Warner Bros. and Mad Max: Fury Road walked away from Sunday night as the biggest winners at the 88th Academy Awards—at least, in terms of the movie’s overall awards tally.
Mad Max rode a winning streak in several technical and behind-the-scenes categories to score six Oscar statues last night, though the film ended the night shut out of most of the show’s major categories, such as Best Picture and Best Director.
The movie, from Time Warner’s (TWX) Warner Bros., won awards in categories such as costume and production design, as well as makeup and two sound categories on its way to scoring more total Oscars than any other film Sunday night.
Lost out
But, Mad Max missed out on some of the night’s most high-profile awards, with director George Miller losing out to 20th Century Fox’s (FOX) The Revenant and Alejandro G. Iñárritu in the directing category. The Revenant also won another major award when lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio took home his first-ever Oscar. But, along with an additional award for cinematography, the film only won three Academy Awards on the night despite topping all other films with 12 total nominations.
Best Picture
Meanwhile, Best Picture went to Spotlight—from the independent studio Open Road Films, which is owned by movie theater chains Regal Entertainment Group (RGC) and the Dalian Wanda Group’s AMC Theatres (AMC).
With less than $40 million in domestic box office gross, so far, Spotlight is one of the lowest-grossing Best Picture winners of the past several decades. However, given the potential for a so-called “Oscar bump,” the film about the Boston journalists who uncovered a Catholic Church sex abuse scandal could see an increase in ticket sales following Sunday night’s win.
Mad Max was already among the highest-grossing films in this year’s field of Best Picture nominees, with more than $377 million in global box office. The Revenant was the second-highest grossing film in the group—with more than $400 million in global ticket sales—behind The Martian‘s $624 million.
The Academy Awards aired on Walt Disney’s (DIS) ABC.
