21 Highest-Grossing Best Picture Oscar Winners, Ranked By Box Office Earnings

Over the last century, the Academy Awards have operated as the pinnacle of the Hollywood awards circuit. There have been a lot of films recognized for various aspects of the moviemaking process in that time, but the most talked-about have consistently been the movies that have won the top prize: Best Picture. This year, the frontrunner for that award seems to be Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which has been sweeping through all the precursor ceremonies, but it does have some steep competition with films like The Holdovers, Poor Things, Barbie, and Anatomy of a Fall.

The Oscars have, deserved or not, developed a reputation for only recognizing smaller films that it seems like nobody has actually seen. In reality, there’s very little truth to that, as the Academy has consistently recognized and nominated some of the biggest and most successful films of any particular year. While there are certainly many Best Picture winners that haven’t performed particularly well at the box office, there are also many that have performed pretty solidly at the box office. With that in mind, we’ve gathered a list of the 21 highest-grossing Best Picture-winning films.

21 Parasite (2019) – $253 Million

First on this list is 2019’s Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-ho, which also happens to be the most recent entry that will be found here. When Parasite won Best Picture in early 2020, it became the first non-English-language film to win the award. The momentum around Parasite had been building all awards season, with it gradually gaining more and more steam before heading into the Oscars and winning four awards – Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature, in addition to Best Picture.

Parasite Experienced a Major Post-Oscars Boost

There is often talk about the box office surge that Oscar-winning and nominated films will experience, and nowhere is that more prevalent than with the box office for Parasite. Prior to receiving six Oscar nominations, Parasite had grossed $25 million at the domestic box office following three months of a slowly-rolling limited release. By the time of the Oscars ceremony a few weeks later, that total had grown to $35 million.

Then, after its historic Best Picture win, Parasite expanded its theatrical release substantially, allowing many more people to see it in theaters. This resulted in the domestic box office for the film growing to a whopping $53 million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing foreign language film of all time in the US. It performed even better overseas, where it brought in an additional $200 million – $71 million from South Korea alone – for a global total of $253 million. Stream on Max.

20 Out of Africa (1985) – $258 Million

Going back nearly 35 years, the next film on this list is Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa, starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. The film was that year’s big awards winner, with it taking home a total of seven Oscars, including Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score. While Streep was nominated for Best Actress and Klaus Maria Brandauer was nominated for Supporting Actor, they both lost out, while Redford was shut out of a nomination entirely. Though, Out of Africa was notably competing against films such as The Color Purple, Cocoon, and Witness.

A Very Different Trajectory for Out of Africa

Whereas Parasite experienced a major boost as a result of the Oscars, Out of Africa had already made its biggest splash at the domestic box office before Oscar nominations were even announced. It had already grossed $50 million in North America before it received its Oscar nominations. By the time the Academy Awards aired in mid-March, that number had grown to $71 million.

Even after its Best Picture win, Out of Africa was only in theaters for a few more weeks as it grew to a final domestic total of $79 million. When adjusted for inflation, that’s about $227 million in the US today. However, it made the bulk of its money overseas, where it grossed $179 million, bringing its global total to $258 million. Rent on Apple TV.

19 The Godfather (1972) – $270 Million

Another 13 years prior to that, The Godfather was released and began inspiring a new generation of filmmakers. The impact that The Godfather would have on the film industry was almost immediately apparent. The film received 10 Academy Award nominations, ranging from Best Picture to Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing. There were also three different actors from The Godfather nominated in the category of Best Supporting Actor (James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Al Pacino). Ultimately, the Francis Ford Coppola classic only won three awards – Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Screenplay (adapted).

How The Godfather Dominated the Box Office

When The Godfather opened in 1972, it quickly became one of the biggest box office hits of the early ‘70s. Domestically, the film brought in $136 million, and its international numbers matched that with $133 million. With a global total of $270 million, The Godfather easily became the highest-grossing movie of 1972. It was able to keep that momentum going through the Oscars and into The Godfather Part 2 just a few years later. Stream on Showtime.

18 The Silence of the Lambs (1991) – $275 Million

One of the most memorable films to win Best Picture in the 1990s was The Silence of the Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. It received seven nominations at the Oscars, and it ultimately walked away with five wins, more than any other film that year. However, there are two additional details that make The Silence of the Lambs a historic film to win at the Oscars. Firstly, it was the first (and remains the only) horror film in the history of the Oscars to win Best Picture. On top of that, it became just the third film to win all of the “Big Five” Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. There has yet to be a fourth film to do so.

