With the Academy Awards set to air on February 24, 2019, many eyes will be on Spike Lee who has been nominated in three categories for "BlacKkKlansman" – Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay (which he shares with Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott). The film has been nominated in three other categories including Best Best Supporting Actor (Adam Driver), Best Achievement in Music (Terence Blanchard) and Best Editing (Barry Alexander Brown).
Lee shares the Best Picture nomination with producers Jordan Peele, Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum and Raymond Mansfield. After more than three decades, Spike Lee finally nabbed an Oscar nod for both Best picture and Best Picture.
"BlacKkKLansman" is a film based on actual events and follows the story of Ron Stallworth, a Black police officer from Colorado Springs, Colorado, who successfully manages to infiltrate the local Klu Klux Klan branch with the help of his fellow colleague who is Jewish.
We won’t make any Oscar predictions here, but what we can say is that "BlacKkKlansman" has certainly made an impression at the box office. The film has grossed $89.5 million ($48.6M in the U.S.) in domestic and international box office sales ($40.8M) since its release on August 15, 2018. Not bad for a film with a budget of only $15 million. Internationally, the top five countries with the highest box office sales were France, ($10.4M), UK ($8.3M), Finland, ($3.1M), Germany, ($3.0M), and Australia, ($3.0M).
Lee’s largest commercial success at the box office was with “Inside Man” in 2006 (starring Denzel Washington, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster) which grossed $184.3M domestically and internationally.
In 1989, Lee was nominated for "Do the Right Thing" and for his documentary"4 Little Girls" in 1997. Lee was overlooked in 1992 for "Malcolm X" (although Denzel Washington was nominated for Best Actor and Ruth Carter for Best Costume Design).
Let’s see what Academy Awards Lee walks away with on Sunday, February 24th.
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