Most Profitable Movies That Won an Oscar for Best Picture

Special Report

January 31, 2023 11:00 am

Source: Courtesy of United Artists

25. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
> Box office return per dollar in production budget: $12.20
> Worldwide ticket sales: $24.4 million
> Production budget: $2.0 million
> Directed by: Norman Jewison
> Starring: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates

After a Black detective from Philadelphia is suspected of murdering a rich businessman in small-town Mississippi, he reluctantly teams up with the racist police chief to find the real murderer.

Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

24. Forrest Gump (1994)
> Box office return per dollar in production budget: $12.36
> Worldwide ticket sales: $330.2 million
> Production budget: $55.0 million
> Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
> Starring: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise

An Alabama man with a low IQ and a big heart experiences love, friendship, and heartache as he finds himself embroiled in some of the biggest events of the 20th century, including the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.

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Most Profitable Movies That Won an Oscar for Best Picture

Source: Courtesy of United Artists

23. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
> Box office return per dollar in production budget: $12.44
> Worldwide ticket sales: $44.8 million
> Production budget: $3.6 million
> Directed by: John Schlesinger
> Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles

A story of poverty and friendship, “Midnight Cowboy” is the only X-rated film ever to win an Academy Award. It follows dim-witted but optimistic hustler Joe Buck as he tries to make ends meet in New York City and finds camaraderie with small-time crook Ratso Rizzo. (Its X rating was later changed to an R.)

Source: Courtesy of Universal Pictures

22. Schindler’s List (1993)
> Box office return per dollar in production budget: $12.89
> Worldwide ticket sales: $96.9 million
> Production budget: $25.0 million
> Directed by: Steven Spielberg
> Starring: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley

This historical drama about the Holocaust recounts the story of a businessman turned humanitarian who employed hundreds of Polish Jews in his factories during WWII, preventing them from being taken to Auschwitz.

Source: Courtesy of Orion Pictures

21. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
> Box office return per dollar in production budget: $13.79
> Worldwide ticket sales: $130.7 million
> Production budget: $20.0 million
> Directed by: Jonathan Demme
> Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence A. Bonney

Anthony Hopkins gives a chilling performance as an incarcerated serial killer and cannibal and brilliant psychiatrist in this psychological horror film, in which an FBI cadet seeks help from him in finding a serial killer who has been abducting and flaying young women.

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