Without ‘Barbenheimer,’ Oscar best picture nominees see 37% drop in global box office revenue
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For all the love showered upon smaller, more intimate art-house fare, nothing excites Oscar voters — or at least the producers of the telecast — more than having a giant studio hit in the best picture race. This year’s crop of contenders includes two such juggernauts: Universal’s musical spectacle “Wicked” and Warner Bros.’ sci-fi epic “Dune: Part Two,” each of which has grossed more than $700 million worldwide.
But beyond these blockbusters, the rest of Thursday’s nominees — including Neon’s “Anora,” A24’s “The Brutalist,” Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez,” Amazon MGM Studios’ “Nickel Boys” and Focus Features’ “Conclave” — have gone largely unseen by mainstream audiences, at least on the big screen. When it comes to broader appeal, the academy will have to bank on “Wicked” providing the yellow brick road to Oscars ratings, with “Dune: Part Two” delivering its own extra spice.
The nominations for the 97th Academy Awards, to be held on March 2, have been announced. Here’s the list of 2025 Oscar nominees.
In total, this year’s best picture contenders earned $877 million at the domestic box office and $1.7 billion at the global box office, a 37% drop from last year’s $2.7-billion worldwide haul. That 2024 total was driven almost entirely by the record-breaking success of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” Those two films — forever linked in the “Barbenheimer” cultural phenomenon — earned $2.4 billion combined, accounting for nearly 90% of the box office earnings of the entire best picture slate.
The most recent high-water mark for best picture box office was in 2023, when, for the first time, more than one contender grossed over $1 billion globally. “Top Gun: Maverick,” the year’s biggest hit, earned $1.5 billion worldwide, while James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” was approaching $2 billion before nominations were announced. That field also included mid-tier successes such as Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” and the sci-fi-action hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which each earned more than $100 million globally. In total, the 2023 best picture nominees brought in a staggering $4.4 billion worldwide.
Columnist Glenn Whipp sounds off on the biggest snubs and surprises of the 2025 Oscar nominations, announced Thursday in Los Angeles.
While this year’s crop of nominees may not all have brought sizable — or, in the case of films like “The Brutalist,” “Nickel Boys” and Brazil’s “I’m Still Here,” much of any — audiences to the multiplex, they still represent a major improvement over the pandemic-dampened 2022 field. That year, just one film — the first installment of “Dune” — cleared the $100-million mark at the box office.
Oscar ratings have rebounded in recent years along with box office fortunes. After hitting an all-time low in 2021, when fewer than 10 million viewers watched “Nomadland” win best picture, viewership has steadily climbed. Last year’s show drew an average audience of 19.5 million viewers, a 4% increase over 2023, though still far from the record 55.3 million who tuned in to see “Titanic” — then the biggest box office hit of all time — claim a record-tying 11 Academy Awards, including best picture, in 1998.
From the Oscars to the Emmys.
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