12 Biggest Box Office Flops That Still Won Best Picture

The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences has proven again and again that box office success doesn’t necessarily translate to quality filmmaking. Many of the biggest blockbusters have never won Best Picture at the annual Academy Awards. Though they might take home awards for things like costumes, special effects, make-up, or music, the illustrious Best Picture award is typically reserved for more thought-provoking, deeper movies. Often, this also means movies that not many people actually go to the theater to see end up chosen by the Academy as the year’s best.

In some cases, the Best Picture winner has been a movie that was not only smaller in scale but also made a relatively limited amount of money. After adjusting for inflation, some Best Picture recipients have grossed only just enough to make back their budget, like The Last Emperor. Others were considered huge successes even in spite of their small gross, thanks to an equally small budget, like Moonlight. Whatever the case is, these movies stand as the lowest-grossing Best Picture winners, although their commercial underperformance didn’t stop them from claiming the industry’s top prize.

12 ‘Chariots of Fire’ (1981)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $188 Million

A historical sports drama that has since become a classic, Chariots of Fire is based on the true story of British Olympic athletes Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams. With a feel-good message about strength, perseverance, and overcoming prejudice, Chariots of Fire was the type of movie ideal for dates or to watch as a pick-me-up.

Indeed, when considering the box office numbers once adjusted for inflation, Chariots of Fire performed decently. But when comparing it to other movies that came out at the time, its numbers aren’t as impressive. The movie was competing with the likes of On Golden Pond and Raiders of the Lost Ark, both of which were massive box office draws. In fact, Chariots of Fire barely cracked the top 10 in terms of the highest-grossing movies of 1981. Still, its low budget allowed it to make back over eleven times what was spent on its production, with $59 million coming from the domestic box office.

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11 ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $178.2 Million

A relatively low-budget movie, the Danny Boyle film Slumdog Millionaire (which almost received an exclusive home video release in place of a theater run) takes place almost entirely on the set of a game show like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Once he is cast, a young man studies intently for weeks to learn about every subject under the sun, desperate to get his family out of poverty. He wins, but he’s accused of cheating. The film follows his conversation with the authorities as he talks about how he knew every answer and why, convincing them that he didn’t cheat; instead, his knowledge and life experiences meant he knew more than anyone would expect.

Dubbed the “feel-good movie of the decade,” Slumdog Millionaire is about rooting for the underdog. But it’s not exactly the type of premise that had fans flocking to theaters. The reason why Slumdog Millionaire didn’t make as much money as it could have is that it only started gaining traction after it was nominated. Prior to the nomination, the movie earned about half of its total box office amount. Once there was chatter about the little film that could, people started to see it in droves to learn what all the fuss was about. In this respect, Slumdog Millionaire was a box office flop turned success, making $141.3 million domestically.

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10 ‘The English Patient’ (1996)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $162.2 Million

Despite receiving near-universal critical acclaim and winning nine Oscars, including Best Picture, The English Patient never made it into the top-five movie list for the weekend of its release. Taking place during World War II, the movie, one of 22 war movies to win Best Picture, stars Ralph Fiennes as a burn victim who remembers his sweeping love story with a married woman while being tended to by a nurse.

Needless to say, The English Patient didn’t exactly have the type of enticing premise that made fans clamor to see it. This felt like an upper-class movie better suited to watch at home; in other words, it’s the type of movie the Academy loves, but the general public doesn’t necessarily watch on the big screen. Even then, though, it made $78.7 million at the domestic box office and enough money internationally to make back almost seven times its budget.

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9 ‘The Last Emperor’ (1987)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $114 Million

Even when adjusted for inflation, The Last Emperor doesn’t make waves in terms of gross, especially considering its high production budget. It didn’t even manage to make twice what it cost to make it! The epic biographical drama by Bernardo Bertolucci about the life of Puyi, the final Emperor of China, was responsible for an Academy Awards sweep, winning all nine awards for which it was nominated, including Best Picture.

This was surprising to many since, when it came to box office numbers, The Last Emperor took 12 weeks in theaters to even reach the top 10. After it won the Oscar, it finally cracked the top five, landing in the fourth spot and increasing its box office income significantly. But without this late bloom, The Last Emperor would have been considered an even bigger flop. The movie barely, and only for a short period, made it into the top five movies while in theaters and never came close to being number one.

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8 ‘No Country for Old Men’ (2007)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $111.8 Million

No Country for Old Men is a neo-Western crime thriller heavy on violence and even heavier on nihilism. The plot follows a Vietnam War veteran who finds a large sum of money in the desert, a hitman sent to recover the funds, and a sheriff investigating what’s going on. With a solid cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin, No Country For Old Men was expected to be a big box office success despite the R rating that limited the audience who could watch it.

Alas, No Country for Old Men had a limited release that didn’t see explosive box office numbers, though viewership picked up following the Oscar nomination. The film then ruled the 2008 ceremony, claiming Best Picture and three additional awards, including Best Director for the Coens and Best Supporting Actor for Bardem. The box office numbers, however, weren’t all that impressive, with the film grossing $74.3 million domestically.

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7 ‘Crash’ (2004)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $90.9 Million

Crash was one of the most controversial Best Picture winners, perhaps the weakest of the 2000s. Receiving lackluster reception, some critics believed the film spoon-fed its message of racism and inequality to viewers. Fans could not believe that it beat the year’s darling movie, Brokeback Mountain, which swept most precursors and was widely expected to prevail come Oscar night. Some believe it was chosen instead of Brokeback Mountain due to alleged anti-gay sentiments by Academy voters at the time.

