How the Ad Campaigns Paid Off

The 10 top-grossing movies of 1989 accumulated 12 Oscar nominations Wednesday. But how about the movies that spent the most money campaigning for them?

Outtakes kept a score card of full-page Academy Award campaign ads in the two industry trade papers and the total nominations for the biggest spenders came to . . . 23.

So, does it pay to advertise? The Finnish film “Talvisota,” which was promoted on more than twice as many pages as any other contender, didn’t get a single nod. Neither did “War of the Roses,” which finished second.

On the other hand, “Born on the Fourth of July,” which didn’t even make the Top 10 spenders list with only 15 pages, scored eight nominations, not a bad Oscar-per-page ratio.

This is how the 10 biggest campaigns fared:

1--”Talvisota” (National-Filmi Oy), 112 pages: no nominations.

2--”The War of the Roses” (Fox), 53 pages: no nominations.

3--”Batman” (Warner Bros.), 49 pages: one nomination for art direction.

4--”Steel Magnolias” (Tri-Star)--45 pages: one nomination for Julia Roberts, supporting actress.

5--”Crimes and Misdemeanors” (Orion), 38 pages: three nominations--supporting actor (Martin Landau), direction, screenplay.

6 and 7 (tie)--”Enemies, a Love Story” (Fox) and “When Harry Met Sally” (Columbia), 36 pages each: three nominations for “Enemies” (supporting actresses Anjelica Huston, Lena Olin, screenplay adaptation), one nomination for “Harry” for original screenplay.

8--”Driving Miss Daisy” (Warner Bros.), 33 pages: nine nominations--picture; Morgan Freeman, actor; Jessica Tandy, actress; Dan Aykroyd, supporting actor; screenplay adaptation; art direction; costume design; editing; makeup.

9 and 10 (tie)--”Glory” (Tri-Star), “Triumph of the Spirit” (Triumph Releasing), 32 pages each: five nominations for “Glory” (supporting actor Denzel Washington, art direction, cinematography, editing, sound), no nominations for “Triumph.”