Does an Oscar Give a Film "Help" at the Box Office?

With the announcement Tuesday morning of this year’s Academy Award nominees, the Oscar race is going to get Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The 9-11 drama, not embraced by critics and something of a surprise nomination in the Best Picture category, is one of nine films vying for Hollywood’s ultimate prize. The others are: The Artist, The Descendents, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life, and War Horse, which is the only other nominee with a chance of reaching the $100 million finish line (it’s currently at $72.6 million).

For the past two years, Best Picture honors have not gone to the year’s box office champ (The Hurt Locker and The King's Speech, respectively), and this year looks to be no exception. The Artist ($12.4 million) and Hugo (55.97 million) are the front-runners at the moment. 

Does an Oscar nomination give a film a boost at the box office? If you have avoided seeing The Artist because it’s mostly silent and in black and white, does the critics’ darling’s 10 nominations pique your curiosity to see what the fuss is about? The Box Office Mojo website observes that The Artist and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close stand to benefit most from the Oscar spotlight as they just reached nationwide release. The Descendents, too, is going to be expanded to 900 theatres this weekend, but it has been in release since November.

Oscar nominated films make most of their revenue during their pre-nomination run, but a nomination can really boost the fortunes of so-called sleeper films such as Slumdog Millionaire, a word-of-mouth sensation that earned 38 percent of its revenues following its nomination, and an additional 30 percent after it was named Best Picture.

This infographic charts Oscar’s clout this past decade.

 

 

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Now, go see The Artist