Oscar Spending: Win for Natalie Portman Could Mean $150 Million for Fox Searchlight
From THR:
What’s an Oscar worth?
For Sony, which recently released The Social Network on DVD and will no doubt benefit from a huge boost in sales following the Jan. 25 nominations, the answer is millions. For Fox Searchlight, which cleverly waited until Jan. 20 before unspooling Black Swan internationally, it’s $100 million or more at the foreign box office — maybe even $150 million if the movie wins Natalie Portman a statuette during the Feb. 27 Oscar ceremony.
For Portman, a best actress victory could propel her into the Reese Witherspoon stratosphere of $10 million-plus a picture, a lot more than the high-six figures she made on the $13 million Swan — just as Halle Berry’s asking price shot up to more than $10 million after her win for Monster’s Ball. (There were few takers; ditto for Gwyneth Paltrow and Nicole Kidman).
On the other hand:
A lot of money is spent; whether it’s a sound investment is debatable. “Milk is still in the red,” says one source familiar with the Focus Features film that won for Sean Penn and writer Dustin Lance Black. “You’d be surprised how many Oscar wins just don’t help.”
WINNER’S REWARD? Oscar victories rarely add to box office
* 2005 Crash
Pre-Win: $53.4M
Post-Win: $1.2M
* 2006 The Departed
Pre-Win: $131.8M
Post-Win: $0.6M
* 2007 No Country for Old Men
Pre-Win: $64.3M
Post-Win: $10M
* 2008 Slumdog Millionaire
Pre-Win: $103M
Post-Win: $38.3M
* 2009 The Hurt Locker
Pre-Win: $14.7M
Post-Win: $1.7M
If The King’s Speech wins Best Picture, I’ll bet it boosts B.O. significantly, especially if they re-cut it to make it a PG-13 movie… but then you’d be messing with one of the movie’s best scenes.