Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Following the Oscar nominations announcement early Tuesday morning, the North American box office was markedly up. But were the two happenings related? Absolutely.
It’s true that the US/Canada box office generally goes up on Tuesdays, but the jump was higher than usual yesterday, with Oscar-nominated movies leading the charge: Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, +66% compared to Monday; David O. Russell’s The Fighter, +46%; Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine, +34%; Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, +57%.
Also: David Fincher’s The Social Network, +29%; Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, +37%; John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole, +39%; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen’s True Grit, +41%. Even Shana Feste’s Country Strong, up for a Best Song Oscar, was up by 32%. (Figures via Box Office Mojo.)
Most non-nominees were up as well, but more modestly, e.g., The Green Hornet, +10%; Season of the Witch, +8.5%. The exceptions among the top twelve movies were No Strings Attached (+21.5%), which not coincidentally stars Black Swan’s Oscar nominee Natalie Portman, and The Dilemma (+20%), for whose box-office jump I must admit I can’t find a logical explanation. Especially considering the movie in question.
The King’s Speech also boasted the day’s highest average, $628 per theater.
Photo: The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Co.)