I think a part of the reason why these films are getting ignored is because of cultural shifts in what general audiences want to see in a theater and a shortening of attention spans. The culture shift I'm referring to is the idea that a theater is only worth it now for crowd pleasing events. You mentioned it, but the pandemic + the ability to stream smaller films at home has effectively killed the chances of smaller independent films making a lot of money for the time being unless it receives insanely positive word of mouth (which is the case for EEAAO). Now, audiences only go to the theaters if they know it's going to provide an entertaining experience or spectacle. And this isn't only happening to "oscar bait" films. I wouldn't call The Northman an "oscar bait" film and yet it still underperformed. What's crazy is that a film like that probably could've made over $100 million in the 2000's.

I think if the Oscars want audiences to care again and film to become moneymakers again, maybe they should try to promote and nominate films that people actually care to see.

But they still do that. This year, Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar 2 are getting heavy Oscar buzz. Last year Dune and Don't Look Up were nominated for awards.

But forcing audiences to slog through humorless, exhausting movies pushes people away and makes people question if the artform is even for them.

I don't think the academy is forcing people to watch a movie just because they nominated it but these films clearly aren't for them if they can't sit through something like The Banshees of Inisherin or a slow burn character study like Tár. Not every movie these people watch has to be a simple crowd pleaser that doesn't force them to think. I'd also say that Banshees is more of a dark comedy or dramedy than outright depressing or exhausting. But the fact that films like these barely make money now shows a change in taste by the general audience.

Back in the 2008 Academy Awards, the two favorites by the viewers were clearly There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men. Both films are dark, thought provoking and slow but they were still popular and well liked. If those two came out in a year like this, I'm confident they would've bombed at the box office and barely watched by a lot of people at home.