Famed Oscar Bounce Falls Flat

March 8, 2005

A dozen films took home Oscars a little over a week ago, and while this usually results in a significant bounce at the box office, this year the returns were less than impressive.

The big winner of the evening was Million Dollar Baby, and given where it was in its box office run a bounce of between 25% and 50% was expected. However, the film could only manage 10.77% and that was mostly thanks to its increased theater count, as its per theater average grew by just $6.

Only two other films saw their box office increase over the weekend. Leading the way was the Best Foreign Language Film, The Sea Inside, which shot up 126.65% overall and 48.9% on the per theater charts. And almost as impressive was the Best Documentary, Born Into Brothels with a 102.56% increase overall and 27.77% on the per theater charts. However, it must be noted that neither film was doing particularly well before their wins, so they had the most room to grow.

On a side note, The Incredibles shot up 217.92% / 51.43% the week before, perhaps in anticipation of its win for Best Animated Film. But most likely this was one last push before the film hits DVD next week.

Most of the rest of the winners were either already out of the theaters, or too far into their run for the Oscars to make any difference. However, a few films, most notably The Aviator should have seen some kind of bounce, but instead it dropped both overall, (37.76%) and on the Per Theater Charts, (26.18%.)


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Filed under: The Incredibles, The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby, Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids, Mar adentro