$1 Billion Best Picture Nominees Ranked

$1 Billion Best Picture Nominees Ranked

A few weeks back we celebrated the 97th Oscars. There’s been hundreds and hundreds of movies nominated for best picture. Nine of those movies have grossed over $1 billion at the box office. Here’s my ranking of the NINE Best movies nominated for best picture at the Oscars. 

NOTE: Since we are all talking about Best Picture nominees, there are no bad movies on this list. Even the one I have in last place I still think is a good movie, but it’s not great. 

9. Avatar: I find this to be a fascinating movie in pop culture as when it came out, it became this global phenomenon. It quickly became the highest grossing movie of all time and has held that title for 16 years now. It’s not a movie that has stayed in pop culture, I don’t see it on a lot of best of lists. This is a great example of James Cameron working his magic and making true cinematic events. The reason why people went to the theater over and over again was because it was worth seeing on the big screen. This movie had jaw dropping and groundbreaking CGI that had never been seen before. Since the visuals were so fantastic people wanted to experience it on the big screen. It came out around the time when 3-D and IMAX were just coming out and getting started. This was the perfect movie to release during that time. Watching this movie, it’s impressive just how great this CGI was. Especially with so much modern CGI not looking great and looking fake. You watch this 16 year old movie and the CGI looks better than some of these $250, $300 million blockbusters we’ve gotten in the past several years. With all of that said, this isn’t a movie that I explore all that much and don’t have much of a desire to rewatch. I’ll probably rewatch it when the third one releases later this year. Like I said, I do think this is a good movie but it’s not a great movie. Therefore, I think it’s the weakest movie on this list.  

8. Black Panther: The first comic book movie nominated for Best Picture. I wouldn’t have nominated it. I don’t put it as one of the best comic book movies of all time. It’s a good movie that gets a lot right. It’s one of the more mature MCU movies, exploring very rich themes and ideas. There’s a number of similarities between this movie and The Lion King. That provides for a different type of MCU story exploring different types of themes. They explore these themes through creating a villain with Killmonger. That’s doing very villainous things, but there’s a truth to what he’s doing. Through his actions, it causes T’Challa to change as a person. That’s an interesting way to do both a villain and a character arc. On technical levels this movie is fantastic and puts you into the world of Wakanda. This is probably the score that put Ludwig Goransson on the map as he won the Oscar and has since scored The Mandalorian and Oppenheimer. It’s one of the MCU’s best scores in my opinion. However, I do think the CGI here isn’t the best. The third act especially has some very noticeable CGI that holds the movie back. It’s not an MCU movie that I re-explore all that much, it’s not the most rewatchable. Overall, this is a really cool edition to the MCU that has a lot of things right. 

7. Avatar: The Way of Water: You can take a lot of what I said about Avatar (2009) with it being a great cinematic experience but not one that I re-explore all that much and apply that to this movie. But I think this is an example of a sequel that surpasses the original and creates a better movie with a better and more personal story. This movie’s story isn't derivative and I was more invested in what was going on. The family plays an important piece in the entire thing. With the kids being involved and the villain wanting revenge, there’s more stakes to what’s going on. You feel the danger of the villain more and want him to be taken out in a more urgent manner. Once again, James Cameron creates an immersive experience that’s worth seeing on the big screen. I saw this movie in 3D, I’m not somebody that sees movies in 3D. The next movie I’ll see in 3D is probably Fire and Ash this December. That was a great way to experience this movie. I felt like I was in this world with these characters. Only a master filmmaker like Cameron is able to capture that. With a 13 year gap, the CGI was able to evolve and change so it’s another flawless production. 

6. Barbie: I really didn’t know what to expect from this movie going into it. The trailers made me confused as to who the target audience was. I watched this movie on opening night which made the viewing 10x better. I really dug this movie and I liked what it was going for. I thought Gretta Gerwig found an interesting take to explore ideas about womanhood and feminism through the concept of a Barbie doll. It found a way to be very clever with its dialogue and humor. So many of the jokes in this movie are really funny. Multiple times in the movie my audience was laughing out loud. It made for one of 2023’s most entertaining movies. Of Gretta’s movies this is the one that best shows what she’s good at and I think this is her best movie. It’s a big budgeted movie that doesn’t feel like it’s been micromanaged. When you’re in Barbie land and you see all of the costumes and production design it’s top notch and fully immerses you into this world. You get two great performances from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling who nail their characters so well, they’re clearly having a lot of fun and gave us some of the most memorable performances of 2023. 

