Brokeback Mountain Becomes Top-Grosser Among Five Best Picture Nominees; Following Academy Award Nominations, Film Attains Highest Weekend Ranking to Date
NEW YORK, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Solidifying its nationwide appeal, Focus
Features' Brokeback Mountain has become the top-grosser among the five films
nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award this year. As of yesterday, the
film has now topped $60 million domestically, outpacing the domestic grosses
for fellow Best Picture nominees Capote ($18 million to date), Crash
($54 million final gross), Good Night, and Good Luck ($27 million to date),
and Munich ($43 million to date).
This past weekend also saw the film, entering its ninth week of release,
achieve its widest point of domestic release by expanding nationwide to 2,089
theaters. Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, has already become Focus'
top-grossing release of all time.
The theaters expansion came on the heels of the film being nominated for 8
Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director), more than any other
film this year. Following the nominations announcement, Brokeback Mountain
attained its highest weekend boxoffice ranking yet, finishing at #4 at the
national boxoffice for the February 3rd through 5th. The film had previously
finished at #5, two weekends prior (January 20th through 22nd), following its
4 Golden Globe Award wins (including Best Picture [Drama] and Best Director),
more than any other film this year.
Also over the weekend, Brokeback Mountain screenwriters Larry McMurtry &
Diana Ossana won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted
Screenplay, a prize that follows the film's wins last month of top honors from
the Directors Guild of America and the Producers Guild of America as well as
the director, screenwriters, and producers' also winning Golden Globe Awards.
The film's international release got underway only three weeks ago, but
has already yielded overseas grosses approaching $40 million. With both
domestic and international runs continuing apace, the worldwide gross for
Brokeback Mountain will top $100 million later this week.
Jack Foley, Focus president of theatrical distribution, commented, "From
big cities to small towns and everywhere in-between, audiences have supported
and embraced this great American love story. It is by popular demand that we
have reached this widest point of national release, after opening nine weeks
ago in only five theaters. The eight Academy Award nominations have cued an
upswing of the grosses in continuing runs, and enabled us to expand into new
ones. Therefore, we expect the film to remain in wide release across the
country for weeks, indeed, months to come."