Spreading the Wealth

With all the fuss about how this year’s crop of Best Picture nominees are the least successful (financially) in 20 years, a small, positive bit of trivia has been completely ignored.

As of this weekend, the lowest grosser this year (Finding Neverland) is among the highest grossing lowest grossers ever (not taking into account inflation – which I admit is a bit of a cheat). Thanks to the handy charts over at Box Office Mojo, I’ve compared Neverland’s earnings with those of other bottom-dwellers dating back to 1978, looking at their total lifetime grosses and if they eventually made more than Neverland, looking at how much they made up until Oscar night (when possible).

So far, Neverland has pulled in an estimated $45.3 million, with a week to go until the big night. In all but four of the last 26 years, the lowest grossing Best Picture nominee has made less than that. And in three of those four years, the lowest grossers (Goodfellas, Bugsy and The Full Monty) had earned less than that as of Oscar night. That leaves only that other Miramax-produced Johnny Depp-“starrer,” Chocolat, which had accumulated $60.7 million on its way to $71.5 million in a year that saw a record four $100 million-plus movies nominated for Best Picture.

On top of that, Neverland has already made more than some second-, third- and even fourth-lowest grossers. In the last 26 years, 50 nominees earned less than $45.3 million in their entire runs. An additional six had accumulated less than that as of Oscar night (at the very least – I’m not sure how much Chariots of Fire, Ordinary People and The Deer Hunter earned before their big wins), and Neverland has a good shot at overtaking Awakenings’ and The Crying Game’s pre-Oscar hauls of $46.1 and $47.3 million, respectively, by next Sunday. And in that low-grossing year of 1984, Neverland would’ve been the highest grosser on Oscar night by a good ten million dollars.

The point is that yes, there may not be a Hundred Million Dollar Baby nominated this year, but the distribution of wealth among the five nominees is more even than in most years. If a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, then this year’s chain is one of the strongest.

For the record, the lowest grossing nominee from this period of time is 1983's The Dresser with a paltry $5.3 million, followed closely by that same year's Tender Mercies with $8.4 million. The lowest grosser of the last 15 years is Secrets & Lies, which picked up just $13.4 million back in 1996.