We are rapidly approaching the 2019 Academy Awards ceremony, which is set to air on ABC toward the end of the month. There’s been a lot of speculation and as that time approaches there will be more speculation regarding which movie will ultimately take home the coveted Best Picture prize, a prize that will be splashed over DVD and Digital releases, not to mention posters in perpetuity.
As we already know, the movie that wins Best Picture is an Academy favorite and not an audience favorite. Audiences vote with their wallets (and at the People’s Choice Awards). If you’d like to see how your favorite movies have fared at the box office this year, we’ve handily compiled them in order by box office total. Take a look below.
Black Panther
As a Marvel movie, box office expectations for Black Panther were pretty high. However, since Black Panther is not one of the most known Marvel characters and this flick mostly worked as an origin story (we did see Black Panther previously in Civil War), it seemed unlikely the movie would make a billion dollars. But now it has blown way past that mark. We're not done with Wakanda, either, thanks to Avengers: Endgame coming later this year and the Black Panther sequel that is in the works.
Domestic: $700,059,566
Worldwide: $646,853,595
Total: $1,346,913,161
Bohemian Rhapsody
Another movie that has heavily exceeded expectations this season, Bohemian Rhapsody has been a fan-favorite flick in theaters. The Twentieth Century Fox movie has been noted for its brilliant Live Aid scene and its notable acting performances. It’s come through big at a few other ceremonies, although we’ll have to wait and see what happens on the big night.
Domestic: $210,566,177
Worldwide: $634,084,406
Total: $844,650,483
A Star Is Born
Early out of the gate, A Star of Born had a lot of buzz during the fall as “Shallow” became the anthem of the season and people flocked to catch Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut in theaters. Well-liked and popular, A Star Is Born has been given a lot of awards chances at other ceremonies as well, but we’ll have to wait and see if the Warner Bros. with MGM movie can follow in the steps of its fellow remakes and capitalize on them.
Domestic: $208,731,591
Worldwide: $211,300,000
Total: $420,031,591
Green Book
Another dark horse out of the gate, Universal’s Green Book has been praised for its use of comedy and emotionality. Performances by Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali have made Green Book a movie that has stood out, although it has dealt with some flack regarding its somewhat fictional “true story” narrative. It hasn't stopped people from seeing the movie though. Not bad for a movie with a little over a $20 million budget.
Domestic: $61,378,751
Worldwide: $46,515,692
Total: $107,894,443
BlackKklansman
Spike Lee’s first big showing at the Academy Awards since 4 Little Girls and Do The Right Thing, BlackKklansman has a killer score, a wild narrative that’s full of twists and turns and plenty of comedic moments to boot. It’s another in the “based on a true story” genre and we’ll have to wait if the Focus Features movie stands out among bigger box office winners.
Domestic: $48,686,605
Worldwide: $40,879,527
Total: $89,566,132
The Favourite
Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to The Lobster is zany and quite a bit of fun, but it may not be quite to everyone’s taste. And while it has had a nice run in terms of nominations this awards season, its box office is on the lower side compared to a lot of the other nominees. (Should we blame the c-bombs?) But take a look at the Fox Searchlight movie’s box office results for yourself.
Domestic: $30,214,464
Worldwide: $39,535,761
Total: $69,750,225
Vice
Mostly known as the movie that totally transformed Christian Bale into Dick Cheney, Vice has seen some prominence during the awards season. The Annapurna pictures flick has not had a great run overseas, however, which make sense considering its U.S. political narrative. Still, it hasn’t done badly on the home front. You can take a look at the full numbers below.
Domestic: $45,221,362
Worldwide: $9,400,000
Total: $54,621,362
Roma
Please note that Roma is a Netflix release. Netflix has had some resistance to putting its movies into theaters and as a result some theaters have actually banned Netflix releases. In addition, the availability of Netflix in homes lends itself to people watching at home and not in theaters. There are some minor numbers available for Roma, but they don’t really lend themselves to trends and Netflix hasn’t shown a desire to play ball in terms of revealing how much the Best Picture contender made. While other streaming services like Amazon prefer to do the traditionally theatrical route first, Netflix has gone its own way and it's unclear whether this will have an effect on Academy voters at this point.
Luckily, we don’t have too much longer to wait to see how the 2019 Oscars ultimately pan out. Be prepared for a long Sunday night on February 24, full of red carpet shenanigans and celebrities being played off of the stage when they talk for too long. To avoid Best Picture being announced way after primetime, the ceremony has even decided to announce a few of its wins during commercial breaks. So if you miss categories like editing and cinematography you won't be alone. It's all in service of getting to the Best Picture win more quickly than usually, so hopefully that will end up working out and speeches won't just take 30 seconds longer than normal...
In the meantime, if you want to look at how 2019 movies are faring, you can see more over at Box Office Mojo or check out the full list of Academy Awards nominees ahead of the big event. There are plenty of box office winners that were nominated for awards outside of the eight Best Picture nominees in that major category, and it's worth it to take a look and keep an eye on how those also fared.
