Nothing like a little controversy and some Oscar buzz to stir curiosity among moviegoers.
Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s much ballyhooed (and occasionally maligned) tale of the finding and killing of Osama Bin Laden, steamrolled to an estimated $24 million this weekend (its first in nationwide release) and thumped two newcomers for the week’s box office championship.
If it wins a couple of Academy Awards in a couple of weeks, that’ll be just gravy I guess.
Actually, while Oscar hopefuls often get a bump at the box office after nominations are released (this year’s batch was announced Jan. 10), it’s rare for these sorts of movies to make scads of money.
This year, however, has been a bit of an exception.
While two freshmen releases, A Haunted House and Gangster Squad, finished this week in second and third place (earning $18.8 and $16.7 million, respectively), two more Best Picture nominees round out the Top 5. Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained gunned its way to $11.1 million for fourth place, while Les Misérables warbled to a $10.1 million, fifth-place showing. Both have earned more than $100 million in their theatrical runs: Django has earned $125.4 million, making it Tarantino’s most successful film ever. Les Mis’ total tally is at $119.6 million and counting.
And these two Oscar contenders are not alone in terms of commercial success. Four of the nine nominees for Best Picture have already crested the $100 million mark at theaters, and a fifth—Life of Pi—could join the club by Oscar night (it’s at $94.8 million now.) Lincoln leads the pack in both nominations and cash, collecting 12 Academy nods and $152.6 million. And it’s still making lots of moola, banking another $6.3 million this week. Argo, Ben Affleck’s Middle East thriller (you might call it an Iranic drama?), has earned $111.6 million. And while Zero Dark Thirty has only earned $29.5 million in its run so far, another couple of weeks like this and it might be considered a bona fide commercial hit, too.
Other nominees include Silver Linings Playbook (which earned $5 million this weekend to bring its total to $41.3 million); Beasts of the Southern Wild (a small indie movie that earned $11.2 million during its springtime run) and the foreign-language film Amour (which, playing in just 15 theaters, has earned $652,000).
No massive blockbusters made the cut this year (sorry, Skyfall). But compared to some previous Oscar seasons, this year’s crop has been practically populist. Consider 2011’s crop of Oscar nominees: Just one, The Help, banked more than $100 million. And Zero Dark Thirty earned more in one week than Director Kathryn Bigelow’s 2009 Best Picture champ, The Hurt Locker (which scrounged up a mere $17 million in its entire theatrical run).
In terms of popular appeal, though, this year has some ground to make up to equal 2010’s populist Oscar roster—when runaway hits Toy Story 3 ($415 million), Inception ($292.6 million) and True Grit ($171.2 million) were all nominated for Best Picture, losing to the $135.5 million The King’s Speech.
Of course, we have our own thoughts on what 2012 movies deserve to be recognized. Stay tuned tomorrow for the beginning of Plugged In’s very own take on what were the year’s best movies.
Final figures update: 1. Zero Dark Thirty, $38.3 million; 2. Gangster Squad, $23.1 million; 3. A Haunted House, $21.6 million; 4. Django Unchained, $15.8 million; 5. Les Miserables, $13.5 million.
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