FOR SOME, ADVERTISING DIDN’T PAY

Oscar advertising paid off for Mozart, but not for Clint.

That’s about the only clear message from the millions of dollars the major studios spent on advertisements in the trade newspapers, Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety, prior to Wednesday’s announcement of Academy Award nominations.

Orion Pictures spent a fortune on “Amadeus” and reaped 11 nominations, while Warner Bros. took out more ads for Clint Eastwood as best actor in “Tightrope” (seven in Daily Variety alone) than any other performer received, and came up empty-handed. Eastwood was bested by Albert Finney, who didn’t get the benefit of a single individual ad.

(Only ads in Daily Variety were tabulated for statistical purposes, although most were duplicated at different times in the Hollywood Reporter.)

“Birdy” never got off the ground, suffering a total shut-out in Oscar nods despite 20 1/2 full-page ads in Daily Variety, while the less-heavily plugged “A Passage to India” shared the lead with “Amadeus,” amassing 11 nominations. The $150,000 that Tri-Star Pictures spent plugging “Places in the Heart” resulted in seven Oscar nominations, but the almost-equal amount it lavished on “The Natural” coughed up four nominations.

“A Soldier’s Story” was another big spender, buying 18 full pages in Daily Variety between Dec. 1 and Jan. 25 when the academy voting polls closed, but the Norman Jewison film won only three nominations. Jewison himself was knocked out of the directors’ race by “Broadway Danny Rose” writer-director Woody Allen, who received two nominations even though Orion took out only one ad for the movie, and that one pushed actress Mia Farrow, who didn’t receive a nomination.

Columbia Pictures made a fortune from “Ghostbusters,” and threw some of it away touting Oscar nominations for the year’s biggest box-office hit. In spite of 15 full pages in Daily Variety, including three for director Ivan Reitman, two for star Bill Murray, three for co-stars Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, one for actress Sigourney Weaver, three for the screenplay by Aykroyd and Ramis and one for the movie’s score, “Ghostbusters” nabbed only two nominations. Neither one was advertised: the movie’s special effects and its title song, “Ghostbusters.”

Another big loser was “1984,” which had 12 full-page ads bought on its behalf, including six for its late star, Richard Burton. Big Brother must have been the only one watching. Net result: zero nominations.

“Romancing the Stone” and “The Karate Kid,” two other box-office successes, didn’t fare much better. Each had 13 full pages in Daily Variety boosting its cast and credits, and each landed one nomination each.

Research assistance for this article was provided by Zan Dubin.