The end of “movies?” Yeah, no, that’s ridiculous. Theaters as a mode for exhibiting small and mid-tier features might be on the ropes, but your big cultural tent-pole movies are going to keep the industry buoyed for a minute yet—your Marvel flicks, your Fast movies, your Star Wars’s, your Chris Nolan pictures, etc… these are water-cooler movies, prospective cultural-phenoms, and the window of exclusivity given to theaters coupled with the instant spoilers that pop up on social media all but guarantee decent to great opening weekends for these sorts of films.
The thing with a couple of these Oscar movies is that because of the Pandemic, they had day-and-date streaming releases: Dune on HBO Max, Power of Dog and Don’t Look Up on Netflix, CODA on Apple+. Others had abbreviated exclusivity windows—Nightmare Alley appeared on HBOMax 45 days after premiering on screens at the end of December, and King Richard, I believe, also had short window of theatrical exclusivity before appearing VOD. I did look around a while back to see how many of the Best Picture noms I could watch from the comfort (and safety) of my own home and the only Best Picture nom that I couldn’t find available for viewing any time before the Oscars, either for free with subscription, or for purchase through VOD, was the Japanese entry, Drive My Car. And as foreign movies don’t tend to get super wide releases or do that well at the box office, my response to these best picture nominees not doing well at the box office is a resounding: “Yeah, no shit.”
My personal theory for why the Oscars aren’t doing so hot is cultural. Looking back at the Golden Age of Hollywood, the Industry set itself up as this aspirational thing—“The Dream Factory.” For its actors, it cultivated the idea that they were nobodies from nowhere, “discovered” by Hollywood and now, here they are—on the red carpet in beautiful gowns going to lavish parties, hobnobbing with beautiful people in beautiful places. Hollywood epitomized this concept of the American dream in a very in-your-face way, and it was built on this idea that you—yes, YOU—could become virtual royalty just by being in the right place at the right time.
I think the sheen has worn off of this version of the American dream, and I think confidence in the American dream directly correlates to the success of something like the Oscars, with its glitz and glamor. If you believe—“That could be me one day,” you’re more likely to pay attention, are you not? Whereas if you think that’s beyond your reach, maybe you don’t want to pay attention to it, maybe it even embitters you—“Look at these Hollywood elites spouting off about politics! They don’t know anything about what it’s really like for people!”
Wish I had the data to back this up, but it’s really just based on observations I’ve made in my lifetime, and with my mom’s memories of Oscar ceremonies from back in the day. But I think this theory, as anecdotal as it is, is at least as legitimate as dude’s opinion here that the problem is Hollywood isn’t making “high-middlebrow” movies (while also admitting that this year’s Best Picture noms are littered with just this type of movie).
And BY THE WAY—anyone saying, “movies just aren’t good anymore,” I say nay. This is a great time to be a movie fan; it’s easier than ever not just to make movies, but to find movies. Films that you would have seen in the past only if you were in a big city, going to a hole-in-the-wall art-house—they’re streaming. They might not be the movies that get the advertising budget, but they’re there, you just have to dig a little; maybe do a quick Google search. If you find a director you like, likely they’ve got a catalogue of earlier films for you to indulge in; there are a few actors who are really great at picking projects, as well, and movies they’re in are almost always a safe bet (Allison Brie and Aubrey Plaza spring to mind). I’ve spent the last couple of years working my way through the AFI hundred best list, while also watching, just, random recent indie movies that pique my interest—there are plenty of movies that have been made in just the last few years that can go toe-to-toe with some of the best. Again, you just gotta look for it.
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I remember when the ONLY movies over 2 hrs were called epics. 
