Which Oscar Nominees Will Get the Biggest Box-Office Bump?
by EG
The Oscars often serve up Best Picture nominees that have been less than successful at the box office, but this year's crop of nominees is especially obscure. Of the nine nominated films, only Get Out and Dunkirk are among the top 50 highest-grossing movies of 2017, and one of the nominees, Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, didn't even make the top 100. The good news for these movies is that a Best Picture nomination always comes with a box-office boost. Which of the year's nominees will get the biggest bump? That's up to you to decide.
Now that this year's Oscar nominations have been unveiled, which of the nine best picture contenders stand to benefit at the box office?
Two of the nine have nothing to gain beyond the honor of being nominated: Jordan Peele's innovative horror-thriller Get Out and Christopher Nolan's World War II epic Dunkirk, both of which are long gone from theaters.
Conversely, those primed for the biggest boost include Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water, which picked up a total 13 nominations, the most of any film; Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name; and Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread. That's because all three titles held back in terms of expanding pending Oscar nominations, which were announced Tuesday morning. Steven Spielberg's The Post is also well situated since it's been in nationwide release for less than two weeks.
Last year, Moonlight had earned $15.9 million at the U.S. box office when nominated for best picture by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, according to comScore. It would go on to earn another $12 million, thanks to the buzz surrounding the Oscar race and Moonlight's eventual win over La La Land.
Landing a spot in the coveted best picture race almost always leads to some sort of box-office bump, and is a powerful promotional tool for specialty films that don't have huge marketing budgets or a clear commercial hook (get ready for a flood of new materials touting the glory of Oscar). Films competing in other top Academy Award categories can likewise see boosts, although the halo effect isn't as strong.
Thanks in large measure to the might of Get Out and Dunkirk, the nine best picture nominees — many of which nabbed multiple noms — have earned a combined $566.2 million at the North American box office, up from last year's $483.9 million. And there's time now for that number to grow higher.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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