It used to be that you had to wait until the Super Bowl to see the first commercials for upcoming blockbusters.
Now you might get a glimpse at them a month or so earlier. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has lifted their ban on movie advertisements during the Oscar broadcast, for the first time since the initial televised event in 1953.
The Academy has a few rules (only post-April releases are allowed, no ads for sequels/prequels to movies in award contention, only one movie per distributor, and the clip has to be a world premiere), but the decision to loosen standards was obviously made in the hopes of boosting revenue and viewership after an all-time low audience for this year's ceremony.
So maybe next year, you'll see an ad for AVATAR after the visual FX awards, or a clip for Apatow's next comedy right after the dead people montage.
Extra Tidbit:
Charlize Theron won an Oscar. But not for looking like that. A conundrum.
