movies

Brady Corbet, the 36-year-old director behind Oscar season’s most acclaimed film, has said he – and many of his fellow nominees – are experiencing severe financial difficulties.

Corbet said he “made zero dollars” from his three-and-a-half hour drama about a Hungarian architect in postwar America.

“I just directed three advertisements in Portugal,” Corbet told Marc Maron on his WTF podcast. “It’s the first time that I had made any money in years.” He went on to explain that he and his wife and co-writer/producer, Mona Fastvold, “made zero dollars on the last two films that we made”.

The Brutalist, which has garnered 10 nominations at this year’s Academy Awards, has been widely praised for its relative economy, given its substantial scope and running time.

Corbet’s budget on the film was $9.6m (£7.62m), and a week after its premiere at the Venice film festival in August 2024, distribution rights were acquired by A24 for a similar sum, after a bidding war.

The Brutalist has so far taken $14.6m (£11.6m) in the US. In the UK, where it is being distributed by Focus and Universal, its current total is $3.2m (£2.5m). Rest of the world earnings to date stand at around $13.4m (£10.6m) for a global gross of $31.1m (£24.7m).

On his show, Maron pressed Corbet for clarification about payment for the film, to which he replied: “Yes. Actually, zero. We had to just sort of live off of a paycheck from three years ago.”

A number of his lauded peers were in a similar predicament, said Corbet. “I’ve spoken to many film-makers that have the films that are nominated this year that can’t pay their rent. I mean, that’s a real thing.”

Directors, he said, were not paid to promote their films, although distributors are believed to fund their expenses. “If you look at certain films that premiered in Cannes,” said Corbet, “that was almost a year ago … I mean, our film premiered in September. So I’ve been doing this for six months. And had zero income because I don’t have any time to go to work. I can’t even take a writing job at the moment.”

Anora, Sean Baker’s sex worker romance, which won best casting and the best actress award for Mikey Madison at Sunday’s Baftas, took the Palme d’Or at Cannes last May. That film, which had a $6m (£4.8m) budget, has so far made $34.6m (£27.5m) worldwide.

Corbet went on describe the press circuit as “a six-month interrogation,” and said he had taken part in 90 interviews over the past week.

“It’s seven days a week,” he said. “It’s boundless. It’s constant travel, and you’re also working Saturdays and Sundays. I haven’t had a day off since the Christmas break, and that was also only four days.”

Of the eight films other than Anora and The Brutalist nominated for the best picture Oscar this year, two have been blockbusters: Dune: Part Two, which took $714.6m (£567.1) from a $190m (£151m) budget, and Wicked, whose budget was $145m (£115m) and has so far taken $725m (£575.4m) – but is still showing at cinemas.

Three others have commanded respectable box office earnings: Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown ($99m from a $65m budget), Conclave ($95.5 from a $20m budget) and The Substance ($77m from a $17.5m budget).

Meanwhile Emilia Pérez is on $15m from a $22m budget, but enjoyed only a limited theatrical run before moving to Netflix, while Nickel Boys has charted a significant loss, making just $2.5m back of its $23.2m spend.

Brazilian drama I’m Still Here is released in the UK this week but some time ago became the highest-grossing Brazilian film since Covid, making $25.4m from its $1.5m budget.

As the heir of bank Itaú Unibanco, director Walter Salles is the second wealthiest film-maker in the world, after George Lucas, with an estimated personal fortune of $5.3bn.