贏得一尊奧斯卡 究竟要花多少錢

Hollywood studios spend exorbitant sums of money promoting their Oscar-nominated films to voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. But exactly how much is spent, and where all that money goes, is something of an industry secret.

好萊塢電影公司在向美國電影藝術與科學學院的投票人宣傳自己的奧斯卡提名影片，要花很多錢。但究竟要花多少，花到了哪裏，一直是行業祕密。

This lack of transparency is characteristic of Hollywood in general, says Stephen Follows, a London-based producer who teaches at the National Film and Television School in Britain and blogs frequently about the economics of movies.

倫敦製片人斯蒂芬·福洛斯(Stephen Follows)說，缺乏透明度是好萊塢的總體特徵。福洛斯在英國國家電影電視學校(National Film and Television School)任教，經常發表關於電影經濟學的博客文章。

“I have a friend who’s an astrophysicist and he laughs at me because he studies dark matter and has more data about his subject than I do of mine,” Mr. Follows said.

“我有個朋友是天體物理學家，他經常嘲笑我，因爲他是研究暗物質的，但是連幹他那行知道的數據都比干我這行知道的數據多，”福洛斯說。

In a recent blog post, Mr. Follows delved into the financing of Oscar campaigns. He obtained the Oscar-related promotional budgets for four films nominated for best picture between 2011 and 2014. The figures came from Hollywood consultants and were given to Mr. Follows on the condition that he keep the films’ titles and studios anonymous. While he notes that this sample is hardly representative, it does offer a glimpse into how a typical Oscar campaign might break down financially.

福洛斯在最近一篇博客文章中深入研究了奧斯卡宣傳的資金情況。他得到了2011年至2014年獲得奧斯卡最佳影片提名的四部影片的奧斯卡宣傳成本。這些數據來自好萊塢的一些顧問，他們在要求不透露影片和電影公司名稱的前提下，給福洛斯提供了這些數據。雖然他指出，這些樣本很可能不具有代表性，但它們的確能讓我們一窺奧斯卡宣傳資金通常可能花在哪些方面。

Campaigns for the four films ranged in total cost between $5.3 million and $8.3 million. In all cases, the largest category was advertising — the studios spent on average $3.5 million placing ads targeting Academy voters in trade publications and union magazines. An average of $850,000 per film was spent sending DVD screeners to Academy voters (the screeners are typically individually watermarked, which discourages piracy but makes them much more expensive to produce than a regular DVD, Mr. Follows said).

這四部電影每部的總宣傳費在530萬美元至830萬美元之間。所有四部電影都是在廣告方面投資最多，平均費用爲350萬美元。這些廣告發布在行業期刊和協會雜誌上，針對的是奧斯卡投票人。每部電影花在給奧斯卡投票人寄送DVD scr版光盤（福洛斯說，這種格式的光盤通常有單獨水印，可以防止盜版，但是製作成本比普通DVD高很多）上的平均費用爲85萬美元。

An additional $1 to $2 million goes to other costs — from publicist fees, to hosting screenings, to sending nominated actors and directors to award-season events.

另外還有100萬至200萬美元其他費用，包括宣傳人員的費用、舉辦放映會的費用，以及供獲得提名的演員和導演參加頒獎季活動的費用等。

Estimates on the total amount of money that Hollywood spends each year promoting its nominated films to academy voters have ranged from $100 million to $500 million. Certain winning films, which at first seemed like underdogs for best picture — such as “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) and “The Hurt Locker” (2008) — were reported later to have benefited from multimillion-dollar Oscar campaigns that rivaled their production budgets.

好萊塢每年花在向奧斯卡投票人宣傳提名影片上的總費用估計在1億至5億美元之間。後來有報道稱，某些最初似乎不被看好，但最終獲得最佳影片獎的影片受益於堪比製作成本的數百萬奧斯卡宣傳費，比如《戀愛中的莎士比亞》(Shakespeare in Love, 1998)和《拆彈部隊》(The Hurt Locker, 2008)。

But even if a nominated film wins an Oscar, does all this investment eventually pay off?

但是，即便一部提名影片獲得了奧斯卡獎，所有這些投資最終能得到回報嗎？

Only in terms of prestige, Mr. Follows said, because an Oscar gives Hollywood players the clout to secure new projects or demand higher prices. But the actual box office “bounce” from an Oscar win is quite limited.

福洛斯說，只有從聲譽角度講是得到了回報，因爲奧斯卡讓好萊塢玩家們獲得了影響力，能保證開始新項目或擡高身價。但是獲得奧斯卡獎對票房的“提升力”非常有限。

In 2013, the data analyst Edmund Helmer put the relative box-office value of an Academy Award win at $3 million — often less than half of what a studio spends in its Oscar promotion. A Golden Globe win, by contrast, was worth $14.2 million to a prospective film.

2013年，數據分析師埃德蒙·赫爾墨(Edmund Helmer)計算出奧斯卡獲獎影片的相對票房價值爲300萬美元，這通常不到電影公司奧斯卡宣傳費的一半。相比之下，金球獎獲獎影片的相對票房價值爲1420萬美元。

That disparity mostly has to do with timing, Mr. Follows said. Oscar films must debut in American cinemas by the end of the year, but the awards ceremony does not take place until late February (this year on Feb. 22).

福洛斯說，這種差距主要與頒獎時機有關。奧斯卡參選影片必須在上一年年底之前在美國影院上映，但是頒獎典禮要到2月底才舉行（今年是2月22日）。

“How many films are on the tip of people’s memories for two months? Very, very few,” he said. “Whereas the Globes are happening soon after those films have to be out. If a film wins a Globe, you can go see it the next day. With the Oscars, when something wins, everyone’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I remember that film from last year.”’

“有多少電影過了兩個月還能讓人一下子想起來？很少很少，”他說，“但是金球獎是在這些電影必須上映之後不久舉辦的。如果一部電影得了金球獎，你第二天就能去影院觀看。但是一部電影得了奧斯卡獎，人們會說，‘哦，對，我記得去年看過那部電影。’”