About

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UltimateMovieRankings (UMR) has been ranking movies since 2011.  Movies are ranked by using a combination of box office grosses, reviews, and awards.  So far we have ranked 36,000 movies, written over 8,500 pages, been viewed over 25 million times, won three website awards, and have received over 50,000 comments on our pages.

Our vital links: Site Index, Newest Pages & Request Hotline.  The Trending Now Sidebar lists our most popular pages in the last 24 hours.

Our Site Index lets you see what movie subjects we have already written about.  The index lists the movie subjects alphabetically.  Subjects go from classic performers like Clark Gable and Charlie Chaplin to the stars of the 1960s like Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman to today’s most popular stars like Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum and Chris Pratt.

We like ranking movies…and that is what this website is all about.  And we are not talking about a Top Ten list…we are talking about ranking all the movies in somebody’s career from Best to Worst.   The criteria used for the rankings is box office grosses, critic reviews, audience voting, and award recognition.  Every day the amount of movies ranked by Ultimate Movie Rankings increases ….our tally is now over 25,000 movies.  The number one ranked movie is The Godfather ….coming in last is Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas.  Thankfully our pages have been well received.  Recently we crossed the 15 million view mark and are now read in over 230 different countries.

How we got here.

Sometime in 2010, for the millionth time I was looking at Joel Hirschhorn’s book Rating The Movie Stars (1983) when I wondered had he updated his ratings lately? A quick internet check provided the sad news that Mr. Hirchhorn had passed away in 2005.  About a month later, I thought I could update the ratings.  I then came up with an idea to create a mathematical equation that would create a numerical score for each movie. The first thing I had to come up with were factors for the equation.

The book that got me thinking.
The book that got me thinking.

So I thought….if I were producing a movie, what would I like to see my movie accomplish. The first thing I would want would be for the movie to be successful at the box office. Secondly, I would like the critics and moviegoers to enjoy my movie. And finally, I would like my movie to receive award recognition through Golden Globe® and Oscar® ceremonies.

There are all kinds of ways to determine if you want to see or skip a movie. You can depend on your favorite critic.  My favorites are the late great Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin. You might go to Rotten Tomatoes to get the consensus of all the critics. You might watch the viewer ratings at Yahoo Movies and IMDB. You might depend on which movies are doing the best at the box office. You might wait for the end of the year awards.

Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score takes all of these options and creates a mathematical equation that generates a score from 1 to 100. The higher the score the better the movie.  A “good ” movie score = 60 or above.  So anything above 60 should be a good movie to check out.  This gives a good comparison number between centuries and now my wife and I can argue over the merits of her favorite, The Sound of Music and one of my favorites, Pulp Fiction using the same scoring criteria.

So far, I’ve generated scores for 36,000+ movies.  With these scores, I’ve written 1,000+ web pages with a focus on actors/actresses and similar groups (Star Trek vs Star Wars, Top 100 Sports Movies are examples).

So let’s look at the breakdown of the variables in the equation.

1. Box office results.  Receives the second-highest percentage (30%) of the equation. The ceiling was 200 million in adjusted for inflation dollars. Any movie that crossed 200 million maxed out the points in the category.

2. Critics and audience reception.  Receives the highest percentage (46%) of the equation. So where do I find critics/audience reception? I use many different sources: RottenTomatoes, IMDb, MetaCritic, Yahoo Movies, Roger Ebert, Leonard Maltin, and Fandango. Put them all together and I get an average with 100% being the highest score possible.  Sadly with the passing of my all-time favorite critic, Roger Ebert, I needed a new source….after much research…..our latest movie critic and taking Mr. Ebert’s spot is YouTube movie reviewer Chris Stuckmann.

3. Award Recognition. The final part of the equation is worth 24%. A movie gets points for Golden Globe® and Oscar® nominations and wins. The Golden Globes get 5% while the Oscars® get 13% of the equation. The last 6% goes to the amount of Oscar® nominations and the amount of Oscar® wins.

One way to see how the scores are calculated: 

Top 200 Box Office Hits with Inflation + Top 100 Best Reviewed Movies + 88 Best Picture Oscar Winners = Top 100 UMR Score Movies

In January of 2011, we published our first Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score table on HubPages.com…we picked one of our favorite actors, Bruce Willis, to be the guinea pig.  We have updated his page countless times over the years.

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629 thoughts on “About

  1. Working on a page on Movies about Movies. Which movies pop in your brain when you think about movies about movies? Bowfinger? The Player? Bad & Beautiful? The Stunt Man? Chaplin? Singin’ In The Rain? Hooper? Boogie Nights? Ed Wood? The Artist? Tropic Thunder? 8 1/2?

