Movies Now And Then

Due to the long Martin Luther King holiday weekend, box office figures are unofficial and incomplete. So CBS News Early Show contributor Gail O'Neill reports on the top five and takes a look at the most successful and least successful Best Picture Oscar winners.

The Sixth Sense has made over $275 million. American Beauty the front runner, has taken in close to $75 million. And films such as Being John Malkovich, Magnolia, and The Insider would get a big boost from Oscar.

Oscar ballots were sent out last week, so O'Neill takes a look at the Best Picture Oscar winners from previous years.

By the time Titanic won eleven Oscars including best picture it was already the highest grossing film of all time. But in the early days of television, an Oscar win was the only way to ensure box office success.

"Nobody went to the movies, they stayed home and watched TV, so at Oscar time if a film won an Oscar, then everyone would go see that film. That woulbe the one film they would see that year," says Robert Osborne, the host of Turner Classic Movies and author of 70 Years Of Oscar.

"That all changed in 1977, when Star Wars came out and made piles of money, and it didn't win the Oscar for best picture that year, Annie Hall did," he adds.

In fact Annie Hall is the lowest grossing film of the last twenty-five years to win best picture. Taking in only $27 million, the film still managed to transform Woody Allen into an Oscar heavyweight.

"A film of his had never really gotten serious consideration before that. Then, after that, almost everything Woody has done has gotten a nomination for either writing or directing," Osborne explains.

Forrest Gump was a huge box office winner by the time it beat Pulp Fiction for best picture in 1995.

"If you look at all the Oscar winning films through the years, they're all films that in some way touch us emotionally or effect us in that way and I think Forrest Gump was a film that touched everyone." Osborne says.

But other factors can also come into play. The emotional box office champ of 1990, Ghost, was beaten by the more serious Dances with Wolves.

"Kevin Costner was very 'in' at that point, and was still seen...as a really valid filmmaker, and a serious filmmaker, and it was warmly embraced," explains Osborne.

Not all Oscar winners are warmly embraced. Amadeus in 1984 got a big boost from its Oscar win, but is still one of the lowest grossing best pictures. And 1987's best picture, The Last Emperor, only made $43 million.

It is also interesting to note that Oscar has been around for over seventy years, but box office numbers have only been made public for the last twenty-five. And if we look at films of all time, 1939's Gone With The Wind would be near the top with $191 million, or over one billion dollars if the figure is adjusted for inflation.

©2000 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved