Sure, ''Chicago'' won Best Picture, but the movies that may be the biggest winners after the Oscars are the ones that few viewers have seen. It's the lower-profile winners, notably, foreign-made films ''The Pianist,'' ''Spirited Away,'' ''Talk to Her,'' and ''Nowhere in Africa,'' that are poised to capitalize on their Academy Awards victories this week by expanding into much wider releases, so that moviegoers nationwide can finally see what the fuss is about.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Best Animated Feature winner ''Spirited Away'' is poised to make the biggest jump this weekend, with Disney boosting the Japanese-made film from seven screens to 800. ''The Pianist,'' which won three Oscars, will go from 540 theaters to 800. Best Screenplay winner ''Talk to Her'' will nearly double its release from 142 screens to 250. And ''Nowhere in Africa,'' the German movie that won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, will also double its release, though that means going from 16 screens to 33. Even ''Chicago,'' which is currently on 2,600 screens and is already a big hit (gross to date: $134 million), is about to go wider, adding 400 more screens this weekend.
Studio executives expect their films' Oscars to be worth an extra 20 percent at the U.S. box office, though in the case of, say, ''Talk to Her,'' that means a boost from just $8 million earned so far to nearly $10 million. Still, that bounce should ensure that the film becomes Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's most successful U.S. release to date. And in the case of ''The Pianist,'' you can't buy publicity like Adrien Brody's smooch heard 'round the world.
