Blockbuster Oscar-Nominated Best Picture Movies
by urbanemovies | created - 22 Feb 2017 | updated - 3 months ago | PublicGenerally, movies nominated for a Best Picture Oscar are better known for their artistic accomplishments rather than for their financial results. However, some films buck this trend by being successful by both measures. These movies are the highest grossing inflation adjusted box office films to ever secure an Oscar Best Picture nomination. Source: Box Office Mojo
Which movie* is the best combined commercial and critical success story? * Oscar Best Picture nominee with a minimum $0.5 billion inflation adjusted USA Box Office in 2017 dollars
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1. Gone with the Wind (1939)
Passed | 238 min | Drama, History, Romance
A manipulative woman and a roguish man conduct a turbulent romance during the American Civil War and Reconstruction periods.
Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil
Votes: 270,234 | Gross: $198.68M
Best Picture Oscar: 1940 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $1,747,686,000
Major Awards History
2. The Godfather (1972)
R | 175 min | Crime, Drama
The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Diane Keaton
Votes: 1,486,382 | Gross: $134.97M
Best Picture Oscar: 1973 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $682,680,200
Major Awards History
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
PG-13 | 201 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom
Votes: 1,537,193 | Gross: $377.85M
Best Picture Oscar: 2004 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $533,183,400
Major Awards History
4. Titanic (1997)
PG-13 | 194 min | Drama, Romance
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
Votes: 982,922 | Gross: $659.33M
Best Picture Oscar: 1998 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $1,171,854,200
Major Awards History
5. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
PG | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Luke Skywalker joins forces with a Jedi Knight, a cocky pilot, a Wookiee and two droids to save the galaxy from the Empire's world-destroying battle station, while also attempting to rescue Princess Leia from the mysterious Darth Vader.
Director: George Lucas | Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness
Votes: 1,150,499 | Gross: $322.74M
Best Picture Oscar: 1978 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $1,540,734,500
Major Awards History
6. Forrest Gump (1994)
PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, Romance
The presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson, the events of Vietnam, Watergate, and other history unfold through the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
Votes: 1,667,328 | Gross: $330.25M
Best Picture Oscar: 1995 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $680,016,600
Major Awards History
7. Avatar (2009)
PG-13 | 162 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez
Votes: 1,068,739 | Gross: $760.51M
Best Picture Oscar: 2010 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $841,258,100
Major Awards History
8. The Sound of Music (1965)
G | 172 min | Biography, Drama, Family
A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to the children of a Naval officer widower.
Director: Robert Wise | Stars: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, Richard Haydn
Votes: 187,556 | Gross: $163.21M
Best Picture Oscar: 1966 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $1,231,893,000
Major Awards History
9. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before Adolf Hitler's Nazis can obtain its deadly powers.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies
Votes: 832,330 | Gross: $248.16M
Best Picture Oscar: 1982 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $765,756,700
Major Awards History
10. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
PG | 115 min | Family, Sci-Fi
A troubled child summons the courage to help a friendly alien escape Earth and return to his home world.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote, Dee Wallace
Votes: 346,216 | Gross: $435.11M
Best Picture Oscar: 1983 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $1,227,040,000
Major Awards History
11. Jaws (1975)
PG | 124 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary
Votes: 520,014 | Gross: $260.00M
Best Picture Oscar: 1976 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $1,107,881,800
Major Awards History
12. The Sting (1973)
PG | 129 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two grifters team up to pull off the ultimate con.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
Votes: 226,220 | Gross: $159.60M
Best Picture Oscar: 1974 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $771,085,700
Major Awards History
13. Ben-Hur (1959)
G | 212 min | Adventure, Drama, History
When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet
Votes: 206,027 | Gross: $74.70M
Best Picture Oscar: 1960 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $847,700,000
Major Awards History
14. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
PG | 110 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Wyoming, early 1900s. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid are the leaders of a band of outlaws. After a train robbery goes wrong they find themselves on the run with a posse hard on their heels. Their solution - escape to Bolivia.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin
Votes: 191,692 | Gross: $102.31M
Best Picture Oscar: 1970 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $610,325,400
Major Awards History
15. My Fair Lady (1964)
G | 170 min | Drama, Family, Musical
Snobbish phonetics Professor Henry Higgins (Sir Rex Harrison) agrees to a wager that he can make flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) presentable in high society.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White
Votes: 81,401 | Gross: $72.00M
Best Picture Oscar: 1965 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $519,000,000
Major Awards History
16. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
PG-13 | 197 min | Drama, Romance, War
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger
Votes: 65,742 | Gross: $111.72M
Best Picture Oscar: 1966 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $1,073,771,700
Major Awards History
17. Mary Poppins (1964)
G | 139 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
In turn of the century London, a magical nanny employs music and adventure to help two neglected children become closer to their father.
