Follow the Money, Or Not

One thing we can say about the 2009/2010 Oscar race: big box office is back. With ten nominees, voters clearly have the option of keeping their industry alive, while also honoring smaller films that were great no matter if they topped $100 million or not. It’s sort of the best of both worlds.

Let’s look quickly at the box office of the nominees so far:

Avatar: $360 million or thereabouts, still climbing
Up: $293 million
Star Trek: $258 million
Inglourious Basterds: $121 million
District 9: $116 million
Up in the Air: $44 million
Precious: $43 million
Invictus: $30 million
The Hurt Locker: $13 million
An Education: $7 million

The Hurt Locker will probably make a lot of money on DVD sales. The film plays great on DVD. That should figure in to box office, even though it isn’t officially. DVD sales on all of these movies should count, but they could matter for Hurt Locker most of all. At any rate, Hurt Locker may be one of those movies that ends up box office-proof. It is just that good. Next up, Scripter!