The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
One More Shot for ‘Oscar Bounce’ in Theaters
With tentpoles strike-delayed, awards pics get more screen time
Usually it’d be impossible for Oscarnominated films to be rebooked in hundreds, never mind thousands, of theaters. But with theater owners facing a perilous slowdown in tentpole product due to delays from 2023’s strikes, they’re welcoming the latest crop of best picture contenders back into the fold. The only new studio release opening nationwide over the Jan. 27-29 weekend is Amazon MGM’s The Underdoggs. Otherwise, the spotlight will be on the Oscar hopefuls. It could prove an interesting test, considering all but three of the nominees — Amazon and MGM’s American Fiction, A24’s Past Lives and Searchlight’s Poor Things — are available at home. The grosses are only part of the equation, says Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian:
“The so-called ‘Oscar bounce’ doesn’t necessarily have to do with revenue but can come in the form of a ‘prestige,’ ‘profile’ or ‘streaming’ bounce.”
American Fiction had been holding back in terms of expanding pending nominations and will jump from about 850 theaters to more than 1,500 locations Jan. 27. The film has grossed a promising $8.4 million. Poor Things will boost its location count from 1,400 to 2,200 cinemas (its domestic total is $21.1 million, meaning it’s already ahead of the $17.3 million earned by The Fabelmans, a best picture contender last year). A24 is still going relatively slow with The Zone of Interest and will up the film’s location count from 82 to just north of 300. And summer tentpoles Barbie and Oppenheimer will be back in theaters nationwide (the latter will be available in numerous Imax and premium large-format screens). Killers of the Flower Moon, released in October, is also going out in more than 1,200 locations. Ditto for The Holdovers, which, like Killers and Barbie, is available to watch for free for subscribers to Peacock, Apple TV+ and Max, respectively.