Oscar Stage: The Swarovski Crystals, by the Numbers

Have a guess as to how many crystals were on display? (Hint: 95,000.)

If you had a knack for those grade-school "guess how many buttons are in the jelly jar"-type games, the ones where you had to estimate a pretty large number and stay fairly accurate, you probably ruled your Oscar party.

We're not suggesting you guessed how many times an actor's agent would be thanked; rather, you probably pinpointed, with applause-worthy precision, how many Swarovski crystals bedecked the stage at the Dolby Theatre during the Sunday, Feb. 22 awards show.

Did you say 95,000? If you did, you won the whole jelly jar full of buttons: That's correct. Swarovski, which has provided the lavish look of the Oscars for eight years running, released the glittery numbers on all of those crystals the day after the movie industry's biggest night wrapped.

The stage, which was overseen by designer Derek McLane, bore a celestial spirit for much of the evening and boasted "a crystal closedown wall featuring 22,200 Swarovski crystals." It took about 580 hours for nine crystal-careful artisans to put the wall together ("crystal-careful" because the ultimate result was a wall featuring 250 pounds of pure crystal).

A trio of crystal curtains also graced the stage, with different numbers of strands. The upstage curtain contained 78 strands, and each strand weighed in at around 760 pounds, with over 50,000 crystals glittering up the three distinct drapes.

And the opera boxes of the Dolby glinted, too, with some 70 crystal-encrusted panels. 

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The crystal company, which was founded in Austria, is marking its 120th year.

Sparkle sparkle. The final, years-spanning tally of all of that light-catching crystalogy? The Academy Awards have seen over 675,300 Swarovski crystals twinkle-up its stage style since 2007 (with many more on the gowns of the attendees).

Just another reminder that when you're nominated one day, you best ponder who the sure-to-glitter backdrop will reflect your gown, tux, and hairstyle. These are very important considerations in the realm of Oscar-based daydreaming (as SoCal a pastime as stages dressed in Swarovski).

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