The highest-grossing Best Picture nominations at the 2025 Oscars

With the exception of the summer movie season, the biggest time of the year is cinema for churchgoers. Awards season is in full swing, and the Golden Globes are already behind us. It's Oscar season, to be exact. with the recently announced full list of nominees for this year's Academy Awards. There were surprises and upsets, and now the race for Best Picture is on, with critics' darlings and blockbusters alike vying for the night's top prize. But which of this year's nominees stands above the rest as far as the box office is concerned?

The till is not a great way to determine quality. Many great films have been made for next to no money (see the much-loved “Sing Street”), while quite a few not-so-great movies have taken a lot of money (see the 2016 Oscar-winning hit 'Suicide Squad'). So to speak, at the box office is important to provide context for Hollywood's biggest night. Are the movies with the most nominations also the movies people actually care about? The question has become increasingly important in recent years as the Oscars struggle to stay relevant.

So, let's see how each of these movies fared at the box office, shall we? Before we fully dive in, it's important to note that several of these films have only hit theaters in the last few weeks, and some of them haven't gone viral yet. Others come from streaming services that don't have as much of a theatrical presence. That aside, here's how the Best Picture nominees fared at the box office.

1. “Dune: Part Two” – $714.6 million

2. “Wicked” – $710.2 million

3. “Conclave” – ​​77.9 million US dollars

4. “Substance” – 76.5 million US dollars

5. “Complete Unknown” – $62.9 million

6. “Anora” – 33.6 million US dollars

7. “I'm Still Here” – $14.1 million

8. “The Brutalist” – $5.8 million

9. “Emilia Pérez” – 10.7 million US dollars

10. “Nickel Boys” – 1.2 million US dollars

Denis Villeneuve's The Dune: Part Two is the clear winner here — for now. “Wicked” is still in theaters, and its Oscar nominations will only add to its profile. In a short time, it will overtake “Kāpa” as the highest-grossing film for this year's Best Picture nominees. It's a steep decline from there, with the announced papal drama “The Conclave” bringing in just $80 million. Meanwhile, “Emilia Pérez,” which leads the pack with 13 nominations, is a Netflix release and was barely known in local theaters.

When all is said and done, “Wicked” could be closer to $800 million than $700 million, which means a lot of people will be invested in its performance at the Oscars. especially since Wicked Part 2 hits theaters later this year. Regardless of which film comes out on top, two crowd-pleasing blockbusters nominated for Best Picture will help draw attention to the telecast.

Several of these films will likely be re-released and boosted by the nominations (“Anora” is a safe bet). Meanwhile, The Brutalist is set to expand, and the numbers will add significantly to that total. A Complete Unknown is also still in overseas distribution and has gas in the domestic tank. It should easily cross $100 million worldwide on the big night. Compared to number of tickets for last year's Best Picture nomineesthere are clear differences. Barbie led the pack with more than $1.4 billion. However, most of the other candidates failed to break the $30 million mark by the time the nominations came out.

This year, we have at least five films that could fairly be classified as blockbusters, which is good news for the Academy, as the ratings for the Oscars telecast have struggled in recent years. The 2024 show reached its highest level in four years, thanks in large part to the popularity of films such as the Christopher Nolan film. Oppenheimer, which grossed nearly $1 billion and won Best Picture. But since 2020, the number of viewers has not reached 20 million, and we are light years away from the 43.7 million viewers that were attracted during the 2014 telecast.

The show will likely never see that number of viewers again, but the combination of popular movies helps attract the average viewer. These viewers are essential to help keep the Oscars relevant, which in turn helps ensure that studios continue to invest in original and/or bold ideas. In this way, the box office and the Academy Awards have a necessary relationship.

The 97th annual Academy Awards air Sunday, March 2 on ABC.