NEW YORK (Focus Features/ www.focusfeatures.com) - 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."
Focus Features (https://www.focusfeatures.com) is a motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company committed to bringing moviegoers the most original stories from the world's most innovative filmmakers.
In addition to Brokeback Mountain, current and upcoming Focus Features releases include Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley (nominated for 4 Academy Awards, including Best Actress); Sanaa Hamri's Something New, starring Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker; Rian Johnson's Brick, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (winner of a Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival); Gaby Dellal's On a Clear Day, starring Peter Mullan and Brenda Blethyn; Peter Cattaneo's family film Opal Dream; Phillip Noyce's Hotstuff, starring Tim Robbins and Derek Luke; Allen Coulter's Hollywoodland, starring Adrien Brody, Ben Affleck, and Diane Lane; and Shane Acker's animated fantasy epic 9, produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov and Jim Lemley & Dana Ginsburg.
Focus Features is part of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80%-owned by General Electric, with 20% controlled by Vivendi Universal.
