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WORD OF MOUTH

An Oscar nomination or win doesn't guarantee a boost

Many documentaries and foreign-language nominees struggle for an audience with or without academy notice.

March 04, 2010|By John Horn
  • The documentary didnÂ’t surpass $1 million in domestic theaters.
The documentary didnÂ’t surpass $1 million in domestic theaters. (Roadside Attractions )

An Oscar nomination -- let alone an Academy Award win -- can spark significant returns: Last year's best picture champion "Slumdog Millionaire" grossed $43.9 million before the Oscar nominations and $97.5 million more afterward. Yet, the effect can be less profound for the movies most needing a box-office boost: documentary features and, to a lesser degree, foreign-language titles.

The makers and distributors of art-house films have struggled in recent years (with many closing their doors) as audience support for serious cinema waned. Although some acclaimed movies in limited national release have done well -- “Crazy Heart,” whose star Jeff Bridges will likely win best actor Sunday, just passed $25 million -- the combined ticket sales for all of the nominated documentaries and foreign films is about what the box-office bomb “Extraordinary Measures” grossed in its first weekend.

"Of course it helps, no question about it. But it's no longer the transformative thing it used to be," Eamonn Bowles, whose Magnolia Pictures released “Food, Inc.,” says of the attention brought to the movie by its feature documentary Oscar nomination.

Two decades ago, Bowles says, moviegoers might not have heard about a nonfiction film before it was singled out by Oscar voters. But thanks to the proliferation of movie-related websites and the Twitter-speed transfer of word of mouth, "everybody already knows about ["Food, Inc."], and they've decided whether or not they want to see it," Bowles says.

All the same, "Food, Inc." stands apart as this season's documentary "Avatar," having grossed $4.4 million, a blockbuster in the nonfiction world. Bowles says that the film's DVDs have been selling fast too, with the pace boosted by the film's awards consideration.

"It's exceeding all of our expectations," Bowles says.

“The Cove,” the dolphin slaughter story that is the favorite to win the top documentary prize, has been among the best reviewed movies of the year and has won numerous awards. But because of its difficult subject matter, the movie didn't surpass $1 million in domestic theaters.

Like several films nominated in the documentary category, "The Cove" already is available on DVD, which naturally reduces its theatrical appeal. But an Oscar win could boost the film's video sales materially, says Howard Cohen of distributor Roadside Attractions. "Theoretically, there will be a spike in sales, and if not, a much longer tail" or extended shelf life, Cohen says. "It definitely makes a difference," he says.

Indeed, because the theatrical market is so difficult for highbrow productions, documentaries (like any number of adult dramas and foreign language works) depend on DVD sales, TV deals and video-on-demand revenue just to break even.

“Burma VJ,” an Oscar-nominated documentary feature about video journalists documenting repression in Myanmar, grossed just $51,000 in its brief theatrical release, meaning distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories needs all the momentum it can get for the film's ancillary markets.

"There was an immediate interest in orders" for the film's video after nominations were announced Feb. 2, Oscilloscope's David Fenkel says. "There are a lot of great films out there, but there are only five documentaries each year that get" Oscar nominations, he says.

Yet even the most Oscar attention can't transform a niche title into a mass-appeal hit, says Seymour Wishman, whose First Run Features is distributing “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers,” nominated for the feature documentary trophy. "Serious documentaries are of particular interest to a very targeted market," Wishman says. "Most of our films, no one would be interested in at any price."

Foreign-language titles historically have done better business at the box office, but even acclaimed overseas productions can't find distributors these days: Peru's Oscar-nominated "The Milk of Sorrow" (winner of two prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival) still doesn't have a domestic deal. Given how tough the market is (last year's winner in the category, Japan's "Departures," grossed just $1.5 million), Academy Awards can only help.

"It brings a lot of attention and credibility," says Donald Krim, co-president of Kino Lorber, distributor of Israel's nominated “Ajami,” which was released Feb. 3 and has grossed $250,000 in limited release. But two years ago, the company had the nominated "Beaufort," and its moment in the Oscar spotlight meant hardly anything to its performance. "Sometimes it doesn't help that much," he says.

But Oscar nominations -- and a potential win -- could prove advantageous for Sony Pictures Classics, which has three of the nominated foreign language nominees: Germany's “The White Ribbon,” France's “A Prophet” and Argentina's “El Secreto de Sus Ojos.” While the first two films are already in theaters, the last -- which could be the surprise winner -- doesn't land in theaters until April.

"If, for some reason, it wins the Oscar," says Sony Pictures Classics' Michael Barker, "it will be the ideal time to promote it."

john.horn@latimes.com

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