Metrics: What Is the Financial Impact of An Oscar Nomination?

Companies frequently spend significant time and money to garner awards for various types of performance. Aside from making executives and employees feel good, there is often a strongly felt - but weakly measured - sense that the organization benefits.

No award gets more attention globally than the annual Academy Awards for movies. But has anyone ever measured the impact?

Sheila Shayon writes in brandchannel about the recent research that has been done on this:


"It’s like “orbiting the earth’s atmosphere sort of feeling…a lovely moment,” says Colin Firth, above, of his best actor nomination for The King’s Speech.

And a lovely moment for Harvey and Max Weinstein as well, with a dozen Oscar nominations for The King’s Speech and another for Blue Valentine, which strengthens their standing as one of the few independent movie studios left.

As for an Oscar nom's worth to Messrs. Firth and Weinstein, not to mention the distributors, studios and others with a stake in each nomination?

Research firm IBISWorld did the Oscar math to help determine the importance, in dollar figures, of being nominated:

“The average Best Picture Oscar winners over the last four years saw a bump of 22.2% (or $20.3 million) in box office revenue after they were named a nominee, and an additional 15.3% (or $14.0 million) following their win at the award show.”

Case in point: The King’s Speech got an instant box office bounce after the nominations where announced. US ticket sales jumped 70% between Monday and Tuesday, while the box office tally on Tuesday was $1 million.

“On the Web site Fandango, ticket sales for the movie jumped 76% as The King’s Speech, a movie that opened nine weeks ago, became the biggest ticket seller on the web site…has already earned $110 million at the global box office… [and] could earn an additional $34 million if it wins Best Picture,” writes Forbes' Dorothy Pomerantz.

As IBISWorld research excerpted in the New York Times notes, “Movies that were nominated for the 2010 Best Picture Oscar and earned over 200% of their budget back in box office sales included The Blind Side (782.6%); Precious (374%); District 9 (285%); Up in the Air (235.3%) and Avatar (220.9%).”

So the Oscars' worth to Firth, now a bona fide (and literal) star in Hollywood, if he wins best actor and The King's Speech nabs best picture? Quite lovely, indeed.