The Silence of the Lambs Had Tremendous Box Office Stamina

The success of The Silence of the Lambs extended far beyond the Oscars. After opening with just $15 million domestically in early 1991, the film showcased impressive staying power at the box office. In its entire box office run in North America, the film never dropped more than 31% week-to-week.

This drove it to a domestic total of $130 million, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year in the US. Internationally, it performed even stronger, pulling in an additional $145 million. It gradually grew to a global total of $275 million, which established it as the fifth-highest-grossing movie of the year worldwide. Stream on AMC+.

17 Shakespeare in Love (1998) – $279 Million

Later that decade, another solid box office hit to win Best Picture at the Oscars was Shakespeare in Love, released in 1998 and directed by John Madden. The film itself was a fictional telling of William Shakespeare’s life, specifically with a focus on his romantic relationship with Viola de Lesseps. Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes starred in the film, and it was handily the biggest awards frontrunner that year.

After receiving 13 Oscar nominations, it went on to win seven: Best Picture, Best Actress (Paltrow), Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score (Musical or Comedy), Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design.

The International Box Office Drove Shakespeare in Love

Shakespeare in Love was a modest hit at the domestic box office, as it grossed about $72 million prior to its Best Picture win, which then fueled another $25 million and a total North American gross of just under $100 million. Overseas, however, there was a lot more interest, as it almost doubled that total with an additional $180 million. With a global total of $279 million, Shakespeare in Love managed to crack the list of the top ten highest-grossing films of 1998, landing in ninth place, just ahead of Lethal Weapon 4. Stream on Max.

16 The Sound of Music (1965) – $286 Million

The next entry is also one of the oldest films to make its way onto this list. 1965’s The Sound of Music is an all-time classic, and it achieved that level of success pretty immediately upon its release. It tied Doctor Zhivago with both 10 Oscar nominations and 5 Oscar wins that year. In addition to Best Picture, The Sound of Music also won the awards for Best Director, Best Original Score (Adapted), Best Sound, and Best Film Editing.

The Sound of Music Was an Incredible Hit at the Time

While its placement this far down on the list may downplay the incredible success of The Sound of Music to some degree, the success it experienced in the mid ‘60s cannot be understated. With a theatrical release that ran for several years, it grew to a domestic total of $163 million and an international haul of $122 million.

Together, that makes its total worldwide gross about $286 million, which easily established The Sound of Music as the highest-grossing film of 1965, ahead of other notable releases such as Doctor Zhivago and Thunderball. In North America, The Sound of Music became one of the highest-grossing films of all-time (as of that point). When adjusted for inflation, its domestic gross of $163 million equates to over $1.3 billion today. Stream on Disney+.

15 The Departed (2006) – $289 Million

The first and only entry from director Martin Scorsese on this list is 2006’s The Departed. Often considered one of Scorsese’s greatest films, The Departed didn’t dominate the Academy Awards quite as much as one might expect it did today. The movie was only nominated for five Oscars, a smaller number than four other Oscar frontrunners that year (The Queen, Pan’s Labyrinth, Babel and Dreamgirls).

However, it ultimately went on to win four of the five it was nominated for, making it the most-awarded film of the year. In addition to Best Picture, The Departed won Oscars for Best Film Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, the last of which was famously the first and only Oscar that Scorsese has won in his whole career.

The Departed Is One of Scorsese’s Most Successful Films

Although Scorsese is widely known as a king of cinema, his films generally aren’t the massive box office draws that one might expect. However, The Departed was a solid hit. It was, at the time, the highest-grossing film of his career, and it has only been surpassed by Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street in the years since. Domestically, it brought in $132 million, with another $157 million coming from overseas. With a total of $289 million, it didn’t crack the list of the ten highest-grossing movies of 2006, but it was still a very strong performance from an outstanding film. Rent on Apple TV.

Related: Martin Scorsese’s 10 Highest-Grossing Movies

14 Chicago (2002) – $306 Million

A few years before The Departed, the big movie of the year at the Academy Awards was the feature adaptation of the musical Chicago, directed by Rob Marshall. The film starred Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere, and it was also the directorial debut for Marshall. It received 13 nominations at the Academy Awards, the most of any film that year, and it also became the film to win the most with a total of six Oscar wins.

In addition to Best Picture, Chicago won Best Supporting Actress (Zeta-Jones), Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Film Editing. These wins were even more impressive considering the stiff competition that year, which included films like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Gangs of New York, The Pianist and Road to Perdition.

Marshall’s Chicago Fared Well at the Box Office

Chicago was a pretty solid success at the box office even before it won Best Picture. After opening wide in January 2003, the film had grown to a $100 million gross before it won the top prize in late February. Following its big win, that gross wound up continuing to build all the way to a total of $170 million domestically.

