THE POST-OSCAR SALES SPIKE
Crash, the surprise winner of the Best Picture Oscar, has already been out for months on DVD, a fact many insiders are crediting with the film’s come-from-behind stretch run, overtaking Brokeback Mountain in the process. There are even some who credit the availability of the DVD, which was released last year, with creating the buzz that led to the upset. None of the other four nominated movies has been released on DVD to this point.
Still, the controversy surrounding the movie should continue to boost sales of the DVD.
Whether the Kathleen “Bird” York performance of the Oscar-nominated song, “In the Deep,” does the same for her just-released Narada/EMI album, Wicked Little High or the release of the Crash soundtrack, on indie Superb Records, is another story.
Ditto for Three 6 Mafia’s Oscar-winning song, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” which is included on Atlantic Records’ Hustle & Flow soundtrack, which is currently at 325k, selling just about 7k a week, and could double or even triple, according to insiders. In addition, the band’s recent Hypnotize Minds/Columbia/Sony Urban album, Most Known Unknown, could also receive a boost, thanks not only to the Oscar exposure but also to MTV adding the video for the single “Poppin’ My Collar” this week.
As for Dolly Parton’s performance of “Travelin’ Thru,” from Transamerica, that movie’s Nettwerk Records soundtrack has yet to dent the charts.
The major beneficiary from the Oscar show was Island/UMe’s The Legend of Johnny Cash compilation, which this week soared back into the Top 10 with a 100% increase in sales, thanks to the release of the Walk the Line DVD.
Perhaps Reese Witherspoon’s win for Best Actress will focus attention back on Wind-up’s official soundtrack to the film, which features Joaquin Phoenix and Witherspoon singing Cash and Carter classics under the direction of T Bone Burnett. That album is currently gold, and this week went to #11, with a humongous 168% increase over the week before and 57.1k in sales.
As for any box office spike from Oscar exposure, none of the five nominated films for Best Picture—Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Munich, Good Night and Good Luck and Capote—has earned more than $100 million at the box office to date and, in a rare occurrence, none of them made this week’s list of the Top 10-grossing current movies, but each will probably be a strong seller when it hits the DVD market. In fact, the winning documentary, The March of the Penguins, earned more at the box office than any of the Best Picture nominees.
Release dates for other Oscar winners and nominees are as follows: Good Night and Good Luck (3/14), Capote (3/21), Memoirs of a Geisha (3/28), King Kong (3/28) and Crash (Special Edition) (4/4). Release dates for Brokeback Mountain and Munich DVDs have yet to be set at press time.
