Oscars 2012: 'The Artist' online ticket sales boosted by noms
The fabled "Oscar bump" is already looking real for "The Artist."
Ticket sales for the Weinstein Co.'s black-and-white, largely silent film, which received 10 Academy Award nominations including best picture, jumped 190% on Web retailer Fandango.com in the five hours following the announcement of the nominations Tuesday morning.
Also getting a boost was the George Clooney drama "The Descendants," which received six nominations, including best picture, and sold 65% more tickets than during the same five-hour period Monday morning.
Not every movie benefited from the academy's attention, however. Despite receiving 11 nominations, more than any other film, the Martin Scorsese-directed 3-D family film "Hugo" didn't see any immediate increase in ticket sales on Fandango.
Of course, "Hugo" has also proved the most popular of those three movies, taking in $55.9 million to date. "The Descendants" is close behind with $51.3 million.
But "The Artist" has grossed only $12.1 million thus far, meaning there are a lot more potential moviegoers who haven't yet seen it.
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— Ben Fritz
Photo: Bérénice Bejo in "The Artist." Credit: Peter Iovino / Weinstein Co.
