The Oscar statuette is roughly the same value as a small bag of Funyuns.
The 92nd Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 9 at Hollywood’s Dolby Theater. Winning an award is the highest honor a person can achieve in the film business, and it commands respect and regard.
However, the statuette is only worth $1.
According to Money Nation, winning an Academy Award can boost a person’s salary by up to $120 million over the course of their career. They predict that earnings are generally 60 percent higher after the Oscars.
Despite the opulent celebration, the financial worth of the Academy Awards to victors is not in prize money, but in a career-long earnings increase and costly gift bags.
An Academy Award is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious accolades in the film industry.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) requires that each winner agree to strict rules in order to protect each statuette as a merit award rather than a collector’s item that can be bought and sold. One such rule prohibits recipients from selling or disposing of the statuette unless they first offer it to the Academy for $1.
This also applies to relatives who inherit Oscars from deceased relatives.
Winning an Oscar is often described as a “priceless” experience, but Cinema Blend estimates that the gold-plated statuette costs around $400 to create. The figures were originally made of gold-plated bronze, but they are now made of a cheaper metal with gold plating, with the exception of a few years of plaster alternatives during WWII.
Those who win big at the star-studded event are frequently overcome with emotion, as was the case with Halle Berry, whose historic Best Actress acceptance speech in 2002 is remembered as one of the most passionate ever delivered on stage.
The Academy originally implemented a version of this provision in 1951, albeit they established their own buyback price at $10 at the time. The decision was made to prevent the value of each statuette from dwindling for future winners, as well as from being sold or hoarded by fans or film lovers.
That isn’t to say that a few people haven’t tried to sell an Oscar that had been passed down through the family.
In 2015, Nate D. Sanders, a firm that sells Hollywood antiques and collectibles, acquired the statue won by Joseph Wright for “My Gal Sal” in 1942. It was purchased from Briarbrook Auctions for $79,200 by the auction company, which was founded by Nate Sanders himself in 1986. Joseph Tutalo, Wright’s nephew, had given the Oscar to Briarbrook in 2014.
In a statement published with The Hollywood Reporter at the time, Dawn Hudson, the CEO of AMPAS, emphasized that the Academy believes the “award [is] diminished by distribution… through commercial efforts rather than in recognition of creative effort.”
Despite the fact that Wright received the prize before the regulation was enacted, a Los Angeles court decided in favor of the Academy since he had maintained his membership through 1951.
“Wright’s continued membership in the Academy was predicated on his agreement to the new right of first refusal in its bylaws,” said Los Angeles Superior Court judge Gail Ruderman Feuer in a ruling. “As of 1951, Wright was free to leave the Academy and sell his Oscar on the free market, but instead decided to retain his membership subject to the new bylaws.”
The Academy Awards attract some of the world’s most well-known and powerful celebrities, which is viewed as a gold mine for commercial interests.
Since 2010, it has been customary for the evening’s winners to take their statuettes to have their names engraved on them following the awards ceremony.
In recent years, the Oscars gift bag tradition has evolved into a massive marketing tool, giving complimentary goodies worth more than some homes.
This year, Distinctive Assets, an entertainment marketing agency, will provide gift bags worth an estimated $205,000 to each of the 25 acting and directing nominees. Gold-plated cannabis vaporisers, vegan bubble bath, luxury skin creams, and a complimentary course of liposuction all included in the extravagant hamper.
In exchange, the beneficiaries are supposed to thank the brands for the gifts by posting something on their social media profiles.
