"A Beautiful Mind" and "The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" were hardly theatrical losers before February 12, but their box office earnings skyrocketed in the five weeks following the announcement of this year's Oscar nominations. "What I'm really enjoying at the moment is we've made a movie about a schizophrenic mathematician and we've taken in over $140 million at the box office," crowed the film's star and Best Actor nominee Russell Crowe, 37, at last week's Oscar luncheon, according to the Associated Press. Since the nominations were announced, "A Beautiful Mind," already a box office blockbuster at $113 million, earned another $35.9 million. Meanwhile the tally for "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," which had stalled at $271.4 million, increased by another $22.9 million in the weeks that followed. And it's not only the big pictures that benefit from Oscar's golden touch. Academy Award fever is credited with helping "Gosford Park" and "In the Bedroom" attract broader audiences. "Gosford Park," with seven nominations, earned an additional $11.5 million in the past five weeks, bringing its earnings to $33.5 million. "In The Bedroom," with five nods, jumped from $19.2 million before February 12 to $32.3 million. "Everybody wants to catch up and make sure they see all the movies before the Oscars," Robert Bucksbaum, box office analyst with Reel Source, Inc. told the AP. "It's like learning about the horses before the race starts." The sole Best Picture contender already released on video, "Moulin Rouge," reaped its Oscar benefits through a 160 percent rise in DVD sales and a 40 percent increase in rentals, 20th Century Fox reported to the AP. That brings the musical's video earnings to a tidy $70 million. Surely, Oscar is a girl's best friend.