--- title: This Is the Most Profitable Best Picture Nominee This Year — and the Least description: The 91st Academy Awards are tonight. Here are the best picture nominees that made the most and least money ahead of the ceremony. authors: - name: Prachi Bhardwaj role: Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/prachi-bhardwaj/ at_money_since: 2018 articles: 92 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Investing - Loans - Personal Finance - Shopping - Taxes - Technology former_staff: true published: '2019-02-24T16:00:47.000Z' modified: '2019-02-24T16:00:49.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - oscars 2019 word_count: 508 canonical: https://money.com/best-picture-oscars-box-office-profits/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![20190222-oscars least and most profitable](https://img.money.com/2019/02/20190222-oscars-least-and-most-profitable.jpg) If *Roma* wins the Oscar for Best Picture during Sunday’s ceremony, it’ll break a few records — including the least profitable winner in decades. Since 1959, the Best Picture winners have cost a median $15 million to make and earned a median $136 million at the box office worldwide. *Roma*, which also cost $15 million to make, has brought in only $3.65 million from theaters, putting it more in the red than any movie to win the accolade in over 60 years. Here's a look at which 2019 Best Picture nominees made the most and least: Its return on investment (ROI) — a measure of how profitable the movie was for investors before marketing and promotional costs — is currently -76%. And while *Vice* is also in the red as of February 19, 2019, it actually has a fighting chance: it’s new to theaters, and it’s catching up quickly, making upwards of $1 million a day. But *Roma*, a Netflix-distributed movie, doesn’t have that option. Netflix [paid $20 million](https://www.indiewire.com/2018/10/private-life-22-july-roma-netflix-theatrical-1202009699/) to give its 100 million subscribers exclusive access to *Roma* as part of their monthly fee ...and that means no proper theater distribution. The [small $3.65 million box office](https://www.indiewire.com/2019/02/fighting-with-my-family-sundance-specialty-box-office-1202044692/) fortune is the result of its short stint in just a few cities, [as required by The Academy](http://mentalfloss.com/article/61626/how-does-movie-qualify-best-picture-academy-award) for Oscar consideration. The efforts clearly paid off: *Roma* is the first streaming platform movie [to be nominated for the Best Picture](https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/1/22/18187333/roma-oscars-nomination-best-picture-alfonso-cuaron) award. Historically, the Best Picture winners (and nominees, for that matter) have always made money the same, traditional way: studios spend tens of millions of dollars on production and then make it back through box office gains and merchandise. *Rocky*, the 1977 winner, had the highest return on every dollar by far, thanks to its sub-million-dollar budget. Its 12,112% ROI is almost three times the next highest ROI, which belongs to the 1964 winner *Tom Jones*. The Best Picture winner that made the most money, however, was *Titanic* — the only one to surpass $2 billion at the box office worldwide. Of course, this year’s nominees include some high rollers too. If Marvel’s *Black Panther* takes home the Oscar for Best Picture on Sunday, it would be tied with *Titanic* for the highest-budget film to win the award, and second to *Titanic* as the highest grossing film of all time. But *Black Panther*’s $200 million production cost puts its ROI way lower than its competitors (and 42 previous winners). Runner-up *A Star Is Born* started out ahead of this year's nominees in terms of ROI, covering its production costs on opening weekend itself. In the months that followed, it surpassed 1,000%, and somehow still had the second highest ROI. *Bohemian Rhapsody*, the ROI winner among 2019's Best Picture nominees, made $854 million at the box office using a fourth of what *Black Panther* spent on production. On Sunday, we find out which of these movies takes home the gold trophy. It's everything if you’re in the movie-making business — but if you lose, a little green probably cushions the blow. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/best-picture-oscars-box-office-profits/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Movies", "item": "https://money.com/movies/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "This Is the Most Profitable Best Picture Nominee This Year — and the Least" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/best-picture-oscars-box-office-profits/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/best-picture-oscars-box-office-profits/", "name": "This Is the Most Profitable Best Picture Nominee This Year — and the Least", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2019-02-24T16:00:47.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/best-picture-oscars-box-office-profits/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/best-picture-oscars-box-office-profits/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2019-02-24T16:00:49.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "This Is the Most Profitable Best Picture Nominee This Year — and the Least", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2019/02/20190222-oscars-least-and-most-profitable.jpg", "width": 2880, "height": 1920, "caption": "20190222-oscars least and most profitable" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Prachi Bhardwaj", "url": "https://money.com/author/prachi-bhardwaj/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/prachi-bhardwaj/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2018/10/Prachi.Bhardwaj.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1" } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2019-02-24T16:00:47.000Z", "description": "The 91st Academy Awards are tonight. 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