The Academy Awards may bestow films with the most sought-after accolades in the industry, but that doesn’t always mean the movie is a financial success. Hollywood and the world have several different organizations and associations that are designed to give recognition and praise to the best and brightest projects ever made. However, the general public has a slightly different system for showing their affection and admiration for movies, which is arguably more important, the box office. Audiences pay with their hard-earned money to see films that resonate with them and the box office is an important record of these transactions.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is nearing its 100th anniversary, but in all the years of its operation, the Best Picture winners haven’t always performed well when it comes to the box office. Whether the movie was not designed for the mainstream, the marketing failed to push it out, or the movie simply wasn’t deemed that great, some of the “best” movies had minimal returns. And while a flop is technically a movie that fails to recover its budget, a higher bar is in place for the movies that are supposedly the best in the industry.
10 Cimarron (1931)
Box Office: $1,383,000
Cimarron was awarded Best Picture when the award was still called Outstanding Picture. However, despite there being far fewer options on the table to compete for the title, Cimarron is one of the films that lacks any real depth. Despite an enormous budget at the time of around $1.5 million to produce the picture, it failed to earn back its budget, falling shy by over $100,000 (via Historical Journal of RTF). A middling Western that ranked near the bottom of the box office in its year of release.
9 Chariots Of Fire (1981)
Box Office: $61,910,507
Chariots of Fire had a fairly low budget that almost guaranteed its success at the box office, and it was able to more than recover the investment to make the picture (via The Numbers), however, the movie also failed to outperform many other films in 1981 when it was released. Domestically, it ranked at the very bottom for earnings (via Box Office Mojo), but even when taking into consideration the global earnings, the film barely cracked the top 10 in 1981.
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8 The Last Emporer (1987)
Box Office: $44,005,435
The Last Emperor earned $44 million upon release, but this figure saw it lagging far behind other movies released at the same time, and considering the $25 million to make the movie plus marketing costs, it barely broke even (via The Numbers). The movie failed to draw in audiences upon release and only began to earn higher sales after being nominated for the award, which led curious cinemagoers to buy a ticket. It may have won Best Picture, but it certainly didn’t capture the attention and hearts of the wider audience of film fans in any meaningful way.
7 Crash (2004)
Box Office: $98,410,061
Another winning movie that turned a profit thanks to a low budget was Crash (via Box Office Mojo). Crash was one of the most controversial winners of the award, especially considering the fact that it beat out stiff competition like Brokeback Mountain, which had one of many of the precursor awards and was expected to win Best Picture. However, it is possible that Crash was voted in as the winner, despite being a far weaker project, due to other politics at the time, but the film is likely one that few people remember, while Brokeback Mountain endures as a classic.
6 No Country For Old Men (2007)
Box Office: $164,035,753
No Country for Old Men
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No Country for Old Men is a western crime-thriller based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy and directed by the Cohen Brothers. Following three protagonists, the film centers around a large $2,000,000+ cache of dirty money lost near the Rio Grande. With a veteran who finds it, a hitman who will stop at nothing to get it, and a sheriff trying to investigate the crimes connected to it, all roads lead to death and mayhem as they find themselves in each other’s crosshairs.
Many movies released during 2007 were just tens of millions below the $1 billion mark, which was not the case for No Country for Old Menby the Coen brothers. Despite winning in multiple categories, this film was clearly too niche for the public as it only raised a fraction of what any one of the top 10 managed to pull in (via Box Office Mojo). It may have won Best Picture and raised a decent sum against its budget (via The Numbers), but it lagged far behind its competition in terms of profitability.
5 The Hurt Locker (2008)
Box Office: $49,876,984
The Hurt Locker
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From director Kathryn Bigelow comes The Hurt Locker, the 2008 oscar winning war thriller film that follows Jeremy Renner as Sergeant William James and his bomb disposal team as they navigate beyond enemy lines during the Iraq War. The movie explores the trauma and stresses the soldiers face as they attempt to disarm active explosives on the field, with the repercussions beginning to take their toll on the squadmates.
Despite being released a year later, The Hurt Locker managed to earn less than a third of the previous years winner, against an already low budget (via The Numbers). Just one year later, in 2009, movies like James Cameron’s Avatar would shatter the record for highest-earning movie and earn well over $2 billion, but The Hurt Locker is a comparative disappointment compared to most other movies released in 2008. Despite this discrepancy, it still picked up the most coveted award in the industry against Avatar and several other much more widely praised films.
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4 The Artist (2011)
Box Office: $128,100,584
The Artist
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A unique call back to classic silent cinema, The Artist is a comedy-drama that follows actor George Valentin in the 1920s, who experiences the changing landscape as “talking pictures” become the new norm. The film centers on the relationship between George and an up-and-coming young actress named Peppy Miller, who he takes on as a mentee as he slowly falls into obscurity.
The Artist paid tribute to the early days of Hollywood, and as a result, it appeared to get recognition and acclaim back. However, the film was by no means one of the most or even marginally high-ranking films of 2011. The Artist ranked as the 169th highest-earning title out of 200 at the box office (via Box Office Mojo), but despite barely edging out the other lowest-earning films of the year (via The Numbers), it was able to land an Oscar for Best Picture. This is not to say that the movie isn’t enjoyable, but it clearly wasn’t even acknowledged by a significant audience.
3 Birdman (2014)
Box Office: $102,926,247
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
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Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman is a dark comedy drama that stars Michael Keaton as washed-up actor Riggan Thomson, who’s famous for playing a bird-themed superhero and who attempts to stage a comeback by directing and starring in a Broadway play. Shot as one single long take and with Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis, and Emma Stone in its cast, the 2014 film won four Oscars, including Best Picture.
Birdman, starring Michael Keaton, faced off some incredibly strong competition in the 2014 Academy Awards against titles like The Imitation Game, American Sniper, and The Theory of Everything. However, despite being on the lower end of the box office figures (via The Numbers), Birdman nabbed the win. The movie had a lot to be praised, from performance to writing, but it still struggled to capture the general public’s attention, even after being nominated for the Oscar, with many people expecting one of the other nominees to take home the prize.
2 Moonlight (2016)
Box Office: $64,895,106
Moonlight
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Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, Moonlight follows Chiron (Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders, and Alex Hibbert) during three stages of his life, starting in childhood and progressing all the way up through adulthood. The film explores themes of identity and sexuality, chronicling Chiron’s life as a gay black man growing up in Miami to an abusive, drug-addicted mother.
Moonlight had a rocky road to earning its Best Picture award after La La Land was incorrectly announced as the winner in 2016. However, the film, which had a meager budget of $1.5 million to make (via The Numbers), earned one of the lowest-ever box office totals when adjusted for inflation, against every other winner. The film certainly earned its award, but it did not receive nearly enough of a release, which could have multiplied its earnings several times over.
1 CODA (2021)
Box Office: $2,237,618
CODA
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Coda is a coming-of-age drama that was written and directed by Sian Heder. Its story centers around Ruby Rossi, a 17-year-old high school student who is the only member of her household who isn’t deaf. The movie was a huge hit with critics, picking up three Academy Awards including the highly coveted Best Picture prize.
Considering CODA was released on Apple TV+ with a limited theatrical release, it makes sense that it didn’t earn very much in theaters (via The Numbers), but a Best Picture winner that earned less than eight or 9 digits is unheard of in modern cinema. The story is moving and emotional, and deals with a topic that is not given nearly enough attention, which clearly puts it in good standing for an awards show like the Academy Awards, but while the budget to make the movie has not been explicitly revealed, Apple is likely to have invested considerably more.
