{"id":2363,"date":"2006-03-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-04T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/03\/oscar-winners-slipping-at-the-box-office\/"},"modified":"2006-03-04T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-03-04T10:00:00","slug":"oscar-winners-slipping-at-the-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/03\/oscar-winners-slipping-at-the-box-office.html","title":{"rendered":"Oscar winners slipping at the box office?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Time for some Academy Awards<\/a> statistics geekiness!<\/span><\/p>\n

Someone observed a while ago that this just might be the first year in which a Best Documentary Feature nominee has out-grossed all five Best Picture nominees, and as of last Thursday, this was still true \u2014 though it looks like Brokeback Mountain<\/a><\/i> ($76.4 million as of Thursday) could pass March of the Penguins<\/a><\/i> ($77.4 million) before the awards are handed out Sunday night.<\/p>\n

For those who like to ponder such things, BoxOfficeMojo.com<\/a> has a helpful list of the grosses for all the Best Picture nominees going back to 1978; and what\u2019s interesting is that, depending on how things go from here, it looks like this<\/a> might be the first year since 1996<\/a> that the Best Picture winner does not gross at least $100 million; and if that is the case, then this would be the first year since 1985<\/a> that none<\/i> of the Best Picture nominees has gotten around to grossing at least $100 million. (However, three of the 1985 nominees were<\/i> among the top ten for that year, whereas none of the 2005 nominees is even in the top 25 yet.)<\/p>\n

This is also the second year in a row that all five nominees had grossed less than $100 million before<\/i> the nominations were announced; in 2004<\/a>, Million Dollar Baby<\/a><\/i> and The Aviator<\/i> both inched past the century mark eventually, but not until after the awards were handed out. Prior to that, the last time this happened was in 1989<\/a>, when Driving Miss Daisy<\/i> crossed the century mark after winning Best Picture. However, note here that both Million Dollar Baby<\/i> and The Aviator<\/i> barely made it into the year\u2019s top 25, whereas Driving Miss Daisy<\/i> was easily in the year\u2019s top ten.<\/p>\n

Some people have pointed to these stats as evidence that the Oscars are out of touch with \u201cthe average moviegoer\u201d (or, more provincially, \u201cthe average American\u201d). But, y\u2019know, whatever. The awards are supposedly going to the best<\/i> films, not the most popular<\/i> films, so we should expect<\/i> and even want<\/i> the awards to reflect something other than box-office success.<\/p>\n

But, as you can see, the Oscars and the box office frequently do<\/i> align. What follows is a list of the Best Picture winners for the past few decades, with their rank among the year\u2019s top earners, and their final domestic gross. (In some cases, they earned most of this money before they were nominated; in others, they earned most of it afterwards; but either way, the figure indicates the degree to which the public was willing to go out and see the movie.)<\/p>\n

2005 \u2014 49 \u2014 $53.4 million \u2014 Crash<\/i>
2004 \u2014 24 \u2014 $100.5 million \u2014 Million Dollar Baby<\/i>
2003 \u2014 1 \u2014 $377.0 million \u2014 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King<\/i>
2002 \u2014 10 \u2014 $170.7 million \u2014 Chicago<\/i>
2001 \u2014 11 \u2014 $170.7 million \u2014 A Beautiful Mind<\/i>
2000 \u2014 4 \u2014 $187.7 million \u2014 Gladiator<\/i>
1999 \u2014 13 \u2014 $130.1 million \u2014 American Beauty<\/i>
1998 \u2014 18 \u2014 $100.3 million \u2014 Shakespeare in Love<\/i>
1997 \u2014 1 \u2014 $600.8 million \u2014 Titanic<\/i>
1996 \u2014 19 \u2014 $78.7 million \u2014 The English Patient<\/i>
1995 \u2014 18 \u2014 $75.6 million \u2014 Braveheart<\/i>
1994 \u2014 1 \u2014 $329.7 million \u2014 Forrest Gump<\/i>
1993 \u2014 9 \u2014 $96.1 million \u2014 Schindler\u2019s List<\/i>
1992 \u2014 11 \u2014 $101.2 million \u2014 Unforgiven<\/i>
1991 \u2014 4 \u2014 $130.7 million \u2014 Silence of the Lambs<\/i>
1990 \u2014 3 \u2014 $184.2 million \u2014 Dances with Wolves<\/i>
1989 \u2014 8 \u2014 $106.6 million \u2014 Driving Miss Daisy<\/i>
1988 \u2014 1 \u2014 $172.8 million \u2014 Rain Man<\/i>
1987 \u2014 25 \u2014 $44.0 million \u2014 The Last Emperor<\/i>
1986 \u2014 3 \u2014 $138.5 million \u2014 Platoon<\/i>
1985 \u2014 5 \u2014 $87.1 million \u2014 Out of Africa<\/i>
1984 \u2014 12 \u2014 $52.0 million \u2014 Amadeus<\/i>
1983 \u2014 2 \u2014 $108.4 million \u2014 Terms of Endearment<\/i>
1982 \u2014 12 \u2014 $52.8 million \u2014 Gandhi<\/i>
1981 \u2014 7 \u2014 $59.0 million \u2014 Chariots of Fire<\/i>
1980 \u2014 11 \u2014 $54.8 million \u2014 Ordinary People<\/i>
1979 \u2014 xx \u2014 $106.3 million \u2014 Kramer Vs. Kramer<\/i>
1978 \u2014 xx \u2014 $49.0 million \u2014 The Deer Hunter<\/i>
1977 \u2014 xx \u2014 $38.3 million \u2014 Annie Hall<\/i>
1976 \u2014 xx \u2014 $117.2 million \u2014 Rocky<\/i>
1975 \u2014 xx \u2014 $109.0 million \u2014 One Flew over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest<\/i>
1974 \u2014 xx \u2014 $47.5 million \u2014 The Godfather Part II<\/i>
1973 \u2014 xx \u2014 $156.0 million \u2014 The Sting<\/i>
1972 \u2014 xx \u2014 $133.7 million \u2014 The Godfather<\/i>
1971 \u2014 xx \u2014 $51.7 million \u2014 The French Connection<\/i>
1970 \u2014 xx \u2014 $61.7 million \u2014 Patton<\/i><\/p>\n

MAR 5 UPDATE: Updated to include the winner for 2005.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time for some Academy Awards statistics geekiness! Someone observed a while ago that this just might be the first year in which a Best Documentary Feature nominee has out-grossed all five Best Picture nominees, and as of last Thursday, this was still true \u2014 though it looks like Brokeback Mountain ($76.4 million as of Thursday) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOscar winners slipping at the box office?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Time for some Academy Awards statistics geekiness!Someone observed a while ago that this just might be the first year in which a Best Documentary Feature\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/03\/oscar-winners-slipping-at-the-box-office.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Oscar winners slipping at the box office?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Time for some Academy Awards statistics geekiness!Someone observed a while ago that this just might be the first year in which a Best Documentary Feature\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2006\/03\/oscar-winners-slipping-at-the-box-office.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-03-04T10:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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