Oscar-Nominated Flicks Ride Buzz To Box Office Sales

Do Academy Award nominations impact the distribution and ticket sales of nominated movies? Nielsen EDI compared the number of theaters showing each movie and ticket sales before and after the nominations were announced on January 22 and found significant increases in most cases.

With the exception of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, each of the Best Film nominees saw triple-digit percentage increases in theater count after they were nominated. The increased distribution of these films also led to box office sales increases anywhere from 18% to 72% in the weeks following the nominations.

RANK	FILM	BEFORE NOMINATION	AFTER NOMINATION	% CHANGE
1	FROST/NIXON	153	1099	618%
2	MILK	250	882	253%
3	THE READER	367	1002	173%
4	SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE	582	1415	143%
5	THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON	2223	2263	2%
source: The Nielsen Company 2009

BOX OFFICE SALES OF BEST FILM NOMINEES

RANK	FILM	3 WEEKENDS BEFORE NOMINATION	3 WEEKENDS AFTER NOMINATION	% CHANGE
1	THE READER	$4,268,323	$7,326,702	72%
2	FROST/NIXON	$3,110,726	$5,197,785	67%
3	SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE	$15,494,836	$25,505,612	65%
4	MILK	$3,123,125	$3,690,247	18%
5	THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON	$34,489,059	$11,932,358	-65%
source: The Nielsen Company 2009

Nielsen also found that impressive gross sales are not required for a film to be nominated in the top categories. For example, Frost/Nixon, in movie theaters for eleven weeks, earned only $17 million at the U.S. box office through February 16, while fellow nominee Benjamin Button pulled in close to $123 million since its December 25 release.

TOTAL GROSS SALES OF BEST FILM NOMINEES

RANK	FILM	OPEN DATE	GROSS
1	THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON	12/25/2008	$122,573,294
2	SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE	11/12/2008	$88,101,863
3	MILK	11/26/2008	$26,748,699
4	THE READER	12/10/2008	$19,618,951
5	FROST/NIXON	12/5/2008	$16,561,626
source: The Nielsen Company 2009