Considering Crash had a small budget of $6.5 million, the movie was, in fact, a financial success that made back nearly fourteen times its budget, with a domestic gross of $54.6 million. However, Crash didn’t pull in the type of box office that fans would expect from a movie called the best of the respective year. In fact, at the time, the movie brought in the lowest numbers for a Best Picture winner since The Last Emperor several decades prior, adding another layer of infamy to its already dubious reputation.

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6 ‘The Broadway Melody’ (1929)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $79.4 Million

The second-ever Best Picture winner was not only the first talkie to get the Oscar but also the first musical to win Best Picture. Coincidentally, it’s nowadays remembered by many as the all-time weakest recipient of the golden statuette. The Broadway Melody is about a pair of sisters from the vaudeville circuit who try to make it big time on Broadway despite matters of the heart getting in their way.

At the time, The Broadway Melody made $4.4 million domestically, very impressive numbers for a 1929 film, speaking to Depression Era audiences looking for escapism and wonder. Today, however, after adjusting for inflation, The Broadway Melody’s box office success is modest enough to make it one of the lowest-grossing Best Picture Winners. Considering how badly cinephiles think it has aged, it’s not hard to see why. – Diego Pineda Pacheco

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5 ‘Cimarron’ (1931)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $73 Million

The Academy took some time to find its footing because, in the 1930s, it awarded several of what today are remembered as a bunch of duds. One such disappointing film, which is one of the least popular Best Picture winners on IMDb, is Cimarron, about a newspaper editor settling into an Oklahoma boom town with his reluctant wife at the end of the nineteenth century.

By 1931 standards, Cimarron was a big success, making $3.6 million domestically and ending as the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year. By modern standards, however, even after adjusting for inflation, its numbers aren’t impressive; in fact, they’re outright disappointing, doing nothing for the film’s already less-than-favorable reputation. Whether the racial stereotypes that have caused it to age horribly had anything to do with that is anyone’s guess. – Diego Pineda Pacheco

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4 ‘The Artist’ (2011)

Domestic Box Office: $59.1 Million

A silent film winning Best Picture in the 21st century? The Artist has a black-and-white silent film style and tells the story of an older film star and his relationship with a much younger rising actress at a time when silent films were falling out of favor. The Artist was historic in that Jean Dujardin became the first French actor to ever win Best Actor, one of five Academy Awards the movie took home out of 10 nominations.

One of the shortest Best Picture Oscar winners ever, The Artist didn’t exactly light up the theaters nor did it have everyone talking. It performed decently at the domestic box office at $44.7 million, enough to retrieve eight times its budget, but the movie remains one of the lowest-grossing Best Picture winners in Oscars history. The Academy Award win led to some additional attention, but prior to that, The Artist wasn’t a movie that many traveled out of the theater to see.

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3 ‘Birdman’ (2014)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $53.8 Million

Birdman is an artsy film that isn’t really designed to appeal to the masses. Michael Keaton stars as a washed-up actor known for his signature character, the superhero Birdman, trying to revive his career with an ambitious Broadway adaptation of a Raymond Carver short. He’s desperate to shed the character that seemed to follow and torment him throughout his entire career.

It’s slow-paced, unusual, and exquisitely surrealistic—not the type of movie that draws people to theaters. Even so, Birdman won Best Picture despite making only $42.3 million domestically, nearly six times its budget, making it somewhat of a commercial success. Critics also agreed with the Academy as Birdman received critical acclaim. It has since become a movie that fans love to watch, re-watch, and theorize about to dissect its now-infamous ending and purported deeper meaning.

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2 ‘Moonlight’ (2016)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $33.3 Million

Moonlight is a shining example of how smaller, less popular movies sometimes move Academy voters so much that they earn a spot in the Best Picture conversation. In Moonlight’s case, it managed to claim the coveted prize, even if there was a bit of a mix-up with the announcement at the ceremony. It’s a coming-of-age drama about a young African American boy struggling to come to terms with his sexuality, especially given the physical and emotional abuse he has endured throughout his childhood.

Box office success doesn’t always translate to accolades from the Academy. The number of people who flocked to theaters to watch Moonlight was not large by any means, representing $27.9 million domestically. But the movie’s budget was so low that it made it back despite the meager box office. Critics loved the groundbreaking movie and praised its themes and depiction of masculinity and homosexuality. The movie also made history when Mahershala Ali became the first Muslim Oscar winner, and Joi McMillon became the first Black woman nominated for editing.

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1 ‘The Hurt Locker’ (2008)

Adjusted Domestic Box Office: $23.6 Million

It’s tough to believe that a film as incredible as The Hurt Locker, a war thriller about a War Explosive Ordnance Disposal team in Iraq, didn’t make much money at the box office. The movie received plenty of attention, given that it marked the first-ever female win in the Best Director category for Kathryn Bigelow. But despite the accolades, The Hurt Locker wasn’t anything near being a massive blockbuster success in theaters. In fact, it never even reached the top five at the box office during its time in theaters.

The Hurt Locker also had a pretty big budget of $15 million yet only made a little over $17 million domestically and over $49 million worldwide, enough to make back its budget but nothing too impressive. Still, the accolades it earned Bigelow and the history it made with her award make the movie one of the best in the war genre. The Hurt Locker’s intense subject matter and critical depiction of wartime circumstances probably put off some audiences, but its reputation remains pristine over a decade after its release.

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