The Oscar trophy is perhaps the most well-known award around the globe. At the 90th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 4, 2018, the winners from over 20 categories can take home a statue.
However, just because they’re sought-after and coated with gold doesn’t guarantee they’re precious. Oscar statues can be a challenge to sell in exchange for money.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is loaning them because Oscar winners do not have their statues. You read it right: Due to an amendment made in 1950, Oscar recipients “have no rights whatsoever,” according to the organisation’s rules.
An Oscar winner cannot sell or dispose of their statuette without “first offering to sell it to the Academy for $1.00.” These rules don’t just apply to the person who won, their heirs, or anyone else who has been given one.
If you decide to try to market the Oscar statue, be ready for a fight. The Academy has consistently defended its rights to ownership through several lawsuits. The organization secured an important victory in 2015 when a California judge confirmed the rules prohibiting selling Oscar statues.
Oscar Trophy Value at Auction
If you find an Oscar statuette that was made before 1950, you’re lucky. While the Academy changed its rules in 1950 to limit the auctioning of Oscars, there were no regulations against it before the year. Over 150 of these awards have been sold at auction.
One of the biggest cash flows was the auction of the 1940’s Best Picture Oscar for Gone with the Wind. The pop star Michael Jackson snagged it at auction in 1999 for $1.54 million. However, reports surfaced following his estate’s death that it could not find the iconic statuette.
It’s not just the biggest categories that can bring in an impressive sum. For example, in 1942, the Oscar in the category of Best Screenplay for Citizen Kane was auctioned off in California in 2011, fetching $861,542, as reported by Reuters. There was even one Oscar for Best Audio Recording handed out in 1942 in honour of Yankee Doodle Dandy — it was auctioned off in the year 2011 and was sold for $89,625.
Oscar Trophy Value in Career Earnings
For males, winning the Academy Award can significantly boost their earnings potential, as per an analysis conducted in 2010 by Colgate University researchers. According to the research, male actors usually receive an 81% pay rise following the awarding of an Oscar. It’s about $3.9 million. Study found.
The payoff was not as straightforward for females. The best-case scenario was that winning the Oscar in the Best Actress category was worth up to $500,000, according to the study.
IBIS World conducted similar research in 2014, which focused on Best Picture winners and saw a rise in the earnings of the films that took home Best Picture, bringing in about $13.8 million more than those just nominated.
