Oscars by the Numbers

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At the Oscars, it's not who wins or loses, but how much everything costs.

$0: What seat fillers get paid to occupy empty seats during the awards show.

$1: Price of a used Oscar. (Since 1950, award recipients have had to agree not to sell or transfer the statue without first offering it to the academy for a buck.)

$700: Price of an eight-hour luxury-sedan rental for Oscar night, which includes the 30 percent price hike for the occasion.

$5,000: Cost of getting your product into the gift bags that Distributive Assets delivers to nominees’ homes. (The academy no longer allows gift bags at the ceremony.)

$7,500: The day rate for a top hairdresser—in this case, Adir Abergel of Frédéric Fekkai—to do an actress’s hair for the 2008 Oscars.

$50,000: The cost of the green carpet, which is 500 feet long and 33 feet wide.

$500,000 to $1 million: For an up-and-coming designer, the publicity value of having a celebrity wear his or her outfit to the awards.

$1 million to $2 million: The typical box office gross for an award-winning film the weekend after the Oscars—depending on how long it has been in theaters.

$1.7 million: The cost of a 30-second advertising spot during the 2008 Oscars broadcast.

$15 million to $20 million: The amount that a major studio will spend, on average, to promote a nominee. This includes full-page ads in Variety and other trade magazines, as well as billboards in Hollywood.

$20 million: Price of the most expensive single piece of jewelry ever worn to the Oscars: a Harry Winston 15-carat blue diamond necklace that Gloria Stuart, nominee for best supporting actress for Titanic, wore in 1998.

$29.7 million: The cost to the academy for putting on the show and its related activities, including the nominees’ luncheon that takes place a month earlier.

$30 million: The budget for this year's most expensive best-picture nominee, Atonement.

$80 million: The ad revenues that the ceremony’s telecast usually brings in for its broadcaster, ABC.

$118 million: Amount that the most profitable best-picture nominee, Juno, has netted worldwide.

$130 million: The economic boost that the Oscars are expected to give Los Angeles this year.

See Portfolio's interactive Oscar display here.