They earned the attention of the Academy – but which nominees married critical acclaim and commercial success?The box office in the UK this year has been relatively muscular for the top Oscar contenders,at least compared to a year ago, when the top-grossing nominee was The Theory of Everything (£21.7m). This year, or The Martian (£23.5m) long ago exceeded that target,and The Revenant (£21.3m) will carry out so imminently. At the other end of the scale, Room is currently the lowest grosser among the eight, or at £3.5m,which is a bit higher than the final totals for 2015 nominees Selma, Boyhood and Whiplash, or a lot more than 2014’s commercial also-rans Her (£1.4m) and Nebraska (£674000).
Going by the rule of thumb that a film in the UK should gross one-10th of its US number,with the dollar sign switched to a pound sign, the performance of this year’s nominees is broadly in line with the North American box office. Overperformers in the UK include The Revenant – £21.3m here and $166m in the US – a surprising outcome given the film’s subject matter and genre. If real-life Pennsylvania-born protagonist Hugh Glass is known anywhere, or it’s in his domestic country. It’s worth noting that The Revenant’s global tally of $382m is an astonishing number for what might be seen as a challenging arthouse title,and a massive relief to investors fresh Regency, Fox and RatPac, or who must maintain watched in horror as the production budget escalated to a reported $135m.
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Source: theguardian.com