[SeekAndFind]

RE: Not a single “Best Picture” winner of the last 10 years has been a hit film.

DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU MEAN BY “HIT”.

Most of these films actually made money accounting for the budget used to make the film

SOURCE: Wikipedia

BOX OFFICE:

1) Moonlight

Budget $4 million
Box office $65 million

2. Spotlight

Budget $20 million
Box office $92.2 million

3. Birdman

Budget $16.5-18 million
Box office $103.2 million

4. 12 Years a Slave

Budget $17.1 million
Box office $187.7 million

5. Argo

Budget $44.5 million
Box office $232.3 million

6. The Artist

Budget $15 million
Box office $133.4 million

7. The King’s Speech

Budget $15 million
Box office $414.2 million

8. Hurt Locker

Budget $15 million
Box office $49.2 million

9. Slumdog Millionaire

Budget $15 million
Box office $377.9 million

10. No Country for Old Men

NO BUDGET DATA

By money made, I would say that most of the Oscar Best Picture winners the past 10 years were hit films.

[Kipp]

If by “hit” you mean top-grossing, I’m glad that’s not a qualification. I don’t care about the Oscars, but I’m glad top-grossing films like “Big Daddy” and “There’s Something About Mary” weren’t up for Best Picture.

[Simon Green]

I'm defining it as breaking the top 10 box office of that year. I'm looking at how popular these films are, not how profitable they are based upon return on investment.

By the latter method, a film with a $100K budget that makes $10 million would be the biggest hit of the year. :-)

[dangus]

>> By money made, I would say that most of the Oscar Best Picture winners the past 10 years were hit films. <<

... after the fact. How many tens of millions does it cost to put on the Academy Awards?

First, Moonlight made only $27 million domestically. Plus, It costs about $30 million to “print” movies for distribution. Let’s say Moonlight cost only about $10 million because it was a smaller opening. So that’s a real cost of about $14 million. Then, without a big opening, the theaters it ran in could claim a huge cut. The film-makers will be lucky if they were profitable before the Academy Awards, at which time they had made $22 million. And then to get about $30 million publicity gift from the Academy Awards... and make only about $5 million!

Saving Private Ryan made $26 million when re-released for awards season; Titanic made $28 million after the Academy Awards (it was still hot during the nomination season, but the nomination and win probably were worth about $50 million.) Jerry Maguire added $23 million. Forrest Gump made $33 million (worth over $50 million today.) Schindler’s List made over $50 million. And yes, these are all domestic-only totals.