"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" is the only movie in the last 16 years that won the best picture Oscar and was the top box office-grossing movie of that year.
New Line Cinema
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider
subscribers. Become an Insider
and start reading now.Have an account? .
It's easy to say that the Oscars are out of touch with the regular moviegoer, but when you dive into the numbers, it's scary how correct that general thought is.
We looked back at the lifetime domestic gross for the last 16 best-picture Oscar winners and matched those with the lifetime gross for the movies that topped those years at the box office. And only once did they match up (2003's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King").
In fact, most of the best picture Oscar winners didn't crack the $100 million at the box office and only two crossed the $200 million mark — and that's counting inflation!
We were close to that changing at this year's Oscars, as a "Black Panther" best picture win would be the first time since "Return of the King" that the domestic box-office winner took home the big prize. But "Green Book" got the win — and the streak continues.
Here we compare the best picture Oscar winners to the top box office earners of those years for the last 16 years.
Note: All figures are domestic grosses only from Box Office Mojo and are added for inflation.
2018 Best Picture - "Green Book" $69.6 million
Universal
2018 Box Office Winner - "Black Panther" $688.7 million
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
2017 Best Picture - "Shape of Water" $62.9 million
Fox Searchlight Pictures
2017 Box Office Winner - "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" $610.3 million
Lucasfilm
2016 Best Picture - "Moonlight" $28.5 million
A24
2016 Box Office Winner - "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" $545.7 million
Lucasfilm
2015 Best Picture - "Spotlight" $47 million
Open Road
2015 Box Office Winner - "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" $976.2 million
Disney
2014 Best Picture - "Birdman" $42.3 million
"Birdman"/ Fox Searchlight
2014 Box Office Winner - "American Sniper" $389 million
Keith Bernstein/Warner Bros.
2013 Best Picture - "12 Years A Slave" $62.2 million
Regency Enterprises
2013 Box Office Winner - “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” $461.5 million