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: I know for a lot of people this would be probably #1 or #3. I can respect that and I can understand why so many people love this movie. For me, I think this is the weakest of The Lord of the Rings trilogy but it’s still great. This movie is all payoff for everything that came before. The journey and adventure that was set up in Fellowship of the Ring is paid off so well in this movie. You get these big sweeping action sequences that are astonishing to look at. Every one of our characters gets a moment in the spotlight. Gollum is my favorite middle earth character and gets so many iconic and great moments in this movie. What’s interesting about this movie, it cost less than $100 million to make. This movie that’s widely regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made with huge spectacle costs less than $100 million. This movie is 23 years old, has a fraction of the budget of so many modern movies and looks 10x better. That’s crazy to think about. It shows that this creative was firing on all cylinders and created something epic. While I’m not as high on this movie as other people, I think this movie is fantastic. 

4. Titanic: One of the most surprising films to ever make over $1 billion. It’s unlike every other movie on this list. James Cameron is the master of making $2 billion movies. He created a movie that people went to the theater over and over again to see on the big screen. When you create a movie that’s a 3 hour long romantic drama about a real life event that made over $2 billion you know you have something special. What’s interesting about this movie is that it’s able to balance multiple tones. The first half of the movie is a romantic drama between Jack and Rose. Maybe it spends too much time on that but you care about that. Then it’s able to smoothly transition into this survival thriller where you care about what’s going on. You know how much Jack and Rose mean to one another so you want everything to go alright but you know the end result. The back half constantly puts you on the edge of your seat as they keep on putting obstacles in front of the characters. The tension keeps on building and building in the movie. This was the star-making performance for DiCaprio and Winslet who’ve been icons for decades. This is one of the best Best Picture winners of all time and one of Cameron’s best. 

3. Joker: This movie might have been higher had I’d done this ranking sooner. I think Joker: Folie Á Deux dampened my thoughts on it. But, it’s still a great movie that gets a lot of things right. This movie pulls heavy inspiration from Martin Scorsese movies, mainly Taxi Driver. Because of that, this movie finds a path for it to cut through. It feels very different from other comic book movies. We don’t get a lot of dark and bleak movies like this. When you get something like this, it finds a way to stand out and feel unique in an oversaturated genre. This is a tragedy of Arthur Fleck, it’s his downfall from normal Gotham citizen to a psychopath. Throughout the movie you see how society treated the underclass and how that changed Arthur. It was all done in such an interesting way that hooks you and you don’t want these bad things to happen, but keep on happening. It’s anchored by a fantastic performance by Joaquin Phoenix. He won the Oscar and it was so deserved. He disappears into the role, you don’t see Phoenix you just see Arthur in a true transformative performance. This is one of the most interesting comic book movies to exist and one of the most thought provoking. 

2. Toy Story 3: All four Toy Story movies are all pretty fantastic but my favorite of the bunch would be his one. It’s such a great movie and so many fans were so excited that they were so skeptical about the idea for a fourth film. Despite getting a fourth film, this film does close out a story. This movie ends the Andy storyline in the first film, this relationship started between Andy and his toys. This movie ends with Andy going away to college and giving up those toys. This is a very emotional movie, maybe Pixar’s most emotional where it captures so many emotions. It can make you feel sad at points, you can feel happy, you feel scared for our toys. It makes you scared so much that when you get into the third act and they’re heading towards the fire you’re actually scared that our toys are going to die. They created a villain with Lotso that is complex and given such a tragic backstory. He has this best evil plan as a revenge mission for what he went through. You get plenty of entertaining moments from beginning to end. The Spanish Buzz stuff in the middle act is hilarious, some of the funniest scenes in the Toy Story franchise. I love the opening sequence with all of the toys involved. When you put it all together you get a movie that’s emotional and entertaining and one of the greatest animated movies of all time. 

1. Top Gun: Maverick: A movie that I was not excited for when it was first announced. With the trailers for this movie, I started to be won over and by the time it released I was super excited for this movie. This truly is one of the best blockbusters of the decade and of all time. It’s able to be this incredibly entertaining blockbuster that crafted these thrilling sequences that had never been done before. You watch behind the scenes footage of this movie with the actors up in fighter jets. It made for an incredible cinematic movie to watch on the big screen. Even having a packed audience opening night made this viewing even better. It’s also able to be emotional and provide some of the most emotional moments of 2022. The scene between Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer pulls at the heartstrings that you might not expect from a blockbuster like this. This movie shows that Tom Cruise is an incredible movie star. He’s playing the same charming Maverick that we saw in the original. But here he’s aged, he’s matured so he’s playing a different character. Shows us that he’s a lot more versatile then he gets credit for. He’s willing to be fun, be emotional, and push boundaries to entertain audiences and make movies worth seeing on the big screen. This is truly one of the best blockbusters and movies ever made. It’s my #1.