Oscar Nominations Give Box Office Boost to ‘Everything Everywhere’ and ‘Women Talking’
After the Oscar nominations were announced on Tuesday, contestants like Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Banshees of Inisherin and Women Talking enjoyed a slight increase in box office earnings.
This year, a broader mix of commercial and art house offerings are among the 10 films vying for Best Picture. On the populist side, there’s Avatar: The Way of Water ($2.117 billion worldwide), Top Gun: Maverick ($1.488 billion), and Elvis ($287 million). On the indie front, Everything Everywhere All at Once ($104 million), The Banshees of Inisherin ($30 million), Triangle of Sadness ($22.5 million), The Fabelmans ($22 million dollars), followed by smaller titles like “Tár” ($7.4 million) and “Women Talking” ($2.3 million). All Quiet on the Western Front was published by Netflix, which reports no box office earnings.
Over the weekend, Everything Everywhere All at Once saw its biggest boost, grossing $1 million when it returned to 1,400 theaters. A24’s twisted sci-fi adventure, which received 11 leading nominations, reported sold-out screenings in the top markets and took 13th place on the domestic box office charts. After 45 weeks in theaters, Everything Everywhere has grossed $71 million in North America, making it one of the biggest indie success stories of the pandemic era.
“Women Talking,” a drama directed by Sarah Polley about Mennonite women who are forced to deal with the aftermath of sexual assault, may benefit the most from Oscar recognition as it received the most from Best Picture nominees least seen. Over the weekend, “Women Talking” landed at number 14 as ticket sales at 707 theaters hit $1.07 million – an impressive 164% increase.
“Elvis” also benefited with a massive jump of 901%, although the significant increase is mainly due to the film not showing in many theaters the weekend before. Baz Luhrmann’s glitzy biographical drama starring Austin Butler as the king of rock ‘n’ roll barely budged in terms of admissions, grossing $154,000 from 841 screens. “Elvis” hit theaters last June and grossed a whopping $151 million domestically, so most interested viewers have likely already seen the film.
Meanwhile, ticket sales for The Banshees of Inisherin were up 382% (grossing $352,000 from 1,205 theaters), Tár were up 138% (grossing $173,000 from 537 theaters), and The Fabelmans were up 73% (grossing of $760,000). 1,962 cinemas).
Avatar: The Way of Water is down 19% from last weekend, although the blockbuster sequel still topped the box office chart at $15.7 million (for the seventh straight weekend). However, its continued dominance — with $620 million domestically to date — has little to do with awards season recognition.
“This is great news for cinemas,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior Comscore analyst. “More strikingly, given the ability to watch at home – where some of the contenders have been available for weeks – audiences are opting for the big screen experience.”
Not every film in the awards race has benefited from Oscar’s love. To Leslie, an indie film starring best actress nominee Andrea Riseborough, failed to make the top 20 when the surprise contender returned to theaters over the weekend. But that’s probably because “To Leslie” was only available at 10 locations, where it only fetched $2,634. Canada-based distributor Momentum Pictures released the film simultaneously to video-on-demand platforms and the big screen, where To Leslie grossed $27,000 in its extremely limited theatrical release.
Riseborough narrated on the morning of the Oscar nominations diversity that she hoped the Oscars’ attention would raise the relatively obscure film’s profile. “What’s really exciting is that so many more people are going to see ‘To Leslie’ than we imagined,” she said.
Overall, this year’s top 10 film contenders have collectively generated $1.574 billion in domestic ticket sales at the time of nomination. That’s the biggest haul since 2010, when the nominees — including the original “Avatar” — collectively raked in $1.519 billion. For Oscars producers, there’s hope that audiences will have more incentive to attend a ceremony that honors films they’ve actually seen in theaters.
“This year’s Oscar mix of blockbusters and indie-style contenders perfectly reflects the intention behind the change to allow for up to 10 Best Picture nominations in 2010,” says Dergarabedian. And since at least 2020, he notes, the pandemic hasn’t been good for awards show viewership. But this year, adds Dergarabedian, “ABC could be the biggest winner for which ratings should rise massively.”
