There's good reason why the Academy gets thanked so much at the Oscars.
From Jan. 22, the day this year's Oscar nominations were announced, through Sunday, the five Best Picture hopefuls combined to gross a blockbuster-esque $111 million, per numbers crunched by Box Office Mojo.
"This year, I think, the movies were better primed to take advantage of the awareness raised by the Oscars," the site's Brandon Gray said Sunday.
Juno, the biggest hit of the Best Picture pack, was the biggest postnominations movie, adding an estimated $43.3 million to its nine-figure haul.
But even Michael Clayton, a disappointment when it opened last fall, managed to tack on nearly $10 million and bring its overall take to just under $50 million.
Then there was There Will Be Blood, which made 75 percent of its overall $35 million after Jan. 22. Per Box Office Mojo, that's the best such performance since a little 1982 Best Picture hopeful called The Dresser did nearly 90 percent of its business after the nominations came out.
Oscar nominations aren't always so profitable. Last year, the five Best Picture nominees combined to gross a relatively meager $47.5 million from nominations day through Oscar Sunday.
"It's all about timing," Gray said.
And, sure enough, four out of last year's five hopefuls were released before November and were played out in theaters come the awards.
This year, four of the five were released after Nov. 1. (There Will Be Blood didn't even break wide until after the nominations in late January, hence its impressive postnominations bounce.)
Of the 26 years' worth of awards-season receipts that Box Office Mojo has tracked, Oscar's class of 1997, led by Titanic, collected the most collective postnominations cash: $261 million. This decade, last year's group, which included eventual Best Picture winner The Departed, posted the weakest numbers.
Not that Martin Scorsese was complaining.
Elsewhere, here's a look at the weekend box-office highlights, per stats compiled Sunday by Exhibitor Relations:
- The political-assassination thriller Vantage Point was number one without a bullet, grossing an okay $24 million. Overall, business was down nearly 25 percent from last weekend.
- Last weekend's champ, Jumper (second place, $12.7 million; $56.2 million overall), saw ticket sales fall by more than 50 percent.
- The new video-store comedy, Be Kind Rewind (seventh place, 4.1 million), was Jack Black's smallest-ever big opening after his 2006 pet project, Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny.
- 27 Dresses ($1.6 million; $73.1 million overall, per Box Office Mojo) amicably parted from the top 10 after a five-weekend stay.
- Witless Protection ($2.2 million) was Larry the Cable Guy's worst-ever debut, although any kind of debut for a guy named Larry the Cable Guy is still pretty good.
- Charlie Bartlett, a sort of Ferris Bueller with a prescription-drug hookup, could have used a dose of HGH to boost its non-top 10 opening weekend ($1.8 million).
- The German WWII drama The Counterfeiters was, pound for pound, the biggest movie of the weekend, taking in $100,469 at only eight theaters.
Here's a recap of the top-grossing weekend films based on Friday-Sunday estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations:
1. Vantage Point, $24 million
2. Jumper, $12.7 million
3. The Spiderwick Chronicles, $12.6 million
4. Step Up 2: The Streets, $9.8 million
5. Fool's Gold, $6.3 million
6. Definitely, Maybe, $5.2 million
7. Be Kind Rewind, $4.1 million (tie)
7. Juno, $4.1 million (tie)
9. Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, $4 million
10. There Will Be Blood, $2.6 million