Hollywood.com box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian has attempted the impossible: to put a price tag on winning the Oscar for best picture. It's tricky because of when a movie is released. For example, is it safe to say that "Slumdog Millionaire" made $97 million in real gold as a result of being in the running for a gold-plated statuette? That's how much it earned after it was nominated. It was clear at that point that it would win, because it had swept the key precursor prizes and all of the pundits were betting on it. But "Slumdog" wasn't released wide to theaters until nominations were unveiled. Previously, it had earned only $43 million when it was held back in limited release.

Or consider "The Departed," which was released more than three months before Academy Award nominations. At that point, it had already reaped $121 million, so it only got a $10-million bump after bids were out. Check out Paul's breakdown here.

Photo credit: Hollywood.com

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