    So far I have 36 movies. Any feedback would be appreciated.

    1. I was going to mention Once Upon a Time in Hollywood but Taylor beat me to it.

      I still haven’t seen it but I roughly know the story.

      Interesting subject. Let me think…

      Day for Night by Francois Truffaut is highly rated.

    2. The first two versions of A Star is Born have not yet been mentioned on this About page, although you probably have them in your list: Frederic March and Janet Gaynor and then Judy Garland and James Mason.

    1. Hey Dan….that is “Anonymous”…so anybody that does not use a name goes into that grouping…I have yet to figure out how to fix that issue and get rid of it. I see you are getting really close to joining the 1000 comment club. Very impressive.

        1. Hey Kelly A. The Great Riviera Bank Robbery (1979) was never released in North America so it was not included on our 1979 yearly review. We do have the Sean Connery/Donald Sutherland movie called The Great Train Robbery (1978) and Steve McQueen’s The St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959). Your movie also goes by Dirty Money and Sewers of Gold. As for movies after 1979….we have every year from 1980 to 2019…..here is our yearly link. https://www.ultimatemovierankings.com/yearly-reviews-1936-1959/

    1. Hey In The Shadows….that is awesome. Good fine….we are more than happy to be in 2nd place….shocked we are ahead of Box Office Mojo. 6 Down Votes…what’s up with that? Once again, thanks for sharing this information.

  2. Let’s try here. 2003 is the first year all films seen in cinemas are listed. I only saw 84 2003 films in cinemas.

    2 FAST 2 FURIOUS
    AGENT CODY BANKS
    ALEX AND EMMA
    AMERICAN WEDDING
    ANGER MANAGEMENT
    BAD BOYS II
    BAD SANTA
    BASIC
    BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (U.K.)
    BETTER OFF TOMORROW
    BROTHER BEAR
    BRUCE ALMIGHTY
    BULLETPROOF MONK
    CABIN FEVER
    CALENDAR GIRLS
    CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE
    CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN
    CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE
    DADDY DAY CARE
    DAREDEVIL
    DICKIE ROBERTS, FORMER CHILD STAR
    DOWN WITH LOVE
    DR. SEUSS ‘THE CAT IN THE HAT’
    DREAMCATCHER
    ELF
    FIGHTING TEMPTATIONS
    FINDING NEMO
    FREAKY FRIDAY
    GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING
    HAUNTED MANSION
    HOLES
    HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE
    HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS
    HULK
    IN-LAWS
    INTOLERABLE CRUELTY
    ITALIAN JOB
    JEEPERS CREEPERS 2
    JUST MARRIED
    KANGAROO JACK
    KILL BILL VOLUME 1
    LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE
    LAST SAMURAI
    LE DIVORCE
    LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN
    LEGALLY BLONDE 2:RED, WHITE AND BLONDE
    LIZZIE MCGUIRE MOVIE
    LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION
    LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING
    LOVE ACTUALLY (U.K.)
    MALIBU’S MOST WANTED
    MARCI X
    MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
    MATCHSTICK MEN
    MATRIX RELOADED
    MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS
    MONA LISA SMILE
    MONSTER
    MYSTIC RIVER
    OLD SCHOOL
    ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO
    OUT OF TIME
    PAYCHECK
    PETER PAN
    PHONE BOOTH
    PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL
    RADIO
    SCARY MOVIE 3
    SCHOOL OF ROCK
    SEABISCUIT
    SHANGHAI KNIGHTS
    SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE
    STUCK ON YOU
    TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES
    THE CORE
    THE HUNTED
    THE MISSING
    THE RUNDOWN
    TIMELINE
    UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN
    UNDERWORLD
    UPTOWN GIRLS
    VIEW FROM THE TOP
    X2: X-MEN UNITED

    The Last Samurai was my best film of the year,

    The following 56 2003 films were seen on DVD within a year of their release.

