Hollywood has always relied on awards season to boost the box office of its movies, particularly its specialty titles. A best picture Oscar nomination–and win–can mean tens of millions of dollars in additional ticket sales.
Hence, which of the eight Best Picture nominees has benefited the most at the box-office?
Disney and Marvel’s Black Panther ($700 million domestically) and Focus Features’ BlacKkKlansman ($48.7 million) were no longer playing in theaters by the time of the Oscar nominations.
Green Book, the Amblin and Participant Media dramedy, has nearly doubled its North American gross, from $35 million to $66 million through February 18, since winning its Golden Globe for best comedy/musical on January 6 and earning five Oscar nominations on January 22.
Green Book has earned 36 percent of its domestic gross post-Oscar nominations, or $24 million, according to Comscore.
Universal waited to expand the film, which hit theaters in mid-November, in a major way until it landed a spot in the coveted best picture race.
Fox Searchlight’s prestige royal satire, The Favourite, has grown its domestic gross from $23 million to $31 million post-nomination, a gain of $8.3 million (or 27 percent of its cumulative).
Last year, Searchlight’s best picture contenders Three Billboard Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, and eventual winner The Shape of Water added notably more post-nomination: $22.3 million and $33.4 million, respectively.
Annapurna’s best picture contender Vice earned another $7 million since January 22 for a domestic total of $46.2 million through Sunday, February 19. The percentage of the gross garnered post-nomination is 14 percent. Vice seems to have suffered from mixed critical reviews.
Fox and New Regency’s Bohemian Rhapsody has added $9.7 million for a domestic figure of $212 million, and Warner’s A Star is Born $5.2 million for a total $210 million.
