Movie/Studio/Cost (in millions)/Box Office (in millions)
Brokeback Mountain/Focus Features/$14/$72
Capote/Sony Pictures Classics/$7/$22
Crash/Lionsgate/$6.5/$56
Good Night, and Good Luck/Warner Independent Pictures/$7.5/$29.4
Munich/Universal/$75/$45
The irony here, of course, is that the one studio picture, which cost more than all of the other pictures combined (and then doubled!), made the next to least amount of money and is the only one to not show a profit. It would seem that the rise of the independent (or sort-of independent) picture is confirmed. Except for one thing:
1997.
See, nine years ago we faced a very similar set of circumstances. These were the Best Picture nominees...
The English Patient/Miramax/$27/$78
Fargo/Gramercy/$7/$24
Jerry Maguire/Columbia/$50/$153
Secrets and Lies/October Films/$4.5/$13
Shine/Fine Line/$5.5/$35
Although this batch isn't nearly as political, I'd say what's really changed in that time is companies. Gramercy, October, and Fine Line are all gone. Miramax is under very, very, very new management. Only Columbia (the major studio in the bunch) is still more or less intact (under Sony). By the same token, with the exception of Universal and Sony Pictures Classics, none of the companies behind this year's crop existed back then (technically speaking, Lionsgate as we know it was founded in 1997, but all these films were shot before then). Finally, remember what happened to the Oscar race the following year, the year after the rise of the "independent" film? Those awards can be summed up in one word: Titanic. The most expensive (at that point) and highest-grossing (still) film of all time. Wonder what it'll be next year.
This is the fourth part of the series: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
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