    28 DAYS LATER (U.K.)
    AMERICAN SPLENDOR
    BEYOND BORDERS
    BIG FISH
    BLUE COLLAR COMEDY TOUR
    BOAT TRIP
    BOOK OF MORMAN:VOLUME 1: THE JOURNEY
    BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE
    CHASING PAPI
    COLD CREEK MANOR
    COLD MOUNTAIN
    CONFIDENCE
    DARK BLUE
    DARKNESS FALLS
    DELIVER US FROM EVA
    DUPLEX
    FINAL DESTINATION 2
    FREDDY VS. JASON
    FROM JUSTIN TO KELLY
    GIGLI
    GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS
    GODS AND GENERALS
    GOOD BOY
    GOTHIKA
    GUY THING
    HEAD OF STATE
    HONEY
    HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES
    HOUSE OF THE DEAD
    I SPY
    IDENTITY
    IN AMERICA
    IN THE CUT
    LIFE OF DAVID GALE
    LOST IN TRANSLATION
    MAGDALENE SISTERS
    MAN APART
    MY BOSS’S DAUGHTER
    NATIONAL SECURITY
    OPEN RANGE
    PIGLET’S BIG MOVIE
    REAL CANCUN
    RUNAWAY JURY
    S.W.A.T.
    SECONDHAND LIONS
    SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS
    SPY KIDS 3-D: GAME OVER
    TEARS OF THE SUN
    TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
    THE MEDALLION
    THE ORDER
    THE RECRUIT
    WHALE RIDER
    WHAT A GIRL WANTS
    WILLARD
    WRONG TURN

    The following 99 2003 films I have seen since 2005 on DVD or on TV.

    ACULA II: ASCENSION
    ALL THE REAL GIRLS
    ANARCHIST COOKBOOK
    AND NOW LADIES AND GENTLEMEN (FR. – U.K.)
    ANYONE ELSE
    BACK TO BALLIN’
    BATTLE OF SHAKER HEIGHTS
    BEETHOVEN’S 5TH
    BEFORE I DIE
    BELLY OF THE BEAST (CAN – H.K. – U.K.)
    BIG EMPTY
    BIKER BOYZ
    BLACK LISTED
    BLIZZARD
    BLOODMONKEY (THAI.)
    BOOKIES
    BUBBA HO-TEP
    CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS (DOC.)
    CENTURY OF BLACK CINEMA (DOC.)
    CODE 46
    COMPANY, THE
    CONSCIENCE
    COOLER, THE
    COWARDS BEND THE KNEE
    CUBE 2: HYPERCUBE (CAN.)
    DALLAS 362
    DEAD END
    DESCENDENT
    DETENTION
    DOGVILLE
    DUMB AND DUMBERER: WHEN HARRY MET LLOYD
    DUST (U.K.-GER-IT-MASEDONIA)
    FAT PIZZA (AUSTRALIAN)
    FOOLPROOF
    FROM JUSTIN TO KELLY
    GACY
    GALINDEZ FILE (SP-U.K. – IT. – PORT. – CUBA – FR.)
    GAME OF THEIR LOVES (DOC.)
    GRAND THEFT PARSONS
    GRIND
    HARD WORD (AUSTRALIAN)
    HOPE SPRINGS
    HOW TO DEAL
    HUMAN STAIN
    I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD
    IN AMERICA (U.K. – IR.)
    INTERMISSION (IRISH)
    IT’S ALL ABOUT LOVE
    JERICHO MANSIONS
    KAENA: THE PROPHECY
    KART RACER
    KILLER DRAG QUEENS ON DOPE
    LIL TREASURE HUNTERS
    LOST JUNCTION
    LOVE LISA
    MAGDALENE SISTERS
    MANFEST
    MATCHUPS
    MAXIMUM VELOCITY
    MAYHEM HOTEL
    MILE…MILE & A HALF (DOC.)
    MIMIC 3
    MOTHER, THE
    MY LIFE WITHOUT ME (SP-CAN.)
    NED KELLY (AUSTRALIAN)
    NORTHFORK
    ONG BAK (THAI.)
    OWNING MAHONEY
    PARTY MONSTER
    PIECES OF APRIL
    PRISON A GO-GO
    RED SERPENT (RUS-GER)
    RESISTANCE
    RIDE OR DIE
    S CLUB SEEING DOUBLE (U.K.)
    SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD
    SCORCHED
    SHATTERED GLASS
    SINGING DETECTIVE
    SKEPTIC, THE
    SLEEPING DICTIONARY
    SNOWWALKERS
    SPIDERBABE
    SPIN
    STATEMENT, THE
    STATION AGENT
    SWIMMING POOL
    SYLVIA
    TEMPO (CAN-FRE-LUX-U.K.)
    THIRD WHEEL
    THIRTEEN
    THIS THING OF OURS
    TILL HUMAN VOICES WAKE US (AUSTRALIA)
    TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (FR.)
    TUBE (N.KOR)
    ULTIMATE GRETZKY
    VERONICA GUERIN
    WATERMELON HEIST
    WHEN ZACHARY BEAVER CAME TO TOWN

    1. Hey Dan….not sure what happened to that comment. I checked the Spam folder…and it was not there….and it is not in the Pending folder either. Maybe it will show up….but I think that it might be lost forever. Sorry once again.

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