Avatar: The Way of Water, with its continued blockbuster momentum, was the only film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars to stand among the Top 10 highest-grossing films at the box office this weekend with a No. 1 total of $15.7 million.
Several other nominated films, most of which completed their theatrical runs and hit streaming months ago, received a theatrical rerelease in an effort to capitalize on their newfound Oscar contender status, but only a couple of them were able to even crack $1 million in weekend grosses.
Everything Everywhere All at Once: $104 million globally
Of all the movies back in theaters, the highest-grossing was A24’s Everything Everywhere All at Once (“EEAAO”) which made over $1 million from its re-release in 1,400 theaters.
With 11 nominations and an A24 record box office total of $71 million domestically and $104 million worldwide, “EEAAO” stands in the middle ground.
It is positioned between the wide release successes in the Best Picture field like “Avatar 2” and “Top Gun: Maverick” and the arthouse-prestige fare like “The Banshees of Inisherin” that have struggled to sell tickets compared to their pre-pandemic counterparts.
Prior to the pandemic, most Oscar films released in October and November could rely on small but steady turnout for weeks between Oscar nomination day and the actual Oscars telecast, helping make them theatrically profitable.
However, with the shortening of the theatrical window due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most audience interest generated by Oscar nominations has diverted towards home release, where films are becoming available faster after theatrical release than they were prior to 2020.