a bigger and bigger indie box office success. Ever since it debuted to
an almost religious response at the Sundance Film Festival back in
January, we’ve known that the movie would be a critical favorite.
The question was always if the flick would be seen by anyone outside
of the niche independent audience that goes to art houses and pays
attention to reviews. Well, I’m here to say that Boyhood is being
seen by way more folks than that, which is only helping it become
a more and more viable Oscar player. It’s made $10.5 million and
there’s plenty more to come. The movie was never going to be an
easy sell. A nearly three hour coming of age story that rewards
patience and noticing subtle changes? Yeah, that doesn’t sound like
an indie sensation to me either, but here we are. Boyhood is
currently the third highest grossing film of all time for IFC Films
and while the over $241 million that My Big Fat Greek Wedding
made isn’t attainable, we’re very close to Linklater’s flick passing
the $13.8 million of Y Tu Mama Tambien for second place.
A final gross well over $20 million seems to be in the cards.
Many a Best Picture nominee has had a gross far lower than that.
If things do break the right way for this contender, then we could
see Linklater finally win an Oscar. Most likely, that would be in
the Best Original Screenplay category, though the filmmaker could
at long last be honored with a nod in Best Director. Other potential
noms are in Best Picture obviously, Best Actor for Ellar Coltrane,
Best Supporting Actor fro Ethan Hawke, Best Supporting Actress
for Patricia Arquette, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing
as well. A half dozen citations are not out of the question here.
At the same time, I must stress again that this isn’t your typical awards
player and we really don’t know how it will be received by Oscar voters,
especially if some of the buzz had died down by the time they see it.