1930 Top Grossing Movies

This movie page looks at 1930 Top Box Office Movies.  Finding box office information for movies made in the 1930s and 1940s is extremely difficult.   For somebody looking for box office information on 1930 it is very very frustrating.  Over the years, we have researched and collected information on over 36,000 movies.  So we figured we would show all the 1930 movies in our database.

To make this list a movie had to be made in 1930.  Obviously many movies made in 1929 earned box office dollars in 1930.  On the other side many movies made in 1930 made money in 1931 and later.  This page looks at 130 1930 Top Box Office Movies.  The movies are listed in a massive table that lets you rank the movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.

The following massive table only includes the movies made in 1930 that are in our database.  Since we are constantly adding new movies to our database….this page will quickly become obsolete.  We will try and update this page on a regular basis.

Hell’s Angels was the biggest box office hit of the year

Our UMR Top 50 of 1930

1930 Top Box Office Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort 1930 Top Box Office Movies by the stars or in some cases the director of the movie.
  • Sort 1930 Top Box Office Movies by domestic actual box office grosses
  • Sort 1930 Top Box Office Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort 1930 Top Box Office Movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each 1930 Top Box Office Movies received.
  • Sort 1930 Top Box Office Movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking Score (UMR).  Our UMR score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

John Wayne starred in 1930’s The Big Trail

Top earners in 1930 for Adjusted USA Box Office:

Adjusted Worldwide Box Office:

  1.  Hell’s Angels (1930) $551,999,968.00
  2. Check and Double Check (1930) $249,779,965.00
  3. Min and Bill (1930) $242,880,008.00
  4. The Big House (1930) $236,669,987.00
  5. Dawn Patrol (1930) $224,111,997.00
  6. Call Of The Flesh (1930) $223,835,990.00
  7. The Rogue Song (1930) $222,180,038.00
  8. Anna Christie (1930) $206,862,014.00
  9. Disraeli (1930) $206,724,010.00
  10. No No Nanette (1930) $200,237,982.00
  11. Son of the Gods (1930) $197,616,007.00
  12. Hold Everything (1930) $183,954,024.00
  13. General Crack (1930) $182,159,979.00
  14. The Vagabound King (1930) $179,400,000.00
  15. Romance (1930) $174,570,014.00
  16. Paid (1930) $169,877,987.00
  17. Our Blushing Brides (1930) $167,118,007.00
  18. New Moon (1930) $138,552,010.00
  19. Montana Moon (1930) $132,479,993.00
  20. Viennese Nights (1930) $131,100,003.00
  21. Mammy (1930) $130,685,993.00
  22. Half Shot at Sunrise (1930) $127,512,003.00
  23. The Cuckoos (1930) $119,094,018.00
  24. Billy the Kid (1930) $115,919,982.00
  25. Under a Texas Moon (1930) $114,264,031.00
  26. The Green Goddess (1930) $111,228,000.00
  27. Moby Dick (1930) $109,985,969.00
  28. Dixiana (1930) $107,640,000.00
  29. Hook Line and Sinker (1930) $107,640,000.00
  30. A Lady’s Morals (1930) $105,017,980.00
  31. She Couldn’t Say No (1930) $99,084,010.00
  32. The Lash (1930) $98,808,004.00
  33. Sunny (1930) $95,220,004.00
  34. Doorway To Hell (1930) $94,943,997.00
  35. The Office Wife (1930) $93,702,011.00
  36. Bright Lights (1930) $92,321,976.00
  37. The Bad Man (1930) $88,871,979.00
  38. Passion Flower (1930) $88,596,017.00
  39. Way For A Sailor (1930) $87,492,034.00
  40. Sin Takes A Holiday (1930) $85,973,997.00
  41. Three Faces East (1930) $85,559,986.00
  42. Showgirl in Hollywood (1930) $80,315,990.00
  43. The Silver Horde (1930) $77,556,010.00
  44. Old English (1930) $75,348,000.00
  45. Bride of the Regiment (1930) $74,244,018.00
  46. Maybe It’s Love (1930) $70,517,969.00
  47. Big Boy (1930) $68,723,969.00
  48. Going Wild (1930) $67,757,990.00
  49. Love Comes Along (1930) $65,963,990.00
  50. Sweethearts and Wives (1930) $63,893,983.00
  51. Kismet (1930) $63,756,024.00
  52. Scarlet Pages (1930) $63,479,972.00
  53. The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1930) $62,928,004.00
  54. Lovin’ the Ladies (1930) $59,064,042.00
  55. Second Choice (1930) $58,926,038.00
  56. Shooting Straight (1930) $57,684,006.00
  57. Conspiracy (1930) $57,546,003.00
  58. River’s End (1930) $53,267,986.00
  59. The Other Tomorrow (1930) $50,507,962.00
  60. The Man from Blankley’s (1930) $49,679,987.00
  61. Loose Ankles (1930) $49,128,017.00
  62. Spring Is Here (1930) $48,990,013.00
  63. The Flirting Widow (1930) $48,023,990.00
  64. The Widow From Chicago (1930) $44,988,003.00
  65. The Way Of All Men (1930) $41,814,014.00
  66. Murder Will Out (1930) $41,123,997.00
  67. The Gorilla (1930) $40,985,993.00
  68. Isle of Escape (1930) $38,916,031.00
  69. The Truth About Youth (1930) $38,777,983.00
  70. College Lovers (1930) $35,328,031.00
  71. Sinner’s Holiday (1930) $34,914,021.00
  72. The Matrimonial Bed (1930) $33,809,993.00
  73. Dumbbells in Ermine (1930) $33,672,034.00
  74. Strictly Unconventional (1930) $32,844,014.00
  75. Outward Bound (1930) $32,843,969.00
  76. The Furies (1930) $32,429,958.00
  77. Divorce Among Friends (1930) $29,118,011.00
  78. A Soldier’s Plaything (1930) $28,565,996.00
  79. Runaway Bride (1930) $28,152,031.00
  80. He Knew Women (1930) $26,634,038.00
  81. Back Pay (1930) $26,634,038.00
  82. Captain Thunder (1930) $26,219,983.00
  83. On The Border (1930) $25,668,014.00
  84. The Man Hunter (1930) $19,595,997.00
  85. Rough Waters (1930) $17,801,997.00

