in the show isn’t just in the US, it spans the world. In fact, America is not even the top country for Oscar-related searches in 2016 so far: Ireland has higher search interest as a percent of all its searches than any other country. And it’s not alone, with Canada and Portugal all ahead of the United States, in a testament to the film industry’s global reach.
So how will it all end? Though we can’t predict the winners, most memorable speeches or best moments from the night, we can follow along and see what trends rise above the rest. If you want to keep up, make sure to check out the Oscars page on Google Trends.