With another $136 million coming from overseas, Chicago managed to cross the $300 million mark with a global total of $306 million. While it wasn’t enough to crack the top-ten films of the year globally, it did manage to take the number ten spot domestically, just above Catch Me If You Can, Die Another Day and Scooby-Doo. Stream on Paramount+.

13 A Beautiful Mind (2001) – $317 Million

A year before then, Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe, was the film that ultimately won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. That year was an especially competitive one for the Oscars, as films like The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Moulin Rouge!, Black Hawk Down, Amélie, Pearl Harbor, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Memento and Training Day were all nominated. A Beautiful Mind secured eight total nominations, ultimately winning four of them: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly) and Best Director.

A Beautiful Mind Was Another Success for Ron Howard

Ron Howard was already a very successful director by the time that A Beautiful Mind was released in late 2001, as he’d already directed films such as Cocoon,Apollo 13, Ransom and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, though A Beautiful Mind would top most of them. It grossed a solid $170 million domestically and an additional $146 million internationally, totaling out to $317 million globally.

This made it the director’s third-highest grossing film of his career so far, only behind Apollo 13 and The Grinch. Since then, it has been surpassed by the likes of The Da Vinci Code and Solo: A Star Wars Story, but A Beautiful Mind is still a bright spot in his filmography. Stream on Fubo.

12 Green Book (2018) – $319 Million

The most recent entry on this list comes from 2018, and it is also one of the most controversial Best Picture wins of the last few decades. The winner that year was Green Book, directed by Peter Farrelly and starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. The film itself was nominated for five Oscars, and it won three of them – Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Ali). While Ali’s win in the Supporting Actor category was historic, the film itself has been criticized for presenting another white savior story with an overly simplified look at race in America.

Green Book Did Massive Numbers Internationally

Green Book did decently well at the box office domestically, as it brought in a gross of $85 million in North America, with about $16 million of that coming after its Best Picture win. Overseas, however, it found a much larger audience. The film grossed an impressive $234 million internationally, bringing its global total to just under $320 million. A major factor in that was the film receiving a wide release in China, where it grossed nearly $70 million.

That said, the film was far from making the top-ten highest grossing lists either domestically or internationally. Stream on Fubo.

11 Schindler’s List (1993) – $322 Million

Moving into the second half of this list, next up is one of the best films from director Steven Spielberg, 1993’s Schindler’s List. This year is one of the biggest of Spielberg’s career, as it saw him release not one but two of the most applauded films of his career. In addition to Schindler’s List, 1993 also saw Spielberg making a major impact with the release of Jurassic Park.

They were two of the biggest winners at the Oscars that year, with Schindler’s List winning 7 of the 13 awards it was nominated for and Jurassic Park winning all three of the Oscars it was up for. In addition to Best Picture, Schindler’s List also won Best Director (Spielberg’s first win), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing.

Steven Spielberg Had a Big Year in 1993

At the domestic box office, Schindler’s List fared pretty well, bringing in $96 million. Meanwhile, its overseas numbers were more than double that, coming in at $225 million. Domestically, Schindler’s List was the ninth-highest-grossing movie of the year, but its total global gross of $322 million pushed it up to the number four spot worldwide. As for Jurassic Park, it was the number one movie in both regards. Having two films on the same year’s top-ten highest-grossing movies list is a nice feather to put in Spielberg’s cap. Rent on Apple TV.

10 American Beauty (1999) – $356 Million

American Beauty was the last film of the 20th century to win Best Picture at the Oscars, kicking off the 21st century with its win in early 2000. It was a film that heralded the arrival of one of this century’s greatest directors, Sam Mendes, who has gone on to direct films such as Road to Perdition, Skyfall, 1917 and the recently announced four-movie event based on The Beatles.

American Beauty was nominated for eight Academy Awards at the turn of the century. While 1917 would eventually be nominated for more (a total of 10), American Beauty remains the director’s most-awarded film at the Oscars, as it took home five wins – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

American Beauty Benefitted from Its Eight Oscar Nominations

American Beauty is yet another great example of the kind of effect that the Academy Awards can have on the box office. After opening in a limited capacity in October 1999 and continuing on an average release window through February 2000 – having peaked with a release in 1,500 theaters in November – American Beauty had grossed just under $75 million in North America.

However, after receiving the most nominations of any film that year, American Beauty re-entered wide release immediately following the announcement of nominations. This re-release gained a lot of steam and drove the film to a domestic total of $130 million over the following months, with about $15 million of that coming after its Best Picture win. Overseas, it did even better, bringing in $226 million, totaling out to a global haul of $356 million, making it the ninth-highest grossing movie of the year. Stream on Prime Video.

