... or Frost/Nixon, The Wrestler and any other Oscar-contending movie not currently playing at a theater near you. There's no political conspiracy, or insult to our Tampa Bay movie market, as some readers have suggested.

It's not personal; strictly business, as the Corleones say.

This is simply the way Hollywood does things during the awards season, and with good reason. Making a great movie is only the first step toward an acceptance speech. Keeping it relevant throughout two months of competitive studio campaigning is like a four-corner stall in basketball: slowing down the game increases the chance to win.

The movie game is usually a run-and-gun affair when only box office receipts are on the line: Book a movie into as many theaters as possible then make money while market interest lasts. Bride Wars played on 3,226 screens nationwide last weekend. Bedtime Stories opened two weeks ago on nearly 3,700 screens. Give them a couple of weeks and those numbers will be halved.

With new movies entering the competition each week, ticket sales can dwindle fast, taking theater counts with them. Got to have room for the new stuff that will fill seats, rather than something playing to half-filled (or less) auditoriums. That's a lot of product turnover, and a lot of "don't-miss" movies quickly forgotten.

Which is exactly what studios don't want to happen to their showpiece releases contending for major prizes.

Book Milk or Frost/Nixon in 3,000 theaters and their buzz would be silenced in one or two weeks. Moviegoers would be happy to see the Golden Globe (and likely Oscar nominees) as soon as they heard of them on TV interviews, ads and Web buzz. Studios would worry about the short attention spans of awards voters, or their movies being considered as flops and losing votes that way.

The alternative is obvious: Book Milk and Frost/Nixon in the best moviegoing markets (Tampa Bay is generally ranked 13th in the U.S.) to promote awareness but only in one or two theaters until the Oscars and Golden Globes races comes into focus. Then expand into more theaters, if your movie earns major nominations or awards that can be touted in advertisements, resulting in more ticket sales.

If either Milk or Frost/Nixon had swept the Golden Globes like Slumdog Millionaire did Sunday night, they'd be expanding to more screens this week, just to cash in.

(There's also a geographic disconnect that I've reminded distributors about for years: When a booker in L.A. plans a limited Tampa Bay release, Tampa is the city they think about. At least now they're considering Oldsmar's Woodlands Square 20 - where Milk and Frost/Nixon are currently shown exclusively - as the closest theater to central Tampa Bay, and not Brandon's Regency 24 as in past years.)

I can guarantee that if Milk and Frost/Nixon garner the Oscar love that's expected when nominations are announced Jan. 22, you'll see those movies in more local theaters soon thereafter.