The 96th Academy Awards, recognizing films released in the year 2023, are fast approaching with less than a month to go to the ceremony. In the lead-up to the awards, many of the nominated films are receiving the brightest spotlight they’ve gotten since their initial release. While films like Barbie and Oppenheimer have remained consistent in their broad pop culture appeal, other films such as The Zone of Interest, American Fiction, Poor Things,and more have expanded their theatrical releases and are finding wider audiences as a result.
While box office is not a measure of a film’s quality, it does provide an insight into how a film is connecting with audiences and whether there is a positive word of mouth driving interest in any particular movie. The Oscars continuously recognize films that fall all over the spectrum of box office receipts, as some Best Picture winners have grossed well over $1 billion worldwide while others have fallen short of the $50 million mark. The 10 films nominated for the top prize at the Academy Awards this year lie all along that spectrum.
In this list, we have pulled together the box office results for all 10 Best Picture nominees this year and have stacked them up against one another. It should be noted that, with a few weeks still to go before the ceremony, these numbers are subject to change to a small degree. It’s unlikely that any of these will suddenly explode in popularity and have their position on this list vastly change.
While whatever film does win Best Picture almost always experiences a post-Oscars box office boost, it’s unlikely that boost would substantially reorder this list, especially if Oppenheimer is able to continue its incredible momentum all the way to winning that top prize. With that film’s success already firmly established, any post-Oscars gross it receives will not likely change its placement here. With that said, here are all 10 Best Picture Nominees for 2024 ranked by their box office earnings:
10 Maestro – $500,000*
Maestro
- Release Date
- December 20, 2023
- Runtime
- 2hr 9min
Coming in at the bottom of this list is Maestro, the sophomore outing for Bradley Cooper as a director. He stars in the film as the famous composer Leonard Bernstein, with Carey Mulligan playing the part of his wife Felicia. The movie covers the majority of Bernstein’s life, spanning nearly 50 years from his early days as a composer to his final years, still living his musical dreams.
Maestro has been nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Actor (Cooper), Best Actress (Mulligan), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography and more. It seems unlikely to win any of the top awards, though don’t count it out of the craft awards races quite yet.
Netflix Does Not Share its Box Office Results
There is a massive and somewhat tedious asterisk that needs to be applied to Maestro’s placement on this list, and that is because the film was distributed by Netflix, which notoriously does not share much of the box office information for its films. With that, we don’t really know how much Maestro has grossed through its limited theatrical release last year and its more recent expansion pre-Oscars.
The Numbers has reported that it grossed just over $500,000 in the countries of Portugal and The Netherlands, though that’s hardly an accurate representation of its overall gross. Due to its limited release, it’s unlikely that Maestro pulled in all that much at the box office – so, it would probably end up near the bottom of this list anyway – but it is still annoying not to have a specific number to measure it by. Stream Maestro on Netflix.
9 The Zone of Interest – $11 Million
The Zone of Interest
- Release Date
- February 2, 2024
- Director
- Jonathan Glazer
- Cast
- Sandra Hüller , Christian Friedel , Freya Kreutzkam , Max Beck
- Runtime
- 1hr 45min
Next on the list is The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s return to feature directing after a decade-long break following his 2013 cult classic, Under the Skin. His newest film is very different from that dark and experimental sci-fi film with Scarlett Johansson, as The Zone of Interest depicts the life of a Nazi commander and his family who are attempting to go about their lives normally despite living directly next to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
It’s one of the most haunting films of this awards season, and its co-production between the United Kingdom and Poland has made it a front-runner in the international feature awards all season. At the Oscars, The Zone of Interest has been nominated for five awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best International Feature and Best Sound.
The Film’s Post-Nomination Box Office Boost
The Zone of Interest is one of the biggest examples this year of a film that has performed much better at the box office as a result of its various Oscar nominations. Prior to the announcement of Oscar nominations, The Zone of Interest had grossed only $1.5 million domestically.
However, that number has now grown to nearly $7 million in the United States and a global total of just over $11 million. It’s likely that there will be a few million more that are added to the total gross before all is said and done, especially if the film performs as strongly at the Oscars as it has with other ceremonies like the BAFTAs. Buy The Zone of Interest on Apple TV.
8 Anatomy of a Fall – $15 Million
Anatomy of a Fall
- Release Date
- August 23, 2023
- Director
- Justine Triet
- Cast
- Sandra Hüller , Swann Arlaud , Antoine Reinartz , Jehnny Beth , Saadia Bentaieb
- Runtime
- 2hr 31min
The only other international film nominated for Best Picture this year is Anatomy of a Fall, the French film from director Justine Triet. It was also nominated for five Academy Awards, with those being Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Sandra Hüller), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. One of the biggest talking points surrounding the film this awards season is its lack of a nomination for Best International Feature, despite being represented in many of the biggest categories.
