1946 Top Box Office Movies

1946 22222
James Stewart in It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

This page looks at the 1946 Top Box Office Movies. World War II ended in 1945 and as the soldiers returned home…they did two things….one they made lots of babies and two they went to lots of movies. 1946 was the peak of people going to movies. In 1946 an average of 90 million admissions were sold on a weekly basis. That 90 million represented almost 60% of the population of the United States. As a comparison, we can look at our current movie going habits…weekly admissions are now roughly 27 million and represent 10% of the population.

This page will look at the biggest box office hits during the biggest box office year ever.I thought when I came up with this idea of doing the biggest box office hits of 1946 that it would be an easy movie page to write. I already had the January 8th 1947 Variety magazine that listed the Top 60 hits of the year so I figured I could knock out the movie page in a few hours….boy was I wrong. The first thing I noticed was that many of top box office hits of 1946 were actually made in 1945.

The second thing I noticed was many of the top box office hits of 1947 were really made in 1946. The third thing I noticed was many of the Oscar® nominated and Oscar® winning films did not make the Variety Top Box Office charts. The final thing I noticed was an issue with foreign films…it sometimes took years after a foreign movie was made for it to make it to North America….the best example of this is Henry V…it was made in 1944 yet it took 2 years to reach North America.

Here is how I came up with the 113 movies on the Ultimate Movie Rankings list…..any box office hit on the Variety lists made in 1946 or was released for the first time in 1946 in North America made the list , and any movie that got an Oscar® nomination or Oscar® win for the 1946 year made the list.

Harold Russell in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Harold Russell in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Our UMR Top 50 of 1946

1946 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 by the stars of the 1946 Top Box Office Movies.
  • Sort 1946 Top Box Office Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort 1946 Top Box Office Movies by domestic yearly box office rank
  • Sort 1946 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 1946 Top Box Office Movies received.
  • Sort 1946 Top Box Office Movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

Possibly Interesting Facts About 1946 Top Box Office Movies

1. The five films that received Oscar® nominations for Best Picture were: The Best Years of Our Lives, Henry V, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Razor’s Edge and The Yearling….the winner was The Best Years of Our Lives.

2. Disabled veteran Harold Russell actually won two Oscars® for his performance in The Best Years of Our Lives….one for Best Supporting Actor and a Special Award for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans.

3. Other Oscar® acting winners in 1946 were Frederic March as Best Actor for Best Years of Our Lives, Olivia de Havilland as Best Actress for To Each His Own, and Anne Baxter as Best Supporting Actress for The Razor’s Edge.

4. The biggest Oscar® snubs in 1946? I vote three movies/performances…..#1 Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious should have either gotten a Best Picture nomination or a Best Director nomination. 2.Henry Fonda in My Darling Clementine gave one of his greatest screen performances in that movie…… and finally 3. Myrna Loy in The Best Years of Our Lives. During Loy’s long and successful career she never got an Oscar® nomination…this would have been the perfect movie to right that wrong.

5. According to Variety the Top Box Office Movie Stars of 1946 were: #1 Bing Crosby, #2 Ingrid Bergman. #3 Fred Astaire, #4 Dorothy Lamour and #5 Gregory Peck.

6. Actors/actresses that made their screen debuts in 1946: Burt Lancaster (The Killers #28), Kirk Douglas (The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers #22), Alec Guinness (Great Expectations #36), Dean Martin and Natalie Wood.

7. Two famous entertainers who passed away in 1946….W.C. Fields and H.G. Wells.

8. Currently a successful box office mark to cross is 100 million... in 2011 thirty movies crossed $100 million, in 2012 thirty-one movies crossed that mark, in 2013 thirty-five got there and in 2014 thirty-three did it. In 1946…when looking at adjusted box office numbers…..an incredible 65 movies would have crossed $100 million.

1946 Box Office Grosses – Adjusted World Wide

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94 thoughts on “1946 Top Box Office Movies”

  1. Excellent work Cogerson. Though 1946 isn’t one of my favourite Hollywood years 1939 to 1942 were much better IMO.

    Let’s see I’ve seen 21 of the 71 films in your main list, Flora has me beat there.

    I’ve seen 4 of the top 10 box office hits, wow was Bells of St. Mary’s so popular, never seen it.

    And I’ve seen 7 from the top 10 critics list.

    My faves of 1946? In no particular order – Notorious, Its a Wonderful Life, My Darling Clementine, Song of the South, Duel in the Sun, The Big Sleep and Great Expectations.

    Looking forward to more Best of the Year Pages!

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve….I would love to do a movie page on the year 1939….but the box office information on such a great year is very limited. I think I can do a pretty good list for 1942…so maybe I will do that one soon. Looking at your favorites…I have seen 6 of those movies as well…not bad especially when you realize that I have only seen a total of 9 of the movies. Thanks for the votes…and I hope you enjoy your silver medal from this movie page….but the Canadian anthem is being played. Thanks for the comments they are greatly appreciated.