My Main Sources

Source 1: Eddie Mannix MGM Ledgers

Source 2: C.J. Tevlin RKO Ledgers

Source 3: William Schaefer Warner Brothers Ledgers

Source 4: Year In Review Variety Editions

Source 5: Grand Design: Hollywood As A Modern Business Enterprise 1930-1942 by Tino Balio

Source 6: Twentieth Century-Fox A Corporate and Financial History by Aubrey Solomon

Source 7:  Wikipedia

Source 8:  IMDb.com

Source 9:  “Revenue sharing and the coming of sound” by H. Mark Glancy

Source 10: Hollywood Power Stats by Christopher Reynolds

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36 thoughts on “1930 Top Grossing Movies”

  1. How do you get information on movies like “So This is London” ? The box office figures come from Fox? How to you use the Harrison reports to arrive at box office figures? Can you please elaborate where your $954,000 came from? If from fox, this is great. I just don’t see it in the journals unless mine is incomplete.

    Reply

    1. Hey Chris…..So This Is London came from a Will Rogers book……my least favorite source to list a movie’s box office gross. There are a couple excellent Fox books out there….but according to my Fox notebook So This Is London had no “numbers” listed in those books. Sadly….in my “comment box” in the database….I have a one word reference…..”book”….so I can not tell you the book it came from. Sorry this is not more helpful.

      Reply

  2. I’m just curious where the figures for Check and Double Check came from? I’ve seen $1,810,000 before, but you have that as worldwide and $1,751,000 as domestic. I find only $59,000 as foreign as unusual as the Amos Brothers were popular in England also.

    Reply

    1. Hey Chris….the numbers are from the RKO ledgers. The movie cost $967,000 to make. Earned back in rentals….domestic – $1,751,000 international – $59,000. Earned $260,000 in profit or 27% in the profit margin column.

      Reply

  4. HI BIG BOY!
    1 As I understand it 1930 was the year in which silent movies largely disappeared from US screens. However in 1952 Ray Milland made the gimmicky The Thief in which there was no dialogue. The 1955 French classic Rififi is famous for the 32 minute heist sequence carried out in complete silence for dramatic effect [burglars try not to make a noise!] and of course many early silent films didn’t even last half an hour. Also we had the award winning 2011 The Artist about Hollywood shot in the style of a black and white silent movie to capture the atmosphere of the times.

    2 Apparently when sound was on the way in some top studio mogul proclaimed that it was a gimmick that wouldn’t last! Certainly this page comprehensively reflects the statistical aspect of the beginnings of one of the most far-reaching permanent turning points in the history of entertainment of any kind and is a credit to you.

    3 Interesting little miniature of the Duke. He’s almost like a teenager in it. Certain movie historians have claimed that The Big Trail was a flop but your figure of almost $105 million adjusted is respectable enough and it was great that you could get so many worldwide grosses from the dawn of the talkies. In fact it is amazing!

    Reply

    1. I agree. The Big Trail didn’t make “what the studios had expected”, therefore they call it a flop. By studio standards, Cleopatra 1963 was a flop and yet the biggest movie of the year.

      Reply

      1. CHRIS

        1 I’m probably the only one who will respond to your post as I’m still waiting a reply to my own close-by one here of 12 April that raised the issue of The Big Trail.

        2 The figure that Bruce quotes for it is respectable enough having crashed his legendary $100 million barrier but I suppose it all comes down to what the film cost and the size of the studio’s rental take.

        3 Anyway it usually gets a mention in any serious history of westerns because of course it was one of the harbingers of what was to become one of the greatest careers in the western genre and indeed overall.

        Reply

  5. Hello Bruce.
    I\’ve Only seen nine of these films. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT being the best of the films I\’ve seen from 1930. I\’ve been watching quite a few Carole Lombard films lately and I never realized how good she was and now I\’m a fan. I\’m glad your our there Bruce. Until I discovered your webpage film box office figures from older films were hard to come by. Thanks again, Bruce. I love your webpage.

    Reply

    1. Hey Lyle
      1. Glad you enjoyed this 1930 page….not thinking I am going much further back than this year….maybe 1929…but we do not have much for the rest of the 1920s.
      2. Nine tops me….as I am at 7……and my total of movies that I am familiar with is not much higher than my 7.
      3. Carole Lombard was amazing….and the 1930s were awesome for her.
      4. Many of the box office numbers for Lombard come from the Harrison Reports and some Lombard books…not my favorite sources.
      5. Thanks for the kind words about the website…they are greatly appreciated.

      Reply

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