This image was lost some time after publication.

With Cinderella Man so spectacularly shitting the box office bed in its ill-fated summer-event-movie release (remember the refund offer?), Universal now hopes that a limited rerelease (in densely Academy-vote populate LA and NY) and an early December appearance on DVD will mitigate the damage by helping the movie pick up some awards nominations. More interesting, however, is the way the studio is selling the Oscar-trolling reincarnation:

The film, which debuted in June to mixed reviews and a disappointing fourth-place opening with just over $18 million in box office business, is now being billed as one of the year's top-performing dramas. (That would be behind "The Interpreter" and "Coach Carter.")

In fact, the many commercials we've heard touting Cinderella Man's local screenings call the movie "the highest grossing drama of the year." (Emphasis ours.) God bless the Universal marketing department for not just playing fast and loose with the facts, but for getting them drunk, luring them into a three-way with an unattractive roommate, then refusing to fork over cab fare the next morning. They obviously realized that ads heralding "the highest grossing drama of the year, if you reclassify The Interpreter as a 'political thriller' and Coach Carter as a 'Samuel L. Jackson feel-good sports romp'" probably wouldn't impress Academy members at ballot time.