Many of the other best picture nominees also split audiences along political, religious and aesthetic lines — and their box office returns suffered as a result. Eric Bana, who starred in "Munich" and was a presenter Sunday night, said the Oscars helped draw attention to movies some ticket buyers dismissed out of hand.

"There were a few films this year where people made up their minds without actually seeing the films or knowing much about them," Bana said as he entered the Kodak Theatre.

The ceremony's first award — a best supporting actor win for George Clooney in "Syriana" — was indicative of the evening's slate of nominees. Released by Warner Bros., the political thriller about oil and terrorism was subsidized by Skoll's Participant Productions; Clooney himself waived his up-front salary in order to get the outspoken movie made.

"This is not an industry that says OK. It has to be about big business and big budgets," Clooney said backstage after his win. "I think the beauty of the academy is that it finds little moments to say, 'Let's talk about these films and let's talk about things that maybe the rest of the mainstream doesn't get a chance to see.' "

Neither "Syriana" nor "The Constant Gardener," a drama about pharmaceutical corruption in Africa that won a best supporting actress Oscar for Rachel Weisz, sold nearly as many tickets as the winner for documentary feature, "March of the Penguins," which grossed $77.4 million.

Actor William H. Macy, whose wife, Felicity Huffman, was nominated for best actress in "Transamerica," said before the ceremony that he was encouraged by the kinds of movies Oscar voters singled out, and that they had performed well relative to their costs.

"The [best picture nominees] this year were not blockbusters but they were movies of depth," Macy said. "These films were successful too, and that's not getting enough attention."

Some Oscar-winning movies that were conceived as fully financed studio films were different animals by the time they hit theaters. "Memoirs of a Geisha," which won Academy Awards for costume design, art direction and cinematography, was developed at Sony Pictures, but the nervous studio sold a hefty share of the film to Spyglass Entertainment.

Even the specialized film companies that distributed four of the five best picture nominees are not immune to the relentless business pressures that make daring filmmaking increasingly difficult. Focus Features, which released "Brokeback Mountain," adheres to a rigid model that balances a film's artistic merit against its foreign sales potential. That formula prevented Focus from making 2004's "Sideways," which went on to be a critical triumph, win the adapted screenplay Oscar and turn into an art house smash, grossing more than $71 million.

The ceremony's honorary Oscar was presented to maverick director Robert Altman, recognizing a filmmaker who often works outside of — and has often expressed his open disdain for — the big studios.

Those studios could take some solace in the three wins collected by "King Kong" and the best actress trophy for Reese Witherspoon of "Walk the Line."

The show was hosted by Jon Stewart of the satirical news program "The Daily Show," the fourth Oscar host in as many years. Ratings for last year's show, for which Chris Rock was host, were down 3% from the previous year, and Oscar organizers worried that television viewership might be down again this year because so few people had seen the five best picture nominees.

But these movies were never intended to be blockbusters. They just had something to say. Noted Yari as he drove away from Mo's Restaurant to celebrate his film's unexpected triumph, "No matter how much we want to believe important messages drive Hollywood decisions, the greatest driver is financial potential."

Times staff writers Robert W. Welkos and Geoff Boucher contributed to this report.