And the Oscar for Profitability Goes to … ‘The Martian’

Experts help THR analyze the financial forecast for ‘Spotlight’ and the seven other best picture noms, factoring in budgets, marketing and awards campaign spending.

Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight may have won the Oscar for best picture at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony, but The Martian walked away with another kind of gold.

That’s according to The Hollywood Reporter’s analysis of the financial performance of victor Spotlight and the seven best-picture nominees, including Ridley Scott’s The Martian.

See below for which movies will turn a profit, or lose money. Production budgets hardly tell the whole story, since there are all sorts of hidden costs, including marketing and money spent on award campaigns. THR relied on several experts to compare total expenses against box-office returns and ancillary revenue from home entertainment and television.

In some cases, the movies were made and financed independently, such as Room, meaning their U.S. distributor won’t necessarily incur the loss.

box office

3/3/2016 by Pamela McClintock – THR

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