Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel made an insider-y joke about the financial mess at Warner Bros. Discovery inherited by CEO David Zaslav. Kimmel referred to Batgirl as “the only superhero to be defeated by an accounting department,” a dig at how WBD decided to kill the DC flick to save on taxes.

-Mike Calia

This year marks the first time that all five nominees for best director were also nominated for writing or co-writing for their film’s screenplay.

• Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (aka Daniels), “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
• Steven Spielberg, “The Fabelmans”
• Todd Field, “Tar”
• Ruben Ostlund, “Triangle of Sadness”

— Sarah Whitten

Cate Blanchett has earned eight Academy Award nominations in her career and won two — one for her role in “The Aviator” and one for “Blue Jasmine.” She is nominated again this year for “Tar.”

“Tar,” which was nominated for best picture, is the 10th best picture nominee that Blanchett has appeared in, the most of any actress.

Those films include: “The Aviator,” “Elizabeth,” “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “Babel,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Don’t Look Up” and “Nightmare Alley.”

Leonardo DiCaprio has appeared in 10 best picture nominees as well, while Robert DeNiro holds the record for actors with 11 films.

—Sarah Whitten

“Top Gun: Maverick” and “Elvis” were the films with some of the largest streaming audiences after their Oscar nominations were announced, according to data from Samba TV.

The sequel to the 1980s film started airing on Paramount Global’s streaming service Paramount+ in late December, and drove the largest percentage of viewership of a film post-nomination, with “Elvis” trailing behind on Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max. These were also the most viewed films in the last week. Samba TV analyzes data from a national panel of more than 25 million connected TVs and devices in the U.S., which measures both traditional and streaming TV consumption.

However, “The Fabelmans” nabbed a larger audience in Los Angeles and its surrounding area, while the “Top Gun” sequel under-indexed in the same area, Samba TV found.

“The preferred choice of audiences in Los Angeles, a top DMA where many Academy voters reside, however, was ‘The Fabelmans’ perhaps illustrating an intriguing disconnect between those who comprise the Academy and the majority of the country,” said Cole Strain, vice president of measurement products at Samba TV, in a statement. “If Academy voters have their way, we might see another Steven Spielberg win, as Los Angeles seems to have embraced ‘The Fabelmans’ by the widest margin of all the contenders.”

–Lillian Rizzo

This year’s Oscars marks the first time in 88 years that all of the best actor nominees are first time nominees.

• Austin Butler, “Elvis”
• Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
• Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”
• Paul Mescal, “Aftersun”
• Bill Nighy, “Living”

— Sarah Whitten

If you could see one of the Oscar-nominated films turned into a K-drama, which would it be?

Rakuten Viki, the streaming service with the largest collection of Asian content, recently asked its social media followers to weigh in on this, and other questions. As there’s been a rise in popularity of Korean film and TV shows – especially since especially since the success of Netflix‘s “Squid Games” – more and more U.S.-based content is being reimagined for Korean dramas and actors.

The survey showed about 50% of respondents wanted to see Steven Spielberg direct a K-drama, and actors like Colin Farrell and Cate Blanchett star in such films. More than 50% of the respondents also said if they had it their way, they’d see the latest “Avatar” installment remade into a Korean film. Here’s the breakdown of the responses for the social media poll:

• Which Oscar-nominated actor/actress would you like to see star in a K-drama? Colin Farrell – 23% Cate Blanchett – 25% Austin Butler – 31% Ana de Armas – 21%
• Which Oscar-nominated film would you want to see remade into a K-drama? The Banshees of Inisherin – 19% Elvis – 19% Tár – 7% Avatar: The Way of Water – 55%
• If you had to choose an Oscar-nominated director to direct a K-drama, who would you choose? Steven Spielberg – 50% Todd Field – 8% Martin McDonagh – 18% Daniel Kwan – 24%
• If you could give an Oscar to any of the below K-dramas on Rakuten Viki, which would it be?  Reborn Rich – 31% Love in Contract – 11% True Beauty – 41% Sh**ting Stars – 16%

–Lillian Rizzo

Heading into Sunday’s ceremony, Steven Spielberg had already become the first director to be nominated across six decades, earning nods for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in the ’70s, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” in the ’80s, “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan” in the ’90s, “Munich” in the ’00s, “Lincoln” in the ’10s and “West Side Story” in 2021

He is nominated this year for “The Fablemans,” a film based on his own childhood and introduction to filmmaking in post-war America.

—Sarah Whitten

Ratings for the annual Academy Awards has been on a precipitous decline since 2000, when the audience averaged more than 46 million people. Last year, an average of nearly 17 million tuned in, and those ratings got a bump after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.

This year’s show will be hosted by TV late night personality Jimmy Kimmel, and could see a boost from curious viewers with last year’s surprise on their minds.. Still, it will be hard to see ratings return to what they once were.

Ratings have dropped about 60% since 2000 as consumers continuously opt to cut the cord in favor of streaming services. While live sports – namely the Super Bowl, which averaged 113 million viewers in past February – still draw large audiences, viewership for live awards shows like the Academy Awards continues to drop.

–Lillian Rizzo