The reason for that is that France did not submit the film for the category, instead choosing to push Trần Anh Hùng’s The Taste of Things in the category, though it ultimately failed to receive a nomination.
Anatomy of a Fall’s Box Office Has Been Driven by Overseas Markets
Anatomy of a Fall is another film which has experienced a significant boost as a result of its Oscar nominations. However, unlike The Zone of Interest, most of the film’s gross has been determined through international markets. In North America, the film has only grossed about $5 million, whereas its overseas numbers have surpassed $10 million.
With a total of around $15 million, and likely more over the next month, that easily makes Anatomy of a Fall the highest-grossing film of Triet’s career so far, after her last two features have topped out at global totals of $3 million and $5 million respectively. Rent Anatomy of a Fall on Apple TV.
7 American Fiction – $20 Million
Jumping up a bit, the next highest-grossing film on the list is the debut film from director Cord Jefferson, American Fiction. The film is based on the novel Erasure, written by Percival Everett, and it is a dramatic satire of sorts about a Black author in the United States who attempts to write a purposefully stereotypical book about the Black experience in America, only to have the book inadvertently become a bestseller. In addition to Best Picture, American Fiction was nominated for four other Oscars – Best Actor (Jeffrey Wright), Best Supporting Actor (Sterling K. Brown), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score.
American Fiction Has Yet to Expand Overseas
Currently, the box office total for American Fiction stands at around $20 million globally. After opening in a very limited capacity in December, it expanded significantly in North America following its Oscar nominations. The domestic box office accounts for almost the entirety of its gross with $19 million, as the only market it has opened in overseas so far is the United Kingdom, where it has pulled in just over $1 million.
Still, the strength of the film’s box office in North America has been impressive (especially for a budget of less than $10 million), and it is continuing to hold strong week-to-week. Buy American Fiction on Apple TV.
6 Past Lives – $22 Million
Past Lives
- Release Date
- August 31, 2023
- Director
- Celine Song
- Runtime
- 1hr 46min
American Fiction is another debut feature from a first-time film director, Past Lives from Celine Song. The emotional story of two childhood friends who are reunited as adults, Past Lives is an examination of how people do, and do not, evolve over time and the impact that those changes can have on one’s closest relationships. Despite being an indie-darling all year, Past Lives only managed to snag two Oscar nominations this year: Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.
Past Lives Had a Strong Summer Debut
Distributed by A24, Past Lives was bound to receive some attention due to the brand recognition of the now-famous studio. Song’s debut has become one of the defining indie films of 2023, with it quickly finding an audience both domestically and internationally. It has nearly a 50/50 split between North American and international grosses, with $10 million domestic and $12 million overseas.
This brings its global total to over $22 million. When it opened in the United States last summer, it set one of the highest per-theater averages of the year, with it pulling in an average of $58,000 from each of the four theaters it opened in. Stream Past Lives on Showtime.
5 The Holdovers – $39 Million
The Holdovers
- Release Date
- November 10, 2023
- Runtime
- 2hr 13min
As we move into the latter half of this list, the box office totals are beginning to climb higher, as more established studios and recognizable directors round out the list. One such filmmaker is Alexander Payne, who has made a name for himself over the last few decades with films such as Election, Nebraska, About Schmidt and Sideways.
His latest directorial effort, The Holdovers, is one of the most critically acclaimed films of his career so far. In total, the film received five Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Paul Giamatti), Best Supporting Actress (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
The Holdovers Was an Early Awards Season Favorite
The Holdovers lands on the top half of this list with a total global gross of nearly $39 million; $20 million coming from domestic markets and $19 million from overseas. Unlike many of the preceding films on this list, it actually made most of that in its original theatrical release throughout November and December, prior to the announcement of Oscar nominations. Its recognition at the Oscars has actually had a minimal impact on its overall box office, as it had already grossed $19 million in the US before the nominations were announced. Stream The Holdovers on Peacock Premium, or rent on Apple TV.
4 Poor Things – $94 Million
Poor Things
- Release Date
- December 8, 2023
- Runtime
- 2hr 21min
Next on the list is the fourth film from director Yorgos Lanthimos, who has made waves globally over the last decade. Of course, that film is Poor Things, starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe. Lanthimos’ strange twist on the 1992 novel from Alasdair Gray is one of the most eccentric films of his career, which is really saying something when he’s also directed the likes of The Lobster and The Favourite. Nominated for 11 Oscars, Poor Things is a frontrunner for more than a few of the major awards this year, and its box office shows that it has really connected with audiences.
