Box office
Moonlight grossed $27.9 million in the United States and Canada and $37.5 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $65.3 million, against a production budget of $4 million.[3]
The film originally played in four theaters in its limited October 21, 2016, release, grossing $402,072 (a per-theater average $100,519).[80] The film's theater count peaked at 650 in its wide opening on November 18, 2016, before expanding to 1,014 theaters in February. After the Oscars ceremony, A24 announced that the film would be played at 1,564 theaters.[79] In the weekend following its Oscar wins the film grossed $2.5 million, up 260% from its previous week and marking the highest-grossing weekend of its entire theatrical release. It was also a higher gross than the previous two Best Picture winners, Spotlight ($1.8 million) and Birdman ($1.9 million), had in their first weekend following the Academy Awards.[81]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 402 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Moonlight uses one man's story to offer a remarkable and brilliantly crafted look at lives too rarely seen in cinema."[82] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 99 out of 100, based on 53 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[83] On both websites, it was the highest-scoring film released in 2016.[84][85]
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote a positive review after Moonlight premiered at the 2016 Telluride Film Festival. He praised the actors' performances and described the cinematography of James Laxton as "fluid and seductive, deceptively mellow, and shot through with searing compassion". Rooney concluded that the film "will strike plangent chords for anyone who has ever struggled with identity, or to find connections in a lonely world".[86] In a uniformly positive review for Time Out New York, Joshua Rothkopf gave Moonlight five stars out of five and praised Barry Jenkins's direction.[87]
Brian Formo of Collider gave Moonlight an 'A−' grade rating, applauding the performances and direction but contending that the film "is more personal and important than it is great".[88] Similarly, Jake Cole of Slant Magazine praised the acting, but criticized the screenplay, and argued that "so much of the film feels old-hat".[89] In a review for The Verge, Tasha Robinson lamented the plot details omitted between the film's three acts, but wrote that "what does make it to the screen is unforgettable".[90]
While discussing the film after its screening at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times described Moonlight as "achingly romantic and uncommonly wise", and an early Oscar contender. Chang further wrote: "[Barry Jenkins] made a film that urges the viewer to look past Chiron's outward appearance and his superficial signifiers of identity, climbing inside familiar stereotypes in order to quietly dismantle them from within ... [Moonlight] doesn't say much. It says everything".[91]
Writing for The London Review of Books in February 2017, Michael Wood characterized the film as a study of an inherited intergenerational tragedy:
[By the end of the film] there are still ten minutes of late Ingmar Bergman to go. The film keeps showing us Chiron's handsome, inscrutable face. The silence doesn't tell us anything, it just asks us to feel sorry for him ... All is not lost, though, because as we gaze at Chiron, we can think of something else: his resemblance to Juan (his father figure). Does it mean that Juan was once a Chiron ... Not quite that perhaps, but the last shot of the film is of the young Chiron sitting on the beach ... looking out at the ocean ... His wide eyes suggest all the desolation and promise that Juan saw in him at the beginning. If we started again, would things be different?[92]
Camilla Long of The Times wrote that the film's "story has been told countless times, against countless backdrops", and that the film is not "relevant" to a predominantly "straight, white, middle class" audience.[93] Catherine Shoard, however, pointed out that "critics' opinions are subjective, and are supposed to be", but also noted her dismay for Long's "struggle to feel for those who aren't like you."[94] Moreover, David McAlmont of The Huffington Post referred to Long's review as "not a review ... [but] a waspish response to other reviews."[95]
Richard Brody of The New Yorker included Moonlight in his list of the best 27 films of the decade.[96]
On a list of the top ten lists of the decade on Metacritic, it was tied for the second-most number ones and ranked second in overall mentions on lists of the top ten films of the decade.[97]
The website They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? lists Moonlight as the 9th most acclaimed film of the 21st century.[98]
Moonlight was listed on over 180 critics' top-ten lists for 2016, including 65 first-place rankings and 33 second-place rankings.[99]
IndieWire writers ranked Moonlight as the 16th best American screenplay of the 21st century, stating that Jenkins and McCraney "dig deep into three brief moments and ask the audience to make connections [...] the bold and risky choices of the Moonlight screenplay pay off in ways that make this masterpiece only improve with time and repeat viewings."[100]
Accolades
At the 74th Golden Globe Awards, Moonlight received six nominations, the second highest of all film nominees.[101] The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, with additional nominations for five more: Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (for Ali), Best Supporting Actress (for Harris), Best Screenplay (for Jenkins) and Best Original Score (for Britell).[102]
Moonlight received four nominations at the 70th British Academy Film Awards: Best Film, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role and Best Original Screenplay.[103]
Moonlight received eight nominations at the 89th Academy Awards, the second highest of all nominees, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (for Ali), Best Supporting Actress (for Harris) and Best Adapted Screenplay.[104] The film won three awards: for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay.[105] At the ceremony, presenter Faye Dunaway read La La Land as the winner of Best Picture. Co-presenter Warren Beatty subsequently stated that he had been mistakenly given the duplicate envelope for the Best Actress award, which Emma Stone had won for her role in La La Land several minutes earlier.[106] When the mistake was realized, La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz came forward to announce Moonlight as the actual winner.[107] The Best Picture envelope is on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Beatty wrote a congratulatory note to Jenkins, which is also on display at the Academy Museum.[108]
During his keynote presentation at the 2018 SXSW Festival, Jenkins read the acceptance speech he had prepared in the event of Moonlight winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards. He had been unable to deliver the intended speech at the ceremony due to the confusion over La La Land being mistakenly announced as the winner.[109]
Because the film's screenplay was based on a play that had not been previously produced or published, different awards had different rules as to whether Moonlight qualified in the original or adapted screenplay categories.[110] It was classified as an original screenplay by both the Writers Guild of America Awards and the BAFTAs, but was ruled an adapted screenplay according to Academy Award rules.[110]
Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon were nominated for Best Film Editing, making McMillon the first black woman to earn an Academy Award nomination in film editing.[111] It is also the first LGBTQ film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.[112]
Cultural impact
The film is referenced in "Moonlight", a song from Jay-Z's 2017 studio album 4:44.[113] In the closing of The Simpsons episode "Haw-Haw Land" it is stated that the episode was supposed to be a parody of the film rather than La La Land (itself parodying the mistake at the 89th Academy Awards.[114])
