Just before the Academy Award nominations came out, I did a census of all the “For Your Consideration” advertisements that ran in the print editions of Variety magazine and The Hollywood Reporter. It’s always hard to assign a numerical value to the squishy idea of Oscar campaigning, but this census lets us estimate how much financial support various productions are getting when it comes to wooing the Academy.

While naked campaigning calms down considerably after the nominations are announced — no, seriously, it got so bad that rules had to be drawn up — Oscar nominees are still taking out loads of print ads in support of their bids. The leader since nominations were announced Jan. 24? “Arrival,” which, despite a snubby lockout in the acting categories, tied for the second-most overall nominations this year thanks to a deep bench in the techie prizes.

Looking at ad space purchased per nomination, “Kubo and the Two Strings,” nominated for best animated feature and best visual effects, and “Elle,” whose star Isabelle Huppert has a best actress nomination, are leagues ahead of the pack.

Here are the biggest print campaigners, ranked by total square inches of advertising bought in the two trades since the nominations:

NOMINATIONS AD SPACE (SQ. INCHES) SQ. INCHES/NOM. Arrival 8 3,113 389 Manchester by the Sea 6 2,776 463 Kubo and the Two Strings 2 2,528 1,264 La La Land 14 2,307 165 Moonlight 8 1,442 180 Hidden Figures 3 1,436 479 Elle 1 1,208 1,208 Trolls 1 922 922 13th 1 705 705 Toni Erdmann 1 694 694 Fences 4 662 165 Hacksaw Ridge 6 537 90 Hell or High Water 4 532 133 La Femme et le TGV 1 526 526 Moana 2 470 235 Zootopia 1 470 470 Captain Fantastic 1 467 467 My Life as a Zucchini 1 407 407 Ad space in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter since nominations were announced Minimum 400 square inches of “For Your Consideration” advertising purchased. Sources: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter





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