Poor Things is Yorgos Lanthimos’ Biggest Film
So far, Poor Things has grossed just over $32 million in North America, though the bulk of its box office haul has come from overseas. Internationally, the film has brought in an additional $62 million, totaling out to $94 million as of now. It has been particularly successful in countries such as Italy, the United Kingdom and Mexico, the last of which added an impressive $18 million to its total gross.
Poor Things is on-track to surpass The Favourite as the highest-grossing film of Lanthimos’ career any day now, and a strong performance at the Academy Awards would push it to even higher heights.
3 Killers of the Flower Moon – $156 Million
The latest film from a director of Martin Scorsese’s esteem would certainly seem like a surefire hit, and the placement of Killers of the Flower Moon this high on the list certainly supports that notion. Scorsese’s films are consistently some of the biggest of any given awards season, and that’s definitely the case this year. Killers of the Flower Moon is one of Scorsese’s best films in years, and it ultimately went on to receive 10 nominations at this year’s Oscars.
Killers of the Flower MoonIs a Win for Apple
Killers of the Flower Moon marks the first occasion that Scorsese has collaborated with Apple on producing a new feature, and that partnership has worked out pretty well for both of them. Apple gave Scorsese an essentially endless budget to make whatever he wanted, and then the new studio got to increase the prestige associated with its name.
Killers of the Flower Moon has become one of the highest-grossing films of Scorsese’s career, as it brought in $67 million in North America and $88 million overseas, for a global total of $156 million. This puts it far above the likes of Casino and The Color of Money, though just short of Hugo, Cape Fear,and Gangs of New York. Stream Killers of the Flower Moon on Apple TV.
2 Oppenheimer – $960 Million
Oppenheimer
- Release Date
- July 21, 2023
- Cast
- Cillian Murphy , Matt Damon , Robert Downey Jr. , Emily Blunt , Florence Pugh , Gary Oldman , Josh Hartnett , Jack Quaid , Kenneth Branagh , Rami Malek , Alex Wolff , Matthew Modine
Finally, we move into the last two films on this list, which are also the two films that are most obviously the highest-grossing Best Picture nominees of the year. First up is Oppenheimer, the latest film from modern auteur Christopher Nolan. The film is a biopic about the life of Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy) which also details the making of the atomic bomb and the political and societal fallout that occurred in its wake.
It’s arguably the best film of Nolan’s career so far, and it received an astonishing 13 Oscar nominations, with it also being the clear frontrunner to win Best Picture and also earn Nolan his first Oscar win.
One Half of the Barbenheimer Phenomenon
Far and away, the biggest moviegoing event of the year was “Barbenheimer,” the pairing of both Barbie and Oppenheimer as they opened on the same weekend in July. Adding to all of this is the fact that these ended up being two of the best films of 2023, which organically created an unmissable event that drove some of the largest box office numbers in recent years.
Oppenheimer ultimately grossed $328 million in North America and $631 million overseas, totaling to $960 million worldwide. This is easily one of the highest grossing films of Nolan’s career, and it was the third highest-grossing movie of 2023 overall. Rent Oppenheimer on Apple TV.
1 Barbie – 1.4 Billion
Barbie
- Release Date
- July 21, 2023
Finally, the other half of the “Barbenheimer” event was Barbie, the latest film from director Greta Gerwig. People had high expectations for Barbie, but it surpassed almost all of them. It was the perfect blend of building off a recognizable IP while also telling a new and poignant story that would drive a lot of conversation. Gerwig was already a big name before this, with hits like Lady Bird and Little Women, though Barbie saw her level up to an incredible degree.
Now, she and star/producer Margot Robbie have become two of the most powerful voices in Hollywood. While they may not have been nominated for Best Director and Best Actress respectively at the Oscars, they were both still nominated in other categories, as Barbie pulled in an impressive total of eight Oscar nominations.
Barbie was the Highest-Grossing Film of the Year
It’s not all that often that the most popular movie of the year also manages to be strong enough to warrant a Best Picture nomination, but that was certainly the case with Barbie this year. The bigger half of “Barbenheimer” pulled in a total of $636 million in North America and $799 million overseas, totaling over $1.4 billion globally.
It passed The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.3 billion) to become the highest-grossing movie of the year, and it’s one of the most successful films in the history of Warner Bros. as a studio. While it may not walk away from the Oscars with a ton of wins, Barbie has had an undeniably massive impact that is more than worth celebrating. Stream Barbie on Max.
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