UNITED STATES
Variety
Brent Lang
Senior Film and Media Reporter
@BrentALang
A little Oscar love goes a long way.
Fresh off its best picture victory at this year’s Academy Awards, “Spotlight” has gotten a box office boost both domestically and in foreign markets, where a talky drama about a sex abuse investigation would otherwise be a hard sell. Stateside, ticket sales enjoyed a 140% uptick, taking in $1.8 million last weekend and pushing the North American total to nearly $42 million. That’s particularly impressive considering that “Spotlight” has been available on home entertainment platforms since Feb. 23.
“It’s a movie that a lot of people want to see in theaters,” said Jason Cassidy, chief marketing officer at Open Road, the indie label that had domestic rights. “It’s a profoundly emotional experience that people respond to when they see it on a big screen.”
He added that the film was the best performing picture or second best performing picture in several complexes. “Spotlight,” an account of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reports on the Catholic Church’s cover-up of wide spread sexual abuse by its priests, also won a best original screenplay Oscar. Its victory over “The Revenant” in the top category was seen as a major upset.
Overseas, box office has also been robust. The picture closed the weekend with another $5.8 million in the bank, an increase of more than 100% from the previous weekend. “Spotlight’s” foreign total stands at $33.2 million.
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