9 Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – $383 Million

Next on the list is another entry from an essential filmmaker of the 2000s, Slumdog Millionaire from Danny Boyle. While Slumdog Millionaire was not the film that introduced Boyle to the world – he had already garnered great acclaim with both Trainspotting and 28 Days Later by that point – it was the first time that Boyle had been recognized by the Academy Awards.

Slumdog Millionaire won eight of the ten Oscars it was nominated for, including Best Picture, Best Director (Boyle’s first and only Oscar win), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing. It did all of this while competing against films like The Dark Knight, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon and Milk.

Slumdog Millionaire Had Broad Crossover Appeal

Slumdog Millionaire is one of the few Best Picture winners that has shown the ability to appeal just as much to general audiences as much it does to die-hard film enthusiasts. While it did not make its way onto the ten-highest grossing films of the year list (either domestically or internationally), it still did quite well for itself at the box office.

Domestically, it brought in $141 million, nearly $50 million of which was after its Best Picture win. Overseas, it was just as much a phenomenon, bringing in an additional $242 million. With a total global gross of $383 million on a reported budget of just $14 million, Slumdog Millionaire was one of the biggest success stories at the box office in 2008 and 2009. Stream on Hulu.

8 Gone with the Wind (1939) – $390 Million

Going from one of the most recent entries on this list to the oldest, Gone with the Wind is a movie that needs no introduction. It’s one of the all-time classics that continually sparks discussion and is revered by general audiences, filmmakers and film lovers alike. The 1939 Oscars that it competed in were truly one for the history books.

During just the 12th ceremony that the Academy had held, Gone with the Wind was recognized alongside other iconic films such as The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Despite that competition, Gone with the Wind won 8 of the 13 awards for which it was nominated (only 20 Oscar categories were awarded at the time).

Gone with the Wind is the Most Successful Film of All Time

Gone with the Wind did unprecedented numbers at the box office for its time, pulling in $198 million domestically and $191 million overseas. At a global total of $390 million, that easily made it the highest-grossing film of all-time at that point. While it has since been passed in pure numbers by many blockbusters, Gone with the Wind still holds the top spot when adjusted for inflation. In today’s numbers, it is estimated that Gone with the Wind grossed over $4 billion at the box office. Stream on Max.

7 Rain Man (1988) – $412 Million

One of the most famous films to win Best Picture in the 1980s was Barry Levinson’s Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. The film is one of Cruise’s earliest hits, and it continues to be considered one of the best films of his entire career. It followed another famous awards-contender from Levinson, Good Morning, Vietnam, which had just been released the previous year.

Rain Man was nominated for a total of eight Academy Awards, of which it won four: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Hoffman), and Best Original Screenplay. The film tied with Who Framed Roger Rabbit to be the most-awarded film at the Oscars that year.

Rain Man is One of Tom Cruise’s Most Successful Films

After making a big impression on audiences with films like Risky Business, Top Gun and The Color of Money, Tom Cruise continued to establish himself as a major movie star when Rain Man was released in 1988. The film grossed $172 million domestically and $239 million overseas, for a global total of $412 million.

It was the highest-grossing film of the year both in North America and worldwide, beating out the likes of Die Hard, Beetlejuice, Big and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. To this day, it is the 10-highest grossing film of Cruise’s career, having performed stronger at the box office than films like Edge of Tomorrow, Mission: Impossible III, The Mummy, Jerry Maguire, and Minority Report.

Related: Tom Cruise’s Highest-Grossing Movies of All Time

6 Dances with Wolves (1990) – $424 Million

Just a few years after Rain Man, another impressive box office hit to win Best Picture was 1990’s Dances with Wolves. The film starred and was directed by Kevin Costner, and it is still considered to be one of the standouts of his whole career. It was the most-nominated film at the Oscars that year, with a total of 12 nominations. It won seven of those awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing. This is all made even more impressive when considering it was competing against films such as Goodfellas, The Godfather Part III, Ghost, and The Hunt for Red October.

Dances with Wolves was One of 1990’s Biggest Movies

After opening in late 1990, Dances with Wolves consistently built steam at the box office, which continued all the way through the Oscars and into the early summer of ’91. Domestically, it grossed $184 million, and it added another $239 million internationally. With a total of $424 million, that was easily the highest-grossing film of Costner’s career so far, and it remains the third highest to this day – only behind Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman. In North America, it was the third-biggest film of the year, while it was fourth globally. Stream for free on Tubi.

