Whether at the box office, the video rental store or through sales of DVD's, a best picture nomination can add up to Oscar gold even before the engraved statuettes arrive.
Last year DVD sales for the DreamWorks big-budget epic "Gladiator" soared after the movie was nominated for best picture, which it went on to win. In 1999 in the weeks after Miramax's "Shakespeare in Love" received its best picture nomination, it raked in a handsome sum at the domestic box office, $38 million, which equaled the amount it had drawn since its release two months earlier. ("Shakespeare" won the Oscar, too, taking in $27 million after being named best picture.)
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