1951 Movies

Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire and Humphrey Bogart in African Queen

This movie page looks at 1951 Top Box Office Movies.  Finding box office information for movies made in the 1940s and 1950s is extremely difficult.   For somebody looking for box office information on 1951 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 1951 movies in our database.

To make this list a movie had to be made in 1951.  Obviously many movies made in 1950 earned box office dollars in 1951.  On the other side many movies made in 1951 made money in 1952 and later.  This page will looks at 199 1951 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 1951 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.

Our UMR Top 50 of 1951

1951 Top Box Office Movies Can Be Ranked 7 Ways In This Table

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

  • Sort 1951 Top Box Office Movies by the stars or in some cases the director of the movie.
  • Sort 1951 Top Box Office Movies by domestic actual box office grosses (in millions)
  • Sort 1951 Top Box Office Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions).
  • Sort 1951 Top Box Office Movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort 1951 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 1951 Top Box Office Movies received.
  • Sort 1951 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.
Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift & Shelley Winters in 1951’s A Place in the Sun

1951 Box Office Grosses – Adjusted World Wide

Top earners in 1951 for Adjusted USA Box Office:

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

Worldwide Adjusted Box Office Grosses (in millions)

  1. Quo Vadis (1951) $1,039,828,818.00
  2. The Great Caruso (1951) $469,126,591.00
  3. Show Boat (1951) $376,695,148.00
  4. An American in Paris (1951) $367,935,224.00
  5. A Place in the Sun (1951) $341,057,148.00
  6. Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951) $263,602,574.00
  7. Painting The Clouds With Sunshine (1951) $236,416,852.00
  8. Father’s Little Dividend (1951) $232,314,278.00
  9. Across the Wide Missouri (1951) $227,420,852.00
  10. Westward the Women (1951) $197,516,574.00
  11. Flying Leathernecks (1951) $195,242,852.00
  12. Royal Wedding (1951) $192,870,278.00
  13. Operation Pacific (1951) $190,942,574.00
  14. Texas Carnival (1951) $188,817,148.00
  15. On Moonlight Bay (1951) $184,368,574.00
  16. The Thing from Another World (1951) $168,057,148.00
  17. Go For Broke! (1951) $164,943,148.00
  18. Distant Drums (1951) $161,680,852.00
  19. I’ll See You in My Dreams (1951) $157,973,722.00
  20. Vengenance Valley (1951) $155,502,278.00
  21. Lullaby of Broadway (1951) $152,487,148.00
  22. Rich Young and Pretty (1951) $148,236,278.00
  23. Strangers on a Train (1951) $145,122,278.00
  24. Jim Thorpe–All American (1951) $142,749,722.00
  25. The Enforcer (1951) $142,008,278.00
  26. Come Fill the Cup (1951) $125,993,426.00
  27. Fort Worth (1951) $115,761,722.00
  28. Payment on Demand (1951) $114,921,426.00
  29. Too Young To Kiss (1951) $114,081,148.00
  30. Starlift (1951) $113,784,574.00
  31. Excuse My Dust (1951) $113,586,852.00
  32. Soldiers Three (1951) $110,571,722.00
  33. Three Guys Named Mike (1951) $110,225,722.00
  34. Force of Arms (1951) $97,621,443.00
  35. Along the Great Divide (1951) $96,880,000.00
  36. The Tanks Are Coming (1951) $92,332,574.00
  37. I Was a Communist for the F.B.I. (1951) $86,944,852.00
  38. Teresa (1951) $86,351,722.00
  39. The People Against O’Hara (1951) $83,781,426.00
  40. Tarzan’s Peril (1951) $82,792,852.00
  41. Angels in the Outfield (1951) $82,348,000.00
  42. Best of the Badmen (1951) $81,557,148.00
  43. Grounds For Marriage (1951) $78,443,148.00
  44. My Forbidden Past (1951) $77,850,000.00
  45. Goodbye My Fancy (1951) $75,526,852.00
  46. The Law And The Lady (1951) $67,222,852.00
  47. Callaway Went Thataway (1951) $66,135,426.00
  48. The Light Touch (1951) $63,318,000.00
  49. Sealed Cargo (1951) $59,314,278.00
  50. Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) $57,584,278.00
  51. Lightning Strikes Twice (1951) $56,546,278.00
  52. Cry Danger (1951) $54,371,426.00
  53. The Painted Hills (1951) $53,630,000.00
  54. Red Badge of Courage (1951) $53,382,852.00
  55. The Strip (1951) $48,538,852.00
  56. Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951) $45,919,148.00
  57. Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951) $43,942,000.00
  58. Strictly Dishonorable (1951) $43,546,574.00
  59. Night Into Morning (1951) $40,482,000.00
  60. Inside Straight (1951) $38,010,574.00
  61. Cause for Alarm! (1951) $37,961,148.00
  62. The Man with the Cloak (1951) $37,714,000.00
  63. Mr. Imperium (1951) $37,318,574.00
  64. The Unknown Man (1951) $35,143,722.00
  65. No Questions Asked (1951) $32,425,148.00
  66. It’s a Big Country (1951) $32,375,722.00
  67. The Tall Target (1951) $30,645,722.00
  68. Kind Lady (1951) $24,714,278.00
  69. Bannerline (1951) $22,588,852.00
  70. Home Town Story (1951) $16,509,148.00
  71. Footlight Varieties (1951) $10,874,278.00
  72. Saddle Legion (1951) $7,167,148.00

