‘Licorice Pizza’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘Belfast’ Among Oscar Best Pic Nom Wide Expansions, But It’s Another Season Sans A Big Box Office Boost
09.02.2022 - 04:25
/ deadline.com
Those theatrical motion picture studios earning Oscar Best Picture nominations today will put their best foot forward at the box office, and increase the cinema footprint of their contenders in an effort to capitalize on their success and raise the pics’ profiles.
And while the box office has improved, natch, because of the reopening of movie theaters since March last year, don’t expect the old days of Oscar’s halo effect on nominees’ future ticket sales.
Last year marked the lowest box office results ever for Oscar’s Best Picture nominees, which each grossed a take in the single million range. Best Picture winner Nomadland ended its U.S./Canada run with $3.7M, unseating 2009’s The Hurt Locker as the lowest grossing Oscar Best Picture winner of all-time.
Should one of the streamer’s Best Picture nominees, i.e. Apple Original Films’ CODA, or Netflix’s Don’t Look Up and The Power of the Dog, take Oscar’s top prize, then they will become the lowest grossing Best Picture winner ever since those OTT services don’t report their ticket sales. Of the Best Pictures nominees in theatrical release, Janus Films counts the lowest domestic gross with $945k in the middle of its 11th week.
“What was the Academy thinking when they set the nomination’s date?” roared one distribution chief today to Deadline, “we’re heading into Super Bowl weekend?!” Amen to that. If adults are already challenged to return to movie theaters because of the pandemic, Super Bowl Sunday doesn’t make it any easier.
Not to mention, the late Oscar ceremony date of March 27 doesn’t help. It’s not like the 1980s when Oscars were in the spring, and theatrical windows were crazy long (many of these Contenders would wind up on home video in the fall). Furthermore, the