Oscar By the Numbers: How Much the Nominated Films Made

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 26, 5:44AM EST · Published Jan 25, 11:14AM EST

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How much did the “Best Picture”, “Best Actor”, and “Best Actress” nominated movies for this year’s Academy Awards make? Not much. Three of the “Best Picture” nominees brought in less than $21 million each.

The financial success of movies often has little to do with the quality of the pictures themselves. Otherwise, the “Transformers” series and “Avatar”, genuinely awful creations, could never have done as well as they did. On the other hand, several recent Clint Eastwood movies such as “Million Dollar Baby” and “Mystic River” were showered with awards but were not big draws at the box office.

This year’s Oscars nominees, even those with modest financial success, were no exception to the “awards do not equal income” rule. Several of the movies were probably not seen by more than a few thousand people. Who has heard of the movie “Biutiful”, the lead actor of which is the remarkably homely Javier Bardem? “127 Hours”, about a man stuck in a cave, also played to a small number of viewers. Big budget films made it onto the list, but not many of them. “Toy Story 3” has already reached the No.9 position for all-time domestic box office sales. It is the only film among “Best Picture”, “Best Actor”, and “Best Actress” nominated films this year that rates a spot in the Top 100 domestic box

This is the 24/7 Wall St. analysis of the “Top Picture”, “Top Actor”, and “Top Actress” nominees and what they have brought in for total box office receipts since they were first screened.

Best Actor Films:

James Franco (127 hours, 11/15) $11,296,805
Franco plays a boring man stuck in a cave.

Jeff Bridges (True Grit, 12/22) $137,963,519
Bridges wins the nomination by being impossible to understand, and therefore, criticize.

Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, 11/26) $57,313,881
Firth basically repeats his character from “Love, Actually.”

Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, 10/1) $95,408,473
Eisenberg shines as the Artful Dodger of the Internet age.

Javier Bardem (Biutiful, 1/28/11) N/A
The best Oscar-nominated film yet to be released. (also the only one)

Best Actress:

Annette Bening (The Kids Are Alright, 7/9) $20,811,365
Really, they’re fine.

Michelle Williams (Blue valentine, 12/29) $4,460,022
Originally rated NC-17, the film would have made double the money at the box office if not converted to an “R” film.

Nichole Kidman (Rabbit Hole) $1,268,041
90 minutes exploring the pain of the bourgeoisie.

Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone, 06/11) $6,271,086
An uplifting role.

Natalie Portman (Black Swan, 12/3) $83,250,375
Portman followed up her Academy Award-nominated Black Swan performance with another sure fire hit, acting alongside Ashton Kutcher in No Strings Attached.

Best Film:

Black Swan – (12/3) $83,250,375
Darren Aronofsky’s confused retelling of Polanski’s Repulsion.

Inception – (7/16) $292,576,195
A movie about Ellen Paige’s journey into womanhood.

The King’s Speech – (11/26) $57,313,881
The number one royal lisping film of all time.

The Social Network – (10/1) $95,408,473
We refuse to make any negative comments about the film, for fear Facebook will sue us.

The Fighter – (12/10) $72,680,740
Christian Bale plays a washed-up character, again.

The Kids are Alright – (7/9) $20,811,365
Was made on only a $4 million dollar budget.

127 Hours – (11/15) $11,296,805
A movie about fun, outdoor activity.

Toy Story 3 – (6/18) $415,004,880
A heartwarming tale about Tom Hanks in a cowboy suit.

True Grit – (12/22) $137,963,519
The John Wayne version was better, but it made much less.

Winter’s Bone – (06/11) $6,271,086
One of director Debra Granik’s best films with the word “bone” in the title.

-Douglas A. McIntyre

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.