• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 5, 2025

Theatrical-first Oscar nominated Best Picture films coming to streamers continue to yield high streaming revenue results.

Best Picture nominees have generated over $1.2 billion in streaming global subscriber revenues from 2020 to 2024, according to Parrot Analytics.

When looking at specific movie titles, Netflix has seen some of the biggest revenue benefits -- albeit starting theatrically via a limited initial schedule, largely to qualify for Oscar nomination status.

Netflix has four of the top five and six of the top 10 streaming revenue-generating titles from a Best Picture nominee.

The biggest overall was “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which has been estimated to have boosted streaming revenues (from associate subscribers fees) to $24.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.

This was followed by Netflix’s “Don’t Look Up” (at $21.1 million, from Q1 2022); and Apple TV+ “Killers of the Flower Moon” (also at $21.1 million, from Q1 2024).

Parrot says: “Though prestige film typically represents a more narrow commercial lane, the vast majority of these films received full theatrical releases complete with hefty marketing campaigns.”

This is in addition to Oscar nomination publicity hype and overall higher consumer awareness of other original theatrical movies airing on streaming platforms.

Looking at specific Best Picture nominees by year, the best results over the past four years or so come from those movies released in 2022 -- up for Oscar awards in March 2023 with a collective $340 million boost in streaming revenue for those eight nominees.

Movies released that year include “Dune,” Netflix’s “Don’t Look Up” and “The Power of the Dog.”

Another sharp spike is now developing with streaming movies released in 2023 -- now around $240 million.

Slower-rising theatrical movies came in 2020 and 2021 amid the pandemic disruptions of productions and studios shifting theatrical debut schedules. Still, those movies released in 2020, are now -- in total -- as the same revenue level as those movies released in 2022.

Parrot says its global revenue data results take in all revenue from all streaming platforms that run the movies on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis. It factors in “specific catalog dynamics, audiences signals, and search intent indicators.”