Culture
Animated: Best Picture Oscar Winners vs. Box Office Hits
Article/Editing:
Best Picture Oscar Winners vs. Box Office Hits
When Oppenheimer won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 2024 ceremony, it joined a list of Best Picture Oscar winners as a box office behemoth, having earned $958.7 million at the 2023 box office.
But as this data-driven exploration from Vizzu shows, the movie’s success is not par for the course. Over the past 30 years, there has been a complex relationship between Oscar accolades and box office performance.
Comparing Oscar Winners and Box Office Hits (1993–2023)
Using annual worldwide box office hauls from Box Office Mojo, Vizzu compared the earnings of Best Picture Oscar winners with those of the highest grossing movie of each year.
At last year’s event, Everything Everywhere All at Once won six Oscars (including Best Picture) and earned $143.4 million globally. That’s a decent haul, but pales in comparison with Avatar: The Way of Water, which grossed more than $2.3 billion.
As this table shows, more often than not, this divide between critical darling and commercial juggernaut has been the norm over since 1993:
| Film Year | Best Picture Winner | Box Office (Worldwide) | Box Office (Highest Grossing) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Oppenheimer | $958.7M | $1,445.6M |
| 2022 | Everything Everywhere All at Once | $143.4M | $2,320.2M |
| 2021 | CODA | $1.9M | $1,912.2M |
| 2020 | Nomadland | $39.5M | $461.0M |
| 2019 | Parasite | $262.0M | $2,799.4M |
| 2018 | Green Book | $321.8M | $2,048.4M |
| 2017 | The Shape of Water | $195.2M | $1,332.5M |
| 2016 | Moonlight | $65.2M | $1,153.3M |
| 2015 | Spotlight | $98.7M | $2,068.2M |
| 2014 | Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) | $103.2M | $1,104.1M |
| 2013 | 12 Years a Slave | $187.7M | $1,280.8M |
| 2012 | Argo | $232.3M | $1,518.8M |
| 2011 | The Artist | $133.4M | $1,341.5M |
| 2010 | The King's Speech | $427.4M | $1,067.0M |
| 2009 | The Hurt Locker | $49.3M | $2,743.6M |
| 2008 | Slumdog Millionaire | $378.4M | $1,003.8M |
| 2007 | No Country for Old Men | $171.6M | $961.7M |
| 2006 | The Departed | $291.4M | $1,066.2M |
| 2005 | Crash | $98.4M | $895.9M |
| 2004 | Million Dollar Baby | $216.8M | $929.0M |
| 2003 | Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | $1,140.7M | $1,140.7M |
| 2002 | Chicago | $306.8M | $936.7M |
| 2001 | A Beautiful Mind | $316.8M | $974.8M |
| 2000 | Gladiator | $460.6M | $546.4M |
| 1999 | American Beauty | $356.3M | $924.3M |
| 1998 | Shakespeare in Love | $289.3M | $553.7M |
| 1997 | Titanic | $1,843.4M | $1,843.4M |
| 1996 | The English Patient | $232.0M | $817.4M |
| 1995 | Braveheart | $213.2M | $366.1M |
| 1994 | Forrest Gump | $677.9M | $763.5M |
| 1993 | Schindler's List | $322.2M | $978.2M |
Only two films won Best Picture while topping the box office in their release year: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003 and Titanic in 1997.
Just seven more films won major Oscars—including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor/ Actress, Best Original/Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor/Actress—while earning at least half as much as the top grossers of their release years:
- 2023: Oppenheimer
- 2013: Gravity
- 2008: The Dark Knight
- 2000: Gladiator
- 1998: Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan
- 1995: Braveheart
- 1994: Forrest Gump
This challenges the notion that blockbuster success and Oscar glory go hand-in-hand, but perhaps the success of Oppenheimer can help the box office kings reclaim their Oscar crowns.
This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.
Retail
Visualized: Which Countries Publish the Most Books in Each Region?
The U.S. is the world’s largest book market, registering over 3 million ISBNs. Which other countries publish the most books in their region?
The Top Book Publishing Countries in Each Region (2022)
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
Despite the rise in other forms of digital entertainment, the book industry is still growing.
The publishing industry is forecasted to grow by $19.37 billion between 2023 to 2028, accelerating at a CAGR of 1.2% during this period, according to Research and Markets.
This graphic visualizes the number of books published by the number of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN, a unique product identifier for cataloging and tracking book sales) registered in 2022 for the top countries in each global region.
The data comes from the International Publishers Association (IPA) and covers 76 IPA member countries, comprising around 80% of the world’s population.
Which Countries Publish The Most Books in each Region?
Below, we show the top book-publishing countries by region, and how many ISBNs they registered in 2022.
| Region | Country | ISBNs Registered in 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | 14,392 |
| Africa | 🇹🇳 Tunisia | 3,143 |
| Africa | 🇬🇭 Ghana | 2,000 |
| Asia | 🇯🇵 Japan | 902,311 |
| Asia | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 338,237 |
| Asia | 🇮🇳 India | 281,091 |
| Europe | 🇩🇪 Germany | 277,000 |
| Europe | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 153,167 |
| Europe | 🇮🇹 Italy | 139,970 |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 🇧🇷 Brazil | 179,042 |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 🇦🇷 Argentina | 35,500 |
| Latin America and the Caribbean | 🇨🇴 Colombia | 20,840 |
| North America | 🇺🇸 United States | 3,279,217 |
| North America | 🇲🇽 Mexico | 27,534 |
| North America | 🇨🇦 Canada | 21,105 |
| Oceania | 🇦🇺 Australia | 31,708 |
| Oceania | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 2,475 |
The United States is by far the world’s largest book market, registering nearly four times as many ISBNs as second-place Japan in 2022.
The U.S. is also home to the largest publishers in the world. Penguin Random House (PRH), Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster are known as the Big Five in the publishing world.
According to WordsRated, the Big Five control over 80% of the trade book market in the United States as of 2022.
South Korea has the highest number of publishers among the surveyed countries, with 75,324 publishers in the country. In 2023, a notable trend in the Korean publishing market was the surge in popularity of self-help books.
According to Kyobo Bookstore, Korea’s largest book retailer, self-help titles dominated the charts, claiming the top three bestsellers and 15 spots within the top 100.
Learn More on the Voronoi App 
To learn more about the book publishing industry, check out this graphic that shows physical versus e-book sales by country.
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