The Oscar Lift That Isn’t

Sure, Oscar nominations can give any individual movie a boost—see: last year’s ‘The Zone of Interest’—but unless a big mainstream hit is catching a lucrative second wind, they don’t mean as much as they did pre-streaming.

The decline in awards season box office is partially about what audiences now consider theater-worthy. Photo: Macall Polay/Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

Scott Mendelson

January 28, 2025

In the old days, Oscar season used to feature one or two mainstream films that would score a handful of nominations, expand into wide release, and do big numbers. American Hustle, The Revenant, and Hidden Figures, for instance, all ultimately landed in $155 million to $185 million territory. This past weekend, however, just days after the nominations for the 97th Academy Awards were announced, the box office was objectively meh, totaling just $66 million in domestic revenue.