How Many Oscars Gladiator Won & All Other Nominations It Had

Gladiator was nominated for a number of Oscars, winning quite a few in the process. The Ridley Scott swords-and-sandals epic, which starred Russell Crowe as Maximus, premiered in 2000 and instantly became a hit with both critics and audiences. At the time of writing, more than 250 different critics’ reviews have been compiled to earn it a Certified Fresh score of 80% on the review aggregator platform Rotten Tomatoes. More than 250,000 audience members have also rated it, giving it an even more favorable score of 87%.

The movie was also a commercial success, which led to it spawning the 2024 sequel Gladiator II. Although it cost a whopping $100 million ($183.8 million when adjusted for inflation), it grossed $4565.4 million worldwide ($855.63 million when adjusted for inflation). This made it the second highest-grossing release of 2000, falling behind only the Tom Cruise-led sequel Mission: Impossible II, which earned $546.4 million against a $125 million budget. It considerably outgrossed other franchise-spawning hits of the year, including X-Men ($296.3 million), Scary Movie ($278 million), and Charlie’s Angels ($264.1 million).

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Gladiator Won 5 Oscars, Including Best Picture

Russell Crowe Was Also Awarded

At the 73rd Academy Awards, which took place in Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium on March 25, 2001, the original Gladiator won five Oscars, the most of any movie during that ceremony. This includes winning Best Picture, beating out fellow nominees Chocolat, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, and Traffic. The other awards the historical epic won were Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Best Costume Design, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects.

Gladiator Had 12 Oscar Nominations Overall

It Had Nods For Directing, Editing, & More

The five Oscars that Gladiator won came from a grand total of 12 nominations in a variety of categories including Ridley Scott earning a nod for Best Director and future Joker Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix getting a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance as Commodus. The majority of the awards that it lost went to Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which both won four Oscars apiece. Below, see a breakdown of the other nominations the movie earned and which movies actually won those awards during the 2001 ceremony:

In spite of the fact that it won fewer than half of the awards that it was nominated for, the Ridley Scott movie performed admirably well. In addition to winning the most Oscars at the 73rd Academy Awards, Gladiator received the most nominations, followed by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with 10, meaning that the smash hit martial arts movie also came home with fewer than half of the awards that it was nominated for.

Gladiator follows Maximus, a Roman general betrayed by the new emperor Commodus. After escaping execution, he is enslaved and becomes a gladiator. Set in ancient Rome, the story portrays his struggle for survival and quest for vengeance as he battles for his freedom in the arena.

Release Date

May 5, 2000

Cast

Russell Crowe , Joaquin Phoenix , Connie Nielsen , Oliver Reed , Richard Harris , Derek Jacobi , Djimon Hounsou , David Schofield , John Shrapnel , Tomas Arana , Ralf Moeller , Spencer Treat Clark , David Hemmings , Tommy Flanagan , Sven-Ole Thorsen , Omid Djalili , Nicholas McGaughey , Chris Kell , Tony Curran , Mark Lewis , John Quinn , Alun Raglan , David Bailie , Chick Allan , David J. Nicholls , Al Hunter Ashton , Billy Dowd , Giannina Facio , Giorgio Cantarini

Runtime

155 minutes

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