Hundreds of movies, actors, directors and filmmaking specialists have been nominated for Academy Awards since they were first given out in 1929. However, based on today’s system, only about one in five nominees actually wins. The odds, it would seem, favor movies with multiple nominations each year. However, from time to time, a popular nominee is snubbed. The most recent example is that Anthony Hopkins won for Best Actor for his role in “The Father” over Chadwick Boseman in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Boseman had died just a few months before the awards ceremony.
The most prominent Oscar each year is for Best Picture. Some of the greatest movies of all time, including “The Godfather” and “Lawrence of Arabia,” have won. To win a large number of awards for a single movie, it must win in more obscure categories as well.
To identify the movie that has won the most Oscars, 24/7 Tempo consulted the Official Academy Awards Database to determine every film that has won at least seven Academy Awards, how many nominations each of these received and what studio produced each film. Information on domestic ticket sales comes from The Numbers, an online movie database owned by Nash Information Services.
Three very different movies are tied for the most wins, 11 for each. They are 2003’s fantasy saga “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” the third film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy; James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster “Titanic”; and a throwback to 1959, the biblical epic “Ben-Hur.” If “Titanic” is number one on our list, it is only because it beat out the others in the number of nominations: 14, as opposed to 12 for “Ben-Hur” and 11 for “The Return of the King.”
Historical dramas seem to stand a good chance of garnering a shelf full of Oscars. Many of the films tapped for multiple honors portray historical figures, like “Gandhi,” “Patton” and “Lawrence of Arabia,” as well as Mozart and Shakespeare. Four musicals scored big, too: “Cabaret,” “My Fair Lady,” “Gigi” and the original, pre-Spielberg version of “My Fair Lady.”
Despite winning 11 out of 14 nominations, 1997’s “Titanic” was produced by 20th Century Fox and Paramount and had ticket sales of $659 million.
Click here to see all the movies that won the most Oscars.
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