Oscar best pics by the digits

 

So, about that financial windfall that comes after an Oscar nomination...

It's not necessarily true and, for most of this year's crop of best picture contenders, it appears to be a cruel joke. Slashfilm crunched some numbers and came up with these projected cumulative grosses (U.S. boxoffice):

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" -- $127 million 

"Slumdog Millionaire" -- $95 million

"Milk" -- $29 million

"The Reader" -- $23 million

"Frost/Nixon" -- $19 million

That means all these flicks could fit into the hip pocket of "The Dark Knight," the year's biggest money maker and The Biggest Snubee in this category. It also means that "Milk," "The Reader" and "Frost/Nixon" have the distinction of being among the lowest-grossing best picture candidates of the last decade.

In fairness, most of these films ("Button" excepted) launched in limited release and didn't start expanding in earnest until a few weeks ago. Granted, that was after the Oscar nods were announced on Jan. 22, when the awareness should've been at a peak.

Check out these figures, also from Slashfilm:

TOP 10 LOWEST GROSSING BEST PICTURE NOMINEES OF THE LAST DECADE

1. 2006 -- "Letters From Iwo Jima" -- $13.75 million

2. 2009 -- "Frost/Nixon" -- $20 million cume (projected)

3. 2009 -- "The Reader" -- $25 million cume (projected)

4. 2005 -- "Capote" -- $28.75 million

5. 1999 -- "The Insider" -- $29 million

6. 2009 -- "Milk" -- $30 million cume (projected)

7. 2005 -- "Good Night and Good Luck" -- $31.5 million

8. 2002 -- "The Pianist" -- $32.5 million 

9. 2006 -- "Babel" -- $34.3 million

10. 2008 -- "There Will Be Blood" -- $40.2 million

But it's not about the money, it's the prestige, right? Riiiight.