‘Spotlight’s Surprise Best Picture Win At The Oscars: What Does This Mean For Its Box Office?

CALIFORNIA
Deadline

by Anthony D’Alessandro
February 28, 2016

Open Road’s Spotlight is already out on DVD/VOD and it’s in its 17th weekend at the box office with $39.1 million. So how much juice can possibly be left in this film at the domestic box office? While exhibitors typically have a policy against booking titles that are already out on VOD/DVD, there’s always a want to get a best picture winner back into theaters. An Open Road insider confirmed earlier tonight that there’s a plan to take Spotlight back up to 1,000 engagements. It’s currently in play at 685 locations. Should that plan hold, industry estimates see Spotlight‘s total cume rising by another 4% to 12% for a final take between $40.7M-$43.8M.

Interestingly enough, Spotlight finds itself in similar scenario to last year’s best picture winner Birdman. By Oscar night a year ago, that Fox Searchlight release was also a played-out fall release that was already out on DVD with $37.8M in its 19th frame. Searchlight jumped its theater count from 407 venues during Oscarcast weekend to 1,207 the following week. Following its best picture win, Birdman‘s total cume jumped by 12% to $42.3M, ending its run during mid April. The average B.O boost for a best picture winner between the night of the ceremony and the end of its run has hovered around 20%.

Heading into the tonight, many though 20th Century Fox/New Regency’s The Revenant was going to take best picture, and if that was the case, that title stood to make another $10M-$15M at the box office. Fox will expand by a few hundred theaters and the thinking is that its best actor win for Leonardo DiCaprio will continue to send folks to the multiplex. However, a best picture win would have fueled the ultimate gain. While a number of contenders got lost in autumn’s bloodbath at the B.O., The Revenant, was the only best picture contender to play the 2016 side of the awards season, and reaped the benefits of doing so in a market that had already O.D.ed on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Since noms were announced on January 14, The Revenant actually saw the biggest boost out of all the best pic noms –+215%– jumping from $54.1M to $170.5M through this weekend.

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