My Yearly Review Pages

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34 thoughts on “1951 Movies”

  1. Hi

    I’ve seen quite a lot of the top 20 movies. As I mentioned before I love Streetcar. Of course The African Queen. And I recently seen for the first time, Detective Story. As for American in Paris, it didn’t do a lot for me. I much preferred Showboat.
    Quo Vadis is shown regularly on television. Personally I find it so-so. It’s not up with the likes of Ben Hur or Spartacus. But it has some good moments.
    Disney’s offering of Alice in Wonderland wasn’t highly praised at the time. But I always found it highly entertaining. By ’51 you could see a big change in the whole star system. Doris Day’s career was really starting to take off while some of the more older star’s careers were fading out and television was starting to take hold in America.
    One particular British film worth looking for is Man in the White Suit.

    Reply

  2. Hello WOC,
    Thank a lot for theses informations, i am impress by the BO of Quo Vadis, i saw the picture several Time and i think Peter Ustinov Was simply great.
    May i ask you a question, do you get the BO of No high way in the sky?
    The film Was not Paramount, but maybe it Was with a minor studio?
    Anyway Thanks for the job and have a good night
    Pierre

    Reply

  3. Hi Bruce,

    1951 is not my favorite year, but of the 28 movies I saw there is one of my cult films: African Queen. I also liked Fixed Baionets, Captain Horatio, Across the Wide Missouri and, of course, Howard Hawks’s Thing.

    A big thank you to WoC for the worldwide grosses.

    Still an awesome job from you Bruce. Congratulations.

    Reply

    1. Hey Laurent…..your 28 has me beat by 10 movies….so congrats there. I am actually surprised my total is so low….as my grandmother loved The African Queen and my dad loved The Thing…..so it always seemed I was well versed in 1951’s movies….turns out that was almost the only two 1951 movies that I have seen. WoC not only fixed the worldwide box office issue I was having….but also made it even easier for me in the future….she is awesome!

      Reply

  4. Impressive, one more movie and you could have made it a Top 200!

    Worldwide figures on 72 movies is not to be sneezed at either, good stuff!

    As a sci-fi fan 1951 is one of my favorite years – The Day the Earth Stood Still, When Worlds Collide and The Thing!

    Other favorites include – An American in Paris, Quo Vadis, Strangers on a Train, Show Boat, Alice in Wonderland, The African Queen and Captain Horatio Hornblower.

    I’ve seen 35 of the 199 films listed, probably more but those are ones I know for sure.

    Top rated films I haven’t seen include – A Place in the Sun (which is surprisingly low on the chart), The Prowler and On Dangerous Ground.

    There are 60 films from 1951 in my movie collection, a few of them such as – Scrooge, Flight to Mars, The Man from Planet X and The Strange Door – not on this chart.

    Quo Vadis was a monster hit at the box office, domestic and worldwide, but no film would surpass Gone With the Wind until little old Sound of Music in 1965.

    Another epic page Bruce, roll on 1952. Vote Up!

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve
      1. I actually thought it was a nice even 200…..but when I transferred the information from the database to the website….I realized I had a duplicate movie….so disappointing…lol.
      2. The ledgers of RKO, Warner Brothers and MGM helped us reach that 72 worldwide grosses.
      3. I know you do not think I am a huge science fiction fan…but of the 18 1951 movies that I have seen….I have seen all three of your science fiction movies. The Thing is one of my favorites as well….plus one of the movies my dad loved to mention all the time.
      4. Tally counts….Dan 150, Flora 61, you 35, Laurent 28 and me….18…..such a horrible total for me.
      5. I figured you would be happy to see Strangers on a Train in first place when sorting by audience and critic reviews. I would say Strangers on a Train, African Queen and The Thing are my Top 3 movies from 1951.
      6. As massive as 199 movies is…..it is only about 40% of the movies made that year….so some of the movies in your collection are not listed….but Scrooge is…..it is just under the American title….A Christmas Carol.
      7. Quo Vadis was massive….for a very long time it was listed as an all-time Top 20 hit…..Box Office Mojo does not seem to know the movie even existed.
      As always….great feedback.

      Reply

      1. Hey that’s great that you found all of the information from the ledgers! I know those ledgers contain international box office information, so how come that’s not shown here?

        Reply

        1. Oh nvm. I missed the global list below the table. I guess it’d just be cool if that was part of the table.

          Also in that case, my question is still directed to the other year pages.

          Reply

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