14 DAY TRIAL // Kathryn Bigelow’s war drama “The Hurt Locker” is officially the best film of 2009, after taking home no less than 6 statuettes at this year’s Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and Best Director. With all this, the film is faring very poorly at the box office, with many movie chains in the US simply refusing to run it, as Contact Music can confirm.
“The Hurt Locker” was considered the underdog of this year’s awards season for a very simple reason: while very well received by critics, it failed to make money at the box office. A combination of bad marketing and very little promotion is believed to have been responsible for that – and it’s also what is killing the film’s chances at the box office again, judging by ongoing reports.
“Despite winning the Oscar for best film and best director Sunday night, Summit Entertainment officials have had little success trying to persuade movie chains to give it a second chance in their theaters, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Wednesday). The largest chain, Regal Theaters, won’t show it at all, the newspaper said. Most cite a policy of not booking movies that have already been released on DVD,” Contact Music writes.
“In its initial run, The Hurt Locker earned just $14.7 million domestically, the lowest gross for any best-film winner in Oscar history. On the other hand, the film is performing strongly on DVD, selling 780,000 DVDs and electronic downloads. In addition, it has counted 5.4 million rentals. In the UK, the Press Association wire service reported today that in the first 24 hours after the Oscars, rentals of The Hurt Locker shot up 117 percent on the online DVD rental service Lovefilm,” the same publication explains.
Even with the surge in DVD sales and electronic downloads, that does not change the fact that Summit Entertainment, the movie studio behind it, was hoping to have it in theaters again after the Oscar win. In fact, at one point, it was being said sales for the film would go through the roof if it won the Academy Award for Best Picture – as it turns out, even industry insiders can be wrong about these things.