..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

January 21, 2003

New York Times'
Box Office Error
_____________________________________

In a Golden Globes follow-up story, NYT writers Rick Lyman and Laura M. Holson make the case for the importance of Oscar nominations at box office. As an example, they cite last year's eventual winner, A Beautiful Mind:

"Several executives and analysts pointed to last year's Oscar winner for best picture, A Beautiful Mind, as an example of what the studios have been trying to do. That movie opened in a few theaters in December, expanded in mid-January, won the Golden Globe for best dramatic film, expanded into more theaters when the Oscar nominations were announced and went on to earn more than $150 million, the bulk of it in the six lucrative weeks between the Oscar nominations and the televised ceremony."

In fact, A Beautiful Mind had grossed $18.6 million in its first 10 days in 525 theaters. It hit $75 million before receiving a Golden Globes award on January 20, playing on 2225 screen, the widest it would ever play. And it was just under $115 million when its Oscar nomiantion was announced on February 12.

So, Lyman and Holson's claim that the film made "the bulk of it(s domestic gross) in the six lucrative weeks between the Oscar nominations and the televised ceremony," is false. In those six weeks, the film grossed about $40 million of its $171 million domestic gross or 23 percent of its total.

This does not mean that Oscar nominations mean nothing. In the case of A Beautiful Mind, it helped a big hit become a bigger hit.

Not a single Best Picture Oscar nominee last year grossed as much as one-third of their total domestic box office during the six weeks between Academy Awards nominations and the ceremony.

Miramax and Paramount better be praying that their films do not behave like last year's Oscar nominees or they are looking at grosses under $70 million for Chicago and $20 million for The Hours.