The company behind the film Anora spent $18million on the publicity campaign that led to its Oscar glory.
- READ MORE: Oscars 2025 winners – see the full list
The film, about a stripper who spontaneously marries the son of a Russian Oligarch while on a weekend trip to Las Vegas, won five awards at the March 2 ceremony. The haul included Best Picture, Best Director for Sean Baker, and Best Actress for star Mikey Madison.
Tom Quinn, CEO of the film’s American distributor Neon, was a guest on The Town podcast and revealed that the awards season campaign spend amounted to $18million, three times what the film cost to make. This included print, online, and TV campaigns, as well as sending physical DVDs to awards voters.
There has been some discussion around the film’s popularity at the box office, with the film’s worldwide total amounting to $41.6million. Only two other Best Picture winners have grossed less since 1990: Nomadland ($39million), and CODA ($3million).
Those two films have extenuating circumstances, however, as Nomadland was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and CODA was an Apple TV+ streaming release that played in very few cinemas.
However, when asked about the figures by Variety, Quinn replied: “(Box office) is not the only revenue stream. Anora is No. 1 across every entertainment platform — Amazon, Apple. That is massive”.
Cinemas were, however, key to director Baker’s vision for the film. During his acceptance speech at the Oscars, he gave a rallying cry to preserve the theatrical experience. “We’re all here tonight and watching this broadcast because we love movies. Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theatre” he said.
“Distributors, please focus first and foremost on the theatrical releases of your film. Neon did that for me, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Baker added. “Parents, introduce your children to feature films in movie theaters and you’ll be molding the next generation of movie lovers and filmmakers”.
Elsewhere at the ceremony, Madison took a moment to thank the sex worker community in her acceptance speech for Best Actress.