IS drawing crowds to theatres a guarantee of winning an Oscar? Greta Gerwig would surely answer “no” to that question.
The director was not fortunate enough to be nominated in the “Best Director” category for her “Barbie” movie, which nevertheless dominated the global box office in 2023, grossing over $1.4 billion.
According to Statista’s research, it appears that Oscar-winning movies are not the ones that get the highest box-office grosses worldwide. In fact, looking back over the last five years, the films awarded the “Best Picture” Oscar were not the most popular in theatres.
In 2018, “Avengers: Infinity War” dominated at the box office, grossing over $2 billion, yet it was Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” that took the prize (grossing $322 million). The same goes for “Parasite”, which won “Best Picture” in 2020, compared to the superhero sequel “Avengers: Endgame” and its $2.7 billion worldwide box-office grosses.
“The difference between ‘Best Picture’ winner and box office top performer was especially pronounced in 2021. Marvel’s ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ grossed around $1.9 billion, while that year’s Oscar winner, ‘CODA’, only made $2 million,” reports Statista.
“This can be traced back to the rise of high-quality original programming by streaming services like Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video or Netflix, which then see limited releases in selected markets to minimal earnings to qualify for the Oscars. The Apple-Studios-produced ‘CODA’, for example, was only shown in theatres in three countries: Italy, Mexico and South Korea.”
On the other hand, some Oscar-nominated films were commercially successful, but not among the most widely seen on the big screen. This is the case, for example, with Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land”, which won six Oscars and grossed over $447 million worldwide, or “Green Book” (2018), which won three Oscars and grossed over $320 million worldwide.
The leading Oscar-winning movie with the most successful cinema career remains “Titanic”, with its $2.2 billion in box-office grosses and 11 golden statuettes won in 1998.
The 2004 winner, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, topped the $1 billion mark in box-office grosses.
Meanwhile, the latest Best Picture winner, “Oppenheimer”, has taken $957 million at the box office, making it the most commercially successful Oscar winner in this category since 2004. – ETXDailyUp