      Reply

  2. I like your reason for creating a page for movies of 1946! Lots of babies and lots of movies. I’m also glad you added that tidbit because I was wondering “Why 1946?” because I always scroll your movie pages before I read due to my ADHD. None of these movies ring a bell for me except for The Postman Always Rings Twice, I’ve seen the original and the remake with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange and I prefer the remake. HOT! Voted UP and OLD! :))

    Reply

    1. Hey Sunshine625…I am glad you like the part about making babies and making movies. To answer your question why 1946? Well I was thinking that my Top Films of 2011 hub is running out of time, and I wondered how I would finalize that hub when all the 2011 numbers get logged in…so this led me to doing a year that was already done….so I asked Flora to pick a movie year from 1942 to 1959…and she picked 1946….which turned out to be the most popular movie year ever. I am glad you checked my 1946 page, and do not worry…I was not very familiar with many of these movies myself.

      Reply

  3. Okay, I love mysteries so I love all the suspense films you list that I have already seen. My favourites include, in movie score order:

    Notorious

    Gilda

    The Postman Always Rings Twice

    The strange love Of Martha Ivers

    The Killers

    The Big Sleep

    The Blue Dahlia

    Top of my to see list: The spiral staircase

    I love everything Gregory Peck is in, even Duel in the Sun whose performances are better than the story. The Yearling is beautiful, but I can’t watch it again. Peck was making both films at the same time.

    Musicals:

    My favourites in movie score order are:

    The Harvey Girls

    Road to Utopia

    Blue skies

    Easy to Wed

    I love the music of Till The Cloud Roll By, but they way they shot as a biography of Kern didn’t quite work. I often just fast forward through the songs on my DVD.

    And Night and Day had to be santized for the day and ended at a point in the story that made it look like a happy ending. Porter’s life ended in depression and alone-through his own choice.

    I love everything with Bette Davis. I enjoy most of the dramas.

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora…when researching these movies I noticed lots of movies that seemed to be your favorite type of movie…so I am not surprised you have seen so many of the movies. As for Peck this time frame is when every movie he appeared in was a blockbuster and a serious Oscar contender…not a bad combination. Just looking at his 3 movies on the Top 10 box office….they would earn over a billion in 2011 dollars.

      As for Night and Day….Cary Grant did not like the movie and Noel Coward said about the movie about his life….It has to be good because none of the stuff in the movie ever happened to me. I know Spiral Staircase is high on your list….but I would also recommend My Darling Clementine(yes it is a western) but it is a great western. Thanks as always for your awesome comments.

      Reply

  4. Ah, yes I thought 1946 would be a good choice considering society at the time.

    How to post a comment on this hub. I think I will talk about what I’ve seen first and talk about favourites in a separate hub. I love your explanation of of how you determined whether a film was a 1946 film.

    I have to laugh at your child’s comment. I know it wasn’t your oldest, but I would have to have been a teen parent and right away like 13 to have a child the same age as your oldest. It was a sad day when I became old enough to have a child in double digit years without having been a teen parent. I think I have seen two or three of M.M’s films so I will check out that hub too.

    Top ten box office: I have seen 8 of these. I have NOT seen The Green Years or Two Years Before The Mast.

    Top 10 critics: I have seen 8 of these. I have not yet seen Children of Paradise or My darling Clementine.

    Top 10 Movie Score: I have 8 of these. I have not seen The Razor’s Edge or The Al Jolson Story.

    Of the Oscar nominations:

    I have seen 3 of the best picture nominations. The other one I haven’t seen is Henry V.

    Harold Russell was Canadian. He died a few years ago.

    Overall:

    I have seen 17 of the top 25-68%

    I have seen 27 of the top 40-68%. Same percentage.

    Then my views drop off and I’ve seen 32 overall or 45% of the films.

    This apparently OLD 35 year old who is actually younger than Matthew M. signing off. I’ll check out the other page now then come back to talk favourites.

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora…I could not believe how difficult this hub was to complete…especially when it was supposed to be an easy one to do….but I did come to a conclusion why so many different sources of box office information always have different results for the same years…it just depends on which rules you decide to follow.

      As for my teenagers….when I write a hub that I think they might find interesting…I will ask them to link my hub to their facebook account…my 2nd oldest son has 1500 friends…sometimes I ask about one of my classic hubs and they look at me like I am completely out of my mind….lol, but somebody like M.M. they seem to like sharing with their friends.

      Well after a nice little run….I am back in last place as I have only seen 9 of these movies…I am 12 behind Steve and 23 behind you..not even close.

      As for the two in the Top Box Office hits that you have not seen….I had never even heard of The Green Years or Two Years Before The Mast before doing this hub. And finally Harold Russell almost lived to be 90…that is a great story and a very inspirational story. Thanks for part one of your comment.

      Reply

  5. I think weekly no.1 is better than yealy .
    Can you provide the weekly box office hit No.1
    from 1930-1960 from variety magazine

    Reply

    1. Hey 5646….I only have the yearly ones…..their weekly ones do not give any grand total for the week…..they say things like the movie did 32 K in Pittsburgh….and it only lists a few cities…the yearly issue combines the entire year…which is more helpful.

      Reply

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