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.
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.
Watching an episode of Hotel and Patty McCormack is a guest. Looking her up on the IMDB one is entrusted with this nugget.
As of 2020 she (Patty McCormack) is the eight earliest surviving recipient of a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, behind only Angela Lansbury, Ann Blyth, Nancy Olson, Lee Grant, Terry Moore, Eva Marie Saint and Marisa Pavan. She was nominated in 1956 for The Bad Seed (1956).
I watched the movie The Divorce of Lady X during the week from 1938 starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon and I found someone who had an interesting career. Below are 75 Oscar winners that this person, a woman has worked with.
She has had nothing to do with films since 1950, yet she still worked with 75 Oscar winners.
She is not an actress or extra..
She is credited on 373 films.
She is always billed in the beginning of the picture credits.
She is not a director, producer, screenwriter, cameraman or composer, art director or costume designer.
Her husband owned a very important company used by the film companies.
She worked for every studio in the same years (she’s not under contract to any one studio)
She worked on a number of British films too (she’s American).
Besides the films below she also worked on The Wizard of Oz and numerous Betty Grable pictures.
The question is what does she do. A clue is all the films listed have something in common.
ANNE BAXTER Crash Dive (1943)
ANNE BAXTER Mother Wore Tights (1947)
ANNE BAXTER Smoky (1946)
ANNE BAXTER You’re My Everything (1949)
ANTHONY QUINN Blood and Sand (1941)
ANTHONY QUINN Buffalo Bill (1944)
ANTHONY QUINN California (1947)
ANTHONY QUINN Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944)
ANTHONY QUINN Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
ANTHONY QUINN The Black Swan (1942)
ANTHONY QUINN Tycoon (1947)
ANTHONY QUINN Where Do We Go from Here? (1945)
BARRY FITZGERALD California (1947)
BEN JOHNSON 3 Godfathers (1948)
BEN JOHNSON She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
BETTE DAVIS The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
BING CROSBY A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949)
BING CROSBY Blue Skies (1946)
BING CROSBY The Emperor Waltz (1948)
BRODERICK CRAWFORD Slave Girl (1947)
BURL IVES Green Grass of Wyoming (1948)
BURL IVES So Dear to My Heart (1948)
BURT LANCASTER Desert Fury (1947)
CELESTE HOLM Carnival in Costa Rica (1947)
CELESTE HOLM Three Little Girls in Blue (1946)
CHARLES COBURN Green Grass of Wyoming (1948)
CHARLES COBURN Heaven Can Wait (1943)
CHARLES COBURN Wilson (1944)
CLAIRE TREVOR The Desperadoes (1943)
CLAIRE TREVOR Valley of the Giants (1938)
CLARK GABLE Gone with the Wind (1939)
CLAUDETTE COLBERT Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
DAVID NIVEN Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948)
DAVID NIVEN Stairway to Heaven (1946)
DEAN JAGGER Western Union (1941)
DON AMECHE Down Argentine Way (1940)
DON AMECHE Greenwich Village (1944)
DON AMