Oscar best picture nominees see 18% drop in global box office from last year

The producers of the Oscars telecast ever respire easier erstwhile determination are a mates of large blockbusters successful the champion representation race, knowing audiences are much apt to tune successful to the ceremonial if they’ve really seen the films. This year’s lineup offers lone partial assurance.

The 10 films nominated for champion representation person earned a combined $662 cardinal astatine the home container bureau and astir $1.4 cardinal worldwide, according to existent theatrical grosses — a driblet of astir 18% from past year’s planetary box-office total.

In 2025, the champion representation slate brought successful astir $1.7 cardinal globally, buoyed by box-office juggernauts “Wicked” and “Dune: Part Two.” The twelvemonth earlier that, the nominees reached $2.7 cardinal worldwide, driven mostly by the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon.

Go backmost 1 twelvemonth further, and the opposition becomes adjacent starker. The 2023 champion representation tract acceptable a modern high-water people of $4.4 cardinal worldwide, powered by the mega-hits “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.” This year’s slate represents a precipitous 68% driblet from that peak.

In earthy commercialized terms, this marks the astir humble showing for a champion representation tract since the pandemic-disrupted 2022 Oscars, erstwhile theatrical attendance had yet to retrieve and lone 1 nominee cleared the $100 million-mark worldwide.

As successful caller seasons, overmuch of the container bureau is concentrated among a tiny fig of films. Three nominees — Apple’s “F1” and Warner Bros.’ “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” — relationship for astir $1.21 cardinal worldwide, oregon astir 87% of the slate’s full planetary container office. “F1” is the largest contributor, with $631.7 cardinal worldwide, giving this year’s tract its clearest commercialized anchor. “Sinners” follows with astir $368 cardinal globally, portion “One Battle After Another” added astir $206 cardinal worldwide.

Beyond those 3 titles, the drop-off is steep. “Marty Supreme,” the slate’s next-highest earner, brought successful conscionable nether $95 cardinal worldwide. Several films, including “Bugonia,” “Hamnet” and “Sentimental Value,” played chiefly to art-house audiences. Two nominees — “Frankenstein” and “Train Dreams” — are Netflix releases that received lone minimal theatrical exposure.

Two high-profile sequels that could person importantly lifted this year’s totals — “Wicked: For Good” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash” — failed to marque the chopped with Oscar voters.

Even arsenic the box-office illustration of the champion representation tract has go much modest, Oscar ratings person shown signs of stabilizing. Last year’s telecast averaged 19.7 cardinal viewers crossed ABC and Hulu, a flimsy summation from the erstwhile year, according to Nielsen data. The humble uptick was aided successful portion by expanded streaming availability (which volition summation erstwhile the amusement starts streaming connected YouTube successful 2029), suggesting that the narration betwixt Oscar ratings and box-office musculus has go little nonstop than it erstwhile was. Even so, viewership remains acold beneath its peak, erstwhile much than 55 cardinal radical tuned successful to ticker “Titanic” triumph champion representation successful 1998.