Now that Sully is out of the race, the box office champ is also the frontrunner to win top Oscars and that’s La La Land. A movie musical about chasing dreams and lost love. Hidden Figures is just behind it, but the other films are doing well:
La La Land: $106 mil
Hidden Figures: $104 mil
Arrival: $97 mil
Hacksaw Ridge: $65 mil
Fences: $50 mil
Manchester: $41 mil
Hell or High Water: $27 mil
Lion: $19 mil
Moonlight: $17 mil
All three of the top money makers are about women (La La Land co-stars a woman). Arrival and Hidden Figures are centered mainly on female characters with males in supporting roles. Maybe it’s time to put to rest the idea that women driven-films can’t make money? After all, look at Rogue One – it’s at $520 million.
Overall, a good year for the Oscar race, showing that inclusion and diversity does generate profit – especially when you remove the snob factor from the race. I hope that the Academy continues to move in that direction, to once again align the public with the Oscars so that movies that win are movies for the many and not for the few.
