Award Central News

That's more than double the $44 million pulled in by last year's class during the same frame.

No one expected the uptick to come in at record levels, considering the five noms are specialty films that, outside of Fox Searchlight's runaway hit "Juno," offer gloom-and-doom storylines. Also, two of the films -- Warner Bros.' "Michael Clayton" and Miramax's "No Country for Old Men" -- were well into their runs.

Heading into Oscar weekend, the total combined domestic cume for five best picture noms, which all began as limited releases, through Tuesday was $314.4 million, according to Rentrak. That compares to a combined cume of $287.8 million last year.

Last year, the best picture contenders grossed an average of $8.8 million between the time of the Oscar announcements and the week before the ceremony. In each of the two years prior to that, the top noms grossed an average of $13 million during the same time period.

This year, the average is $19.4 million.

None of this is to say this year's pack will necessarily reap profits for their respective companies, after accounting for production costs, marketing outlays and ever-more elaborate awards campaigns, but it does reinforce the idea that the road to Oscar can be an important publicity tool in luring moviegoers to theaters.

This year's bump also points to smart distribution decisions, with each of the five films following carefully plotted expansion strategies. Both "No Country" and "Clayton" hung onto enough theaters between mid-December and January to make sure they could then expand out again.

Warner Bros. opened "Michael Clayton" on Oct. 5. It was only playing in 33 theaters by the time of Oscar noms, then expanded out to more than 1,000 with a cume of roughly $39 million. Film -- released on DVD this week -- has grossed $8.4 million in the time since for a cume of $47.8 million through Tuesday. The additional coin reps 17.5% of the total gross.

The Coen brothers "No Country," released Nov. 11, picked up its theater count after Jan. 22, grossing an additional $11.8 million since then for a cume of $61.3 million and an uptick in business of 24%. Of the film's cume, 30% are post-nom receipts.

"Juno," opening at the end of November, stayed on relatively few screens through most of December before expanding to more than 1,000 runs just after Christmas on its way to playing in more than 2,400 theaters through January.

At the time of the Oscar noms, "Juno's" gross was $90 million; it has made $38.4 million since then for a cume of $128.4 million and an uptick of 39%. Of the total gross, 30.6% has come since Jan. 22.

While "Juno" didn't necessarily need the Oscar exposure, specialty execs say the awards attention has clearly helped. So far this year, "Juno" is the only film to stay on the top 10 box office chart every weekend.

Opening on Dec. 7, "Atonement" expanded slowly before substantially increasing its screen count just after the Golden Globe winners were announced Jan. 13. It expanded again after Jan. 22.

At the time of the Oscar noms, "Atonement's" cume was $34 million; it has parlayed the awards attention into an additional $15.2 million in box office coin for a cume of $49.2 million and an uptick of 41%. Additional coin reps 31.1% of film's cume.

Paramount Vantage's "There Will Be Blood" didn't open until Dec. 26 in order to make the most of awards attention. It's no surprise that 72.7% -- or $23.2 million -- of the film's $31.9 million came in after the Oscar noms. That's an uptick of 225%.