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Except for the summer movie season, the most important time of year is for observers of the church that is cinema. Awards season is in full swing, with the Golden Globes already behind us. More specifically, it’s Oscar season, with the full list of nominees for this year’s Academy Awards recently announced. There were surprises and snubs, and now the race for best picture is on, with critical darlings and blockbusters vying for the night’s top prize. But which of this year’s nominees stands above the rest when it comes to the box office?
Box office is not a great way to determine quality. Many great movies have made next to no money (see the much-beloved “Sing Street”), while some not-so-great movies have taken in pots of cash (see the 2016 Oscar-winning hit “Suicide Squad”). That said, box office is Important in terms of providing some context for Hollywood’s biggest night. Are the most nominated movies also the movies that people really care about? That question has become increasingly important in recent years as the Oscars seek to remain relevant.
So let’s see how each of these movies did at the box office, shall we? Before we dive in fully, we should note that several of these movies have only hit theaters in the last few weeks, and some of them haven’t expanded yet. Others come from streaming services that don’t care much about theatrical releases. With that out of the way, here’s how the best picture nominees fared at the box office.
“Dune: Part Two” – $714.6 million
“Wicked” – $710.2 million
“Conclave” – $77.9 million
“The Substance” – $76.5 million
“A Complete Stranger” – $62.9 million
“Anora” – $33.6 million
“I’m Still Here” – $14.1 million
“The Brutalist” – $5.8 million
“Emilia Pérez” – $10.7 million
“Nickel Boys” – $1.2 million
Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Two” is the clear winner here, for now. “Wicked” is still in theaters and its Oscar nominations will only raise its profile. Before long, it will surpass “Dune” to become the highest-rated film of this year’s Best Picture nominees. From there, it’s a steep drop, with the announced Pope drama “Conclave” coming in at just $80 million. Meanwhile, “Emilia Pérez,” which leads the pack with 13 nominations, is a Netflix release and barely had a profile in theaters nationwide.
2025 Best Picture Nominees Could Make People Care About the Oscars
When all is said and done, “Wicked” could be closer to $800 million than $700 million, which means a lot of people will be invested in its Oscar performance, particularly since “Wicked Part 2” is coming. in theaters later this year. Regardless of which movie ends up on top, having two crowd-pleasing blockbusters nominated for Best Picture will help drive eyeballs to the stream.
Several of these films are likely to get re-releases and boosts in light of the nominations (“Anora” feels like a safe bet there). Meanwhile, “The Brutalist” is gearing up for expansion and numbers to add greatly to that total. “A complete unknown” also continues to deploy abroad and has gas in the tank at the national level. It should easily pass $100 million worldwide on the big night. Compared to the box office haul of last year’s Best Picture nominees, there are clear differences. “Barbie” led the pack with more than $1.4 billion. However, most of the other nominees failed to clear the $30 million mark by the time the nominations came out.
This year, we have at least five movies that could rank fairly popular, which is good news for the academy since ratings for the Oscar telecast have struggled in recent years. The 2024 show posted a four-year high, largely thanks to the popularity of films like Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which earned nearly $1 billion and won best picture. But viewership hasn’t dropped 20 million since 2020, and we’re Lightyears removed from the 43.7 million viewers brought in during the 2014 broadcast.
The show will likely never see that audience again, but having popular movies in the mix helps keep the average viewer on board. Those viewers are much needed to help keep the Oscars relevant, which in turn helps ensure that studios continue to invest in original and/or bold ideas. In that way, the box office and the Academy Awards have a necessary relationship.
The 97th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony takes place Sunday, March 2 on ABC.
