Pricing an Oscar Nomination

How much would you pay for an Oscar nomination? If you are James Cameron, you might drop $22 million. If you're his ex-wife, you might pay less than $2 million.

On Tuesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards, and leading the way with nine nominations each are Avatar and The Hurt Locker.

The battle will pit Avatar director Cameron against his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow, who directed The Hurt Locker. Both received nominations for Best Director.

This will also be a battle of the haves versus the have-nots: Avatar, the movie with the undisclosed yet seemingly astronomical budget, and The Hurt Locker, the small independent that won critical acclaim on a shoestring budget.

Here is a list of the 10 nominees in the expanded Best Picture field, their budgets, and domestic grosses:

• Avatar from 20th Century Fox—Budget: $200 million to $500 million; Gross: $595,752,416
• Up from The Walt Disney Co.—Budget: $175 million; Gross: $293,004,164
• The Blind Side from Warner Bros.—Budget: $29 million; Gross: $237,814,805
• Inglorious Basterds from The Weinstein Co.—Budget: $70 million; Gross: $120,540, 719
• District 9 from Sony Pictures—Budget: $30 million; Gross: $115,646,235
• Up in the Air from Paramount—Budget: $25 million; Gross: $73,273,311
• Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire, from Lions Gate—Budget: $10 million; Gross: $45,447,889
• The Hurt Locker from Summit Entertainment—Budget: $15 million; Gross: $12,671,105
• A Serious Man from Focus Features—Budget: $7 million; Gross: $9,228,768
• An Education from Sony Pictures—Budget: $7.5 million: Gross: $8,795,228

The figures for both budgets and grosses come from Box Office Mojo, which tracks box-office budgets and revenues. The only budget that was not disclosed was that of Avatar. The budget range was taken from various media reports on the movie's budget.

Assuming the low end of the estimated budget range of Avatar, the movie spent about $22.2 million per Oscar nomination, whereas The Hurt Locker spent about $1.67 million per Oscar nomination.

If Cameron did in fact spend $500 million on his sci-fi epic, the price-per-nomination jumps to about $55.5 million.

Avatar has already taken home the Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture for a drama, besting The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, and The Blind Side. Cameron also took home the Golden Globe for Best Director.

The 82nd Academy Awards will take place at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on March 7, and will be televised on ABC.