Boosted by strong interest in summer 2023 theatrical blockbuster movies, ABC's “The 96th Academy Awards” telecast grew 4% to 19.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen, over last year.

The event also posted the strongest results in four years. Nielsen says the show earned a 3.81 rating among adult 18-49 viewers.

This year’s Oscar show featured a special musical segment from “Barbie,” the mega-blockbuster hit from Warner Bros.  

Universal Pictures’ huge summer hit film “Oppenheimer” was also a major draw for TV viewers. The movie went on to win seven Oscar awards, including Best Picture. 

The prime-time awards show pulled in $122.7 million in national TV advertising revenues, according to estimates from EDO Ad EnGage -- from 63 commercials airings, yielding 1.25 billion impressions.

Last year’s event had 51 commercial airings totaling an estimated $118.8 million.

The highest-spending brands this year include Allstate, Infiniti, Carnival Cruise Lines, Neutrogena, Bank of America, and Verizon Wireless. 

Movie studios advertising in the event included Sony Pictures (“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire”); United Artists (“Challengers’); Universal Pictures (“The Wild Robot”); Walt Disney (“Inside Out 2”); and Lionsgate Films (“The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”).

TV advertising research company Guideline says equivalized 30-second commercial spots for this year’s Oscars were priced at $1.37 million  -- 18% more than last year’s total of $1.16 million.

By comparison, CBS’ “Grammys” event earlier this year had equivalized 30-second spots priced at $603,000 -- up 33% versus a year ago.

The Guideline "Pool" reflects agency media buys across all six major U.S. agency holding companies and leading independent agencies, skewing to major national brand advertisers.

This story has been updated.