Hurt Locker Oscars probably offer little financial bang for Summit

Here is a good new for the movie Hurt Locker.Independent studio Summit Entertainment may have to settle for bragging rights from last night's Oscars even though its film The Hurt Locker was the big winner with six awards including Best Picture and Best Director (for Kathryn Bigelow, pictured right).

The story about an American explosives specialist in the Iraq war was never meant for the popcorn crowd -– it hasn't been widely released.

And it may be too late for the film to draw a bigger audience. It hit theaters last June and was released on DVD on January 12.

The victories likely will "form a big part of a higher profile marketing campaign" for Hurt Locker, Hudson Square Research analyst Marla Backer says. That will provide a "slight lift," she adds, at the 274 theaters where it's still playing and just a somewhat longer run for the DVD than it might have had without the awards.

Hurt Locker cost about $15 million to make, and has generated $21.4 million in worldwide ticket sales, according to website Box Office Mojo. That would put the flick on a trajectory to be marginally profitable at best after factoring in marketing costs, and movie theaters' cut from the box office revenues.

Backer's view about the limited Oscar upside for Summit jibes with academic research.

Avatar win morer audiences then Hurt Locker.But it is a loser in Oscar.It is so pity. The soldiers in Avatar fly in the sky and plaly a role of bad men.But in Hurt Locker,the soldiers are so brave.They win applause.