PBCS Standings: The Oscar Effect No Match for Liam “Wolf Puncher” Neeson

Given the significant amount of blood and treasure that movie studios expend on their annual Oscar campaigns, you'd think that there would be a decent monetary windfall once the nominations were formally announced. But it will SHOCK you to learn that most moviegoers don't make it a priority to see every Oscar-nominated movie. To whit: Only three Oscar-nominated movies saw a bump in business this past weekend, and no Oscar-nominated film could compete with Liam Neeson opening a can of whoop-ass out on a pack of wolves. Let's look at the final chart via Box Office Mojo.

1. The Grey - $20.0M
2. Underworld Awakening - $12.5M
3. One For The Money - $11.8M
4. Red Tails - $10.4M
5. Man On A Ledge - $8.3M
6. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - $7.1M
7. The Descendants - 6.6M
8. Contraband - $6.5M
9. Beauty & The Beast 3D - $5.3M
10. Haywire - $4.0M

The only Oscar-nominated film to sneak back into the Top 10 after the nominations was "The Descendants," which cannot be killed with traditional weaponry. Even "Extreme Loud And Incredibly Long Title" didn't see an increase in ticket sales. Let's see if the noms helped at all in our little PBCS formula. REVEAL THE STANDINGS!

1. The Descendants - 906
2. The Artist - 703
3. The Grey - 244
4. The Iron Lady - 95
5. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - 84
6. Beauty & The Beast 3D - 83
7. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - 65
8. Contraband - 46
9. Haywire - 31
10. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - 27

As you can see, the increase in business for both "The Descendants" and "The Artist" helped both those movies in the PBCS rankings week. But they were the exceptions. Every other Oscar movie on here saw a drop. And when you consider the modest box office tallies for the Top 2, you have to wonder when studios will wise up and stop wasting money on the awards circuit. You could probably fund six more "Descendants" with the cash leftover. And "The Grey" only cost $25 million! MOAR WOLF KILLING, PLEEZ.

Elsewhere, you'll notice that "One For The Money" didn't crack our standings, mostly because it got a 3% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. If it had gotten a zero, it would have overridden everything else in our formula, meaning it could have earned $5 billion on a budget of six cents and still not cracked our top ten. Kind of neat, when you think about it. Don't expect TTSS to stay in this list next week, as it stands poised to fall below the $1 million threshold.

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