SPOTLIGHT WINS AT THE O$CARS BUT LOOSES AT THE BOX OFFICE!

THE PUBLIC HAD ALREADY VOTED WITH THEIR WALLETS!

Again this year I truly appreciate the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members picking Spotlight as their best motion picture of the year, but in the ONLY category that really counts – MONEY MADE – it appears the American and International audiences made a different decisions.  When it comes to picking movies, I always "trust the mob" so here is how the movie going and paying public ranked this year’s movies as of 28 February 2016.

	Movie	Worldwide	Domestic
1	Avenger: Age of Ultron	$1.406B	$459.0M
2	Furious 7	$1.163B	$353.0M
3	Star Wars	$1.122B	$926.0M
4	Jurassic World	$1.018B	$652.3M
5	Spectre	$879.5M	$199.8M
6	Inside Out	$856.8M	$356.5M
7	Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation	$682.3M	$195.0M
8	The Hunger Games: Part 2	$653.0M	$281.9M

and this is who the Academy members nominated in the Best Picture category:

	Movie	Worldwide	Domestic
1	The Martian	$624.0M	$228.4M
2	The Revenant	$404.0M	$170.5M
3	Mad Max: Fury Road	$377.6M	$153.6M
4	Bridge of Spies	$164.3M	$72.2M
5	The Big Short	$123.9M	$68.5M
6	Spotlight	$61.8M	$29.2M
7	Brooklyn	$36.5M	$36.5M
8	Room	$22.0M	$13.5M

Notice NONE of the eight nominated pictures is among the eight top money maker of the past year although the Top Earning nominee, The Martian did come in at #9 with a Worldwide take of $624.0 or about 44 percent of the take of the year’s top grossing movie: Avenger: Age of Ultron.  That means Avenger made nearly 23 times as much at the box office as the “best” picture - Spotlight.  I suspect the producers of Spotlight would gladly trade their Oscar for the extra $1.344 Billion Avenger earned.

Although it is obvious that Avenger: Age of Ultron with almost a $1.406 Billion (with a “B”) earned Worldwide and $459 Million earned Domestically was this year's Best Picture, the winner had to come from the nominees selected by their Hollywood elite peers but the Academy members didn’t even agree with “the Domestic mob” rankings as reflected by how they spent their money.  The top grossing nominee, The Martian, earned over ten times as much as the winning picture: Spotlight.  Does that make any sense?  How good can a movie be if only a very few people want to see it?

Again, this year it was no contest ….and the WINNER is, bank statement Please (drum roll), the hands down winner by a country mile is (sorry Spotlight):

Avenger: Age of Ultron!