“Exploring the 9 Best Picture Oscar Nominees That Didn’t Make a Profit”

special report

February 6, 2023 10:00 am

The 2023 Oscar nominations for Best Picture are in, and among the critically acclaimed films on the list, a few still haven’t made a profit. Among them is the drama “Women Talking” by director Sarah Polley, which grossed just $2.4 million on an estimated production budget of $135 million. Other box office hits on the list include Stephen Speilberg’s coming-of-age film The Fabelmans and Todd Field’s psychodrama Tár. (Here are the 25 great directors with the most box office bombs.)

These films are still in the process of being released, so they could bring in at least a little more money. However, this does not apply to older films. Despite all-star casts, great cinematography, and numerous accolades, some Oscar-nominated films just haven’t paid off. To identify the Best Picture nominees who never made a profit, 24/7 Tempo reviewed production budget and box office data from The Numbers, an online film database maintained by Nash Information Services. Films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture were ranked based on the return-on-investment ratio of production budget to worldwide box office. The data are not adjusted for inflation. Director and cast information is sourced from IMDb, an Amazon online film and television database.

While some of the films on this list, including Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon and David Lean’s A Passage to India, nearly broke even, one film recouped less than a quarter of its budget. “CODA,” a Sundance favorite that Apple paid a record $25 million for, has posted a yield of $0.22 per dollar at the box office.

Click here to read about the only 9 best picture Oscar nominees who lost money

Some of the films have received multiple awards including Oscars, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Others were included in the American Film Institute’s picks for Best Picture of the Year upon their release. (See Best of the Best – Oscar Winners for Best Picture.)

Source