Oscar's Best Picture winner set to be category's LOWEST-grossing ever

Oscar’s Best Picture winner is set to be the category’s LOWEST-grossing in the award show’s 93 year history after the pandemic shuttered theaters: 2009’s The Hurt Locker holds current record at $17m

  • The night’s top prize is widely expected to go to Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland
  • Should it be victorious, it will become the lowest grossing Best Picture ever after making around $2.5 million; the record us currently held by The Hurt Locker
  • Kathryn Bigelow’s 2009 movie grossed $17 million before picking up the gong 
  • Nomadland would also be one of the lowest budget best-picture winners ever 
  • Even if it does not win, the other movies nominated also saw low returns 
  • The biggest ticket-seller of the nominees is Promising Young Woman 
  • Most North American theaters weren’t open for six months straight through the summer season, which typically accounts for around 40% of the year’s profits 

The Oscar for Best Picture is set to be handed to the lowest grossing top movie in the award show’s 93 year history on Sunday evening.  

The night’s top prize is widely expected to go to Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland starring Frances McDormand.  

Should it be victorious, it will become the lowest grossing Best Picture ever after making around $2.5 million Deadline reports. That’s a record currently held by Kathryn Bigelow’s 2009 title The Hurt Locker which grossed $17 million.  

It will also be one of the lowest budget best-picture winners ever. Zhao’s film, populated by mostly nonprofessional actors, was made for less than $5 million. Her next film, Marvel’s Eternals, has a budget of at least $200 million.

Even if it does not take home the top gong, the other movies nominated in the category also saw low returns at the box office. 

The biggest ticket-seller of the best picture nominees is Promising Young Woman, with $6.3 million in box office.  

Judas and the Black Messiah is said to have grossed $5.4 million, Minari $2.57 million and The Father $1.6 million. 

Mank, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Sound of Metal were each given short theater runs before streaming on Netflix and Apple. 

The night’s top prize is widely expected to go to Chloé Zhao’s ‘Nomadland,’ starring Frances McDormand, pictured. Should it be victorious, it will become the lowest grossing Best Picture ever after making around $2.5 million Deadline reports

That’s a record currently held by Kathryn Bigelow’s 2009 title The Hurt Locker which grossed $17 million. Director Kathryn Bigelow accepts her Oscar with presenter Barbara Streisand during the 82nd Annual Academy Awards in 2010 in Hollywood

The lowest grossing Best Picture winners 

1. The Hurt Locker (2009): $17,099,352

2. Moonlight (2016): $28,962,945

3. Hamlet (1948): $31,841,433

4. All The King’s Men (1949): $36,699,117

5. Marty (1955): $37,246,865

6. An American in Paris (1951): $43,192,038

7. Birdman (2014): $44,633,117

8. It Happened One Night (1934): $46,558,582

9. Spotlight (2015): $47,438,998

10. The Artist (2011): $49,560,089

11. The Great Ziegfeld (1936): $53,860,575 

12. 12 Years a Slave (2013): $60,709,583

13. Gigi (1958): $63,036,131

14. The Shape of Water (2017): $63,842,519

15. Crash (2005): $69,713,284 

As reported by Goliath; figures are adjusted for inflation 

The pandemic pushed several anticipated movies out of 2020. 

Most North American theaters weren’t open for six months straight through the summer season, which typically accounts for around 40% of the year’s profits.

That means for the first time, Hollywood’s most prestigious awards will overwhelming belong to films that barely played on the big screen.  

Award show ratings have also cratered during the pandemic, and this year’s nominees – many of them smaller, lower-budget dramas – won’t come close to the drawing power of past Oscar heavyweights like ‘Titanic’ or ‘Black Panther. 

Lately, with vaccinations expanding, signs of life have begun to show in movie theaters – most of which are operating at 50 per cent capacity. 

Warner Bros.’ ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ has made around $400 million worldwide, which theater owners point to as proof that moviegoers are eager for studios to again release a regular diet of big movies. 

Right now, the date circled on cinema calendars is May 28, when both Paramount’s ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ and Disney’s ‘Cruella’ arrive in theaters – though ‘Cruella’ will simultaneously stream for $30.  

And this weekend at movie theaters featured something not seen for a while: a genuine box-office battle. Warner Bros.′ ‘Mortal Kombat’ reboot and the Japanese anime film ‘Demon Slayer: Mugen Train’ both vied for the top spot.

The two releases fueled the best weekend for movie theaters during the pandemic, with an estimated $54.2 million in ticket sales overall, according to data firm Comscore.  

The 93rd Academy Awards will begin at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC. There will be no host, no audience, nor face masks for nominees attending the ceremony at Los Angeles’ Union Station – this year’s hub for a show usually broadcast from the Dolby Theatre.

Last year’s Oscars, when Bong Joon Ho’s ‘Parasite’ became the first non-English language film to win best picture, was watched by 23.6 million, an all-time low. 

A view of the red carpet appears before the start of the Oscars on Sunday 

It is guaranteed to be an Oscars like no other: broadcast live from a train station, honoring films few saw in movie theaters, and reuniting Hollywood’s A-listers for the first time in more than a year due to Covid-19

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