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Best Picture Oscar Winners vs. Box Office Hits
When Oppenheimer won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 2024 ceremony, it joined a list of Best Picture Oscar winners as a box office behemoth, having earned $958.7 million at the 2023 box office.
But as this data-driven exploration from Vizzu shows, the movie’s success is not par for the course. Over the past 30 years, there has been a complex relationship between Oscar accolades and box office performance.
Comparing Oscar Winners and Box Office Hits (1993–2023)
Using annual worldwide box office hauls from Box Office Mojo, Vizzu compared the earnings of Best Picture Oscar winners with those of the highest grossing movie of each year.
At last year’s event, Everything Everywhere All at Once won six Oscars (including Best Picture) and earned $143.4 million globally. That’s a decent haul, but pales in comparison with Avatar: The Way of Water, which grossed more than $2.3 billion.
As this table shows, more often than not, this divide between critical darling and commercial juggernaut has been the norm over since 1993:
| Film Year | Best Picture Winner | Box Office (Worldwide) |
Box Office (Highest Grossing) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Oppenheimer | $958.7M | $1,445.6M |
| 2022 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | $143.4M | $2,320.2M |
| 2021 | CODA | $1.9M | $1,912.2M |
| 2020 | Nomadland | $39.5M | $461.0M |
| 2019 | Parasite | $262.0M | $2,799.4M |
| 2018 | Green Book | $321.8M | $2,048.4M |
| 2017 | The Shape of Water | $195.2M | $1,332.5M |
| 2016 | Moonlight | $65.2M | $1,153.3M |
| 2015 | Spotlight | $98.7M | $2,068.2M |
| 2014 | Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) | $103.2M | $1,104.1M |
| 2013 | 12 Years a Slave | $187.7M | $1,280.8M |
| 2012 | Argo | $232.3M | $1,518.8M |
| 2011 | The Artist | $133.4M | $1,341.5M |
| 2010 | The King's Speech | $427.4M | $1,067.0M |
| 2009 | The Hurt Locker | $49.3M | $2,743.6M |
| 2008 | Slumdog Millionaire | $378.4M | $1,003.8M |
| 2007 | No Country for Old Men | $171.6M | $961.7M |
| 2006 | The Departed | $291.4M | $1,066.2M |
| 2005 | Crash | $98.4M | $895.9M |
| 2004 | Million Dollar Baby | $216.8M | $929.0M |
| 2003 | Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | $1,140.7M | $1,140.7M |
| 2002 | Chicago | $306.8M | $936.7M |
| 2001 | A Beautiful Mind | $316.8M | $974.8M |
| 2000 | Gladiator | $460.6M | $546.4M |
| 1999 | American Beauty | $356.3M | $924.3M |
| 1998 | Shakespeare in Love | $289.3M | $553.7M |
| 1997 | Titanic | $1,843.4M | $1,843.4M |
| 1996 | The English Patient | $232.0M | $817.4M |
| 1995 | Braveheart | $213.2M | $366.1M |
| 1994 | Forrest Gump | $677.9M | $763.5M |
| 1993 | Schindler's List | $322.2M | $978.2M |
Only two films won Best Picture while topping the box office in their release year: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003 and Titanic in 1997.
Just seven more films won major Oscars—including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor/ Actress, Best Original/Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor/Actress—while earning at least half as much as the top grossers of their release years:
- 2023: Oppenheimer
- 2013: Gravity
- 2008: The Dark Knight
- 2000: Gladiator
- 1998: Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan
- 1995: Braveheart
- 1994: Forrest Gump
This challenges the notion that blockbuster success and Oscar glory go hand-in-hand, but perhaps the success of Oppenheimer can help the box office kings reclaim their Oscar crowns.
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