Director: Robert Stevenson | Stars: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns
Votes: 147,478 | Gross: $102.27M
Best Picture Oscar: 1965 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $676,272,700
Major Awards History
18. The Exorcist (1973)
R | 122 min | Horror
When a teenage girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her daughter.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb
Votes: 342,889 | Gross: $232.91M
Best Picture Oscar: 1974 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $956,682,800
Major Awards History
19. The Ten Commandments (1956)
G | 220 min | Adventure, Drama
The Egyptian Prince, Moses, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson
Votes: 58,784 | Gross: $93.74M
Best Picture Oscar: 1957 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $1,133,150,000
Major Awards History
20. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
G | 175 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days.
Directors: Michael Anderson, John Farrow | Stars: David Niven, Cantinflas, Shirley MacLaine, Robert Newton
Votes: 22,750 | Gross: $42.00M
Best Picture Oscar: 1957 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $558,923,100
Major Awards History
21. The Graduate (1967)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.
Director: Mike Nichols | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels
Votes: 242,490 | Gross: $104.95M
Best Picture Oscar: 1968 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $740,239,500
Major Awards History
22. American Graffiti (1973)
PG | 110 min | Comedy, Drama
A couple of high school grads spend one final night cruising the strip with their buddies before they go off to college.
Director: George Lucas | Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith
Votes: 76,558 | Gross: $115.00M
Best Picture Oscar: 1974 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $568,428,600
Major Awards History
23. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde
Votes: 11,929 | Gross: $36.00M
Best Picture Oscar: 1953 Winner
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $519,000,000
Major Awards History
24. The Bells of St. Mary's (1945)
Unrated | 126 min | Drama
At a big city Catholic school, Father O'Malley and Sister Benedict indulge in friendly rivalry, and succeed in extending the school through the gift of a building.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Bing Crosby, Ingrid Bergman, Henry Travers, William Gargan
Votes: 6,539 | Gross: $21.30M
Best Picture Oscar: 1946 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $542,745,100
Major Awards History
25. Love Story (1970)
PG | 100 min | Drama, Romance
A boy and a girl from different backgrounds fall in love regardless of their upbringing - and then tragedy strikes.
Director: Arthur Hiller | Stars: Ali MacGraw, Ryan O'Neal, John Marley, Ray Milland
Votes: 27,861 | Gross: $106.40M
Best Picture Oscar: 1971 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $605,484,000
Major Awards History
26. Cleopatra (1963)
G | 192 min | Biography, Drama, History
Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt experiences both triumph and tragedy as she attempts to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Pamela Brown
Votes: 27,170 | Gross: $57.78M
Best Picture Oscar: 1964 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $581,136,900
Major Awards History
27. Airport (1970)
G | 137 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.
Directors: George Seaton, Henry Hathaway | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jean Seberg
Votes: 16,312 | Gross: $100.49M
Best Picture Oscar: 1971 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $571,862,600
Major Awards History
28. The Robe (1953)
Unrated | 135 min | Drama, History
In the Roman province of Judea during the 1st century, Roman tribune Marcellus Gallio is ordered to crucify Jesus of Nazareth but is tormented by his guilty conscience afterwards.
Director: Henry Koster | Stars: Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Michael Rennie
Votes: 8,504 | Gross: $36.00M
Best Picture Oscar: 1954 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $566,181,800
Major Awards History
29. The Towering Inferno (1974)
PG | 165 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
At the opening party of a colossal, but poorly constructed, office building, a massive fire breaks out that threatens to destroy the tower and everyone in it.
Director: John Guillermin | Stars: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway
Votes: 36,544 | Gross: $116.00M
Best Picture Oscar: 1975 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $530,899,500
Major Awards History
30. Black Panther (2018)
PG-13 | 134 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
T'Challa, heir to the hidden but advanced kingdom of Wakanda, must step forward to lead his people into a new future and must confront a challenger from his country's past.
Director: Ryan Coogler | Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira
Votes: 553,757 | Gross: $700.06M
Best Picture Oscar: 2019 Nominee
Inflation Adjusted Box Office: $684,910,740
Major Awards History
Added 15 August 2019
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