Oscar gold = Box office green
Looks like the Oscar nominations did their job with the weekend box office results heralding renewed interest in four of the five best picture nominees.
Though number 6th ranked "Juno" was up just a tick, its take of $10.3 million was enough to put it over the $100 million mark in just eight weeks. While that comedy plays in 2400 plus theaters, the dour drama "There Will Be Blood" earned $4.9 million at only 885 theaters, moving up to number 8 for the week. Adding almost 500 screens from the previous week, coupled with eight Oscar nods, meant a 66% increase in dollars for a cumulative $14.8 million in just five weeks of limited release.
"Atonement" was the only one of the five best picture nominees to suffer a decline as its tally of $4 million was down by 13% from the previous week, leaving this unlucky picture in slot number 13, with a total of $37.8 million over 8 weeks.
For 15th ranked "No Country for Old Men," their eight nominations doubled takings to $2.5 million in its 12th week of release for a total gross of $52 million. And "Michael Clayton" moved from #41 to #17 as it went from 33 to 1102 screens to make $2 million more for a total take of $41.5 million in 17 weeks.
Gitesh Pandya keeps an updated b.o./Oscar breakdown at BoxOfficeGuru.com.