5 The King’s Speech (2010) – $430 Million

The first film to win Best Picture in the 2010s, The King’s Speech was also a solid success at the box office. The film was directed by Tom Hooper (Les Misérables, The Danish Girl) and it starred Colin First, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce and Michael Gambon. Its Best Picture win came in the second year after the Academy increased the Best Picture nominees from including five films to 10.

The King’s Speech was nominated for 12 awards, the most of any movie that year, though it only ultimately won four: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Firth), and Best Original Screenplay.

The King’s Speech Had a Strong Performance in the U.K.

After opening in a limited capacity in late 2010, The King’s Speech expanded into more theaters following its nominations at the Academy Awards. It had already grossed $55 million at that point, but it would go on to raise its domestic total to nearly $140 million over the following few months. Overseas, it also made a big splash. In the United Kingdom alone, it grossed another $56 million.

With an overseas total of $291 million, The King’s Speech finished its box office run with $430 million. While that wasn’t enough to overcome the increasing franchise and blockbuster domination of the box office and enter the top ten grossers of the year, it was still a strong performance for a drama with a budget of just $15 million. Stream on Max.

4 Gladiator (2000) – $451 Million

A decade earlier, the Academy did something it rarely does by awarding Best Picture to a genre film, specifically the epic sword-and-sandals film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. Gladiator had already connected with audiences long before the Oscars rolled around, as the film was released in the summer of 2000, though it managed to maintain that popularity all the way through the following awards season.

After being nominated for 12 Oscars, Gladiator ultimately won 5: Best Picture, Best Actor (Crowe), Best Sound, Best Costume Design and Best Visual Effects.

Gladiator Was a Major Summer Blockbuster

After releasing on the first weekend of May in 2000, Gladiator managed to become one of the highest-grossing movies of the year based on the incredible word-of-mouth surrounding it. After opening with just $34 million in North America, it fell only 29% going into its second weekend, which was an early indicator of the incredible legs the film would have over the summer.

Over the following couple of months, Gladiator continued to hold up week-to-week, ultimately bringing in a domestic total of $187 million. Internationally, it added another $263 million, totaling up to $451 million globally. That made the film the highest-grossing film of Scott’s already impressive career, and it held that spot until it was unseated by The Martian in 2015. The director is currently working on a sequel which is set to release later this year. With a reported budget of over $300 million, the film will need to make a lot more than its predecessor to be successful. Stream on Paramount+.

3 Forrest Gump (1994) – $679 Million

As we get into the last few films on this list, we were, of course, going to have to talk about Forrest Gump, which won Best Picture in 1994. That year has become regarded as one of the best years in modern cinema, as it saw the release of classics like Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Interview with the Vampire, The Lion King, Speed, Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women and more.

While Forrest Gump’s win over Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption for Best Picture has proven to be controversial over the years, the film was pretty unstoppable as a whole that year, as it won six of the 13 awards it was nominated for: Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Zemeckis), Best Actor (Tom Hanks), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects.

Forrest Gump Was One of the Highest-Grossing Movies of the ‘90s

Forrest Gump easily became one of the highest-grossing movies of the year in 1994. In North America, it brought in an impressive $330 million (equivalent to about $850 million today), while overseas it grossed an additional $349 million. With a global total of $679 million, it was head-and-shoulders above most other major movies that were released that year.

Except for one. The Lion King gave Forrest Gump a run for its money. While Gump just barely managed to come out on top in North America – it was about $15 million higher than Lion King – the Disney classic won the fight globally, landing about $90 million higher than Zemeckis’ iconic film. Still, Forrest Gump easily secured its spot in the top ten highest grossing films of the 1990s. Stream on Prime Video.

2 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) – $1.12 Billion

From there, we have a pretty substantial jump up in terms of box office, as the second-highest grossing film to win Best Picture was 2003’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which grossed over $1 billion. The film was the finale of Peter Jackson’s epic film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic novels, and it delivered a third installment that stood far above essentially everything else that year. At the Oscars, the film was nominated for 11 awards, and it took home all 11 of them, ranging from major awards like Best Picture and Best Picture to almost all of the technical awards.

The Return of the King Was One of the First Films to Gross More than $1 Billion

When it opened in December 2003, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was an immediate sensation. It opened with $72 million in North America, where it eventually grossed a total of $379 million. While that number was impressive, its overseas box office was staggering, as it pulled in an additional $742 million. This totaled out to $1.12 billion, making The Return of the King only the second film in history to gross more than $1 billion at the box office. Stream on Max.