The price of gold: Oscar-winning films spend big cash on marketing

While No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood were the big winners at the Academy Awards, those Oscar statues came at a hefty price. Sources tell Hollywood Insider that Miramax spent some $55 million on prints and advertising for its U.S. release of No Country; one Miramax insider puts the price tag closer to $45 million. Regardless, either figure cuts significantly into the $64 million the film has grossed domestically. Meanwhile, for Blood’s Daniel Day-Lewis to take home “the handsomest bludgeon in town,” Paramount Vantage spent in the low $40 million range. That movie has only earned $35 million at the box office. (The studio had no comment.) What’s so telling about these figures is that the marketing bills have now exceeded the $30 million that it cost to produce each of these movies. The money hasn’t stopped flowing either — at least not from Miramax’s coffers: Though No Country has already been in theaters for 16 weeks, this weekend marks its widest release yet, on some 2,000 screens.