Yahoo Finance Oscars: ‘Oppenheimer’ Lifts 20-Year Curse on Blockbusters Winning Best Picture
Plenty of $1 billion box office hits have been nominated for best picture, but Academy voters have tended to opt for smaller, specialty fare when handing out the top prize. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer upended the traditional order Sunday night when it won best picture at Oscars 2024, one of seven wins for the historical biopic.
The film has reaped north of $957 million at the worldwide box office, the top gross of any best picture victor since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004 (that grossed $1.15 billion). Oppenheimer is also the first best picture winner in more than a decade to earn north of $100 million at the domestic box office since Ben Affeck’s Argo (that earned $136 million domestically and $232.3 million globally.) And it’s the first best picture winner released in July — the heart of summer movie season — since Forrest Gump in 1994.
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As Oscar ratings continued to take a dive in recent years, the Academy sought ways to address concerns that audiences might not tune in for the telecast if mostly films they hadn’t seen were being honored. Some films, for instance, only play in limited release in big cities. So in 2018, the Academy announced plans a category that would recognize “popular films” (it scrapped the plan after ridicule.) In 2022, it instituted an unofficial, fan-voted segment that did not return the next year.
This year, the top-grossing films of the year were well represented in the nominations. Barbie, the other half of the Barbenheimer phenomenon — was also up for the Oscar for best picture. Greta Gerwig’s unique take on the iconic doll became a cultural moment on its way to earning $1.44 billion globally.
Sunday’s Oppenheimer wins cement the relatively new relationship between Nolan and Universal CCO Donna Langley’s sprawling movie empire. He worked for years with Warner Bros. but was unhappy over then-parent company WarnerMedia’s decision to send its 2021 slate day-and-date to streaming. It is unknown what Nolan will do next, or at which studio he will make his next film. But so far, Universal and Nolan have served each other well. Oppenheimer delivered Nolan his first Oscars, and it matches Universal’s record for seven Oscar wins for a single film (tied with Out of Africa, Schindler’s List and The Sting).
For Universal, the best picture win is a return to the podium after it took home the honor for Green Book five years ago. The last time the studio won best picture twice in the span of just five years was for The Sting in 1974 and The Deer Hunter in 1979. It is now also the only legacy studio to win best picture over the past decade.
Oppenheimer’s other wins included director for Nolan. It also took best actor (Cillian Murphy) supporting actor (Robert Downey Jr.), score (Ludwig Göransson), cinematography (Hoyte van Hoytema) and editing (Jennifer Lame). It is the first film since Ben-Hur in 1960 where a film took picture, actor and supporting actor.
For Nolan, the win ended a drought at the Oscars after first being nominated in 2002 for co-writing Memento with his brother, Jonathan Nolan.
“For the film to win best picture is just a testament to so many different people,” Nolan said backstage after his win.
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