Films Earn Early Oscars Gold

February 1, 2005

Oscar Nominations gave a box office boost to many films this past weekend while other films are too far into their runs for it to make a difference, (The Motorcycle Diaries) or out of theatres completely, (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.) But of the 35 films that received Oscar Nominations, 17 saw increases in either their overall box office, per theatre average or both.

Leading the way with 11 nominations was The Aviator, which also saw impressive growth in its box office / per theatre average. The film jumped by 56% over last weekend and perhaps more impressively, 41% on the per theatre charts.

Other films to see increasing in both overall box office and per theatre charts were:

  • Finding Neverland with a 125% increase in its overall box office and a 56% increase in its per theatre average.
  • Hotel Rwanda with increases of 39% and 6.5% respectively.
  • Ray, which also received a bounce from advertising for the DVD release grew by 123% overall and 24.5% on the per theatre charts.
  • Both Being Julia, (120% overall and 7.0% per theatre) and Vera Drake (153% / 94%) have seen growth over the past few weeks thanks to the award season.
  • While The Sea Inside earned small improvements in both areas up 5.25% overall and 12.8% on the per theatre charts.
  • Lastly, Born into Brothels saw incredible growth with a 765% increase overall and 188% on the per theatre chart. However, given the small theatre count, this is probably due moving into new markets and not its lone Oscar nomination.
The post Oscar Nomination weekend corresponded with massive theatre count increases for several films, and while these films saw increases in their overall box office, separating how much of that came from the theatre count increase, and how much came from the Oscar nods would be nearly impossible.
  • Million Dollar Baby had the biggest increase in its theatre count, so its not surprising it lost so much on the per theatre side of the equation, (nearly 46%.)
  • On the other hand, Sideways had the second biggest increase in its theatre count, but dropped a mere 8.6% on the per theatre charts. The led to a 123% increase in its overall box office.
  • Lastly, The Chorus saw its theatre count increase from 2 to 34 while its per theatre average was but nearly in half. Percent-wise, it did earn the greatest increase in its overall box office at 785%.
Six films only received token bounces, their overall box office dropped but thanks to large drops in their theatre count the per theatre average increased. These films are in Kinsey, Closer, Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events, House of Flying Daggers, The Polar Express and The Incredibles.


Submitted by:

Filed under: The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby, Ray, Sideways, Finding Neverland, Hotel Rwanda, Being Julia, Vera Drake, Les Choristes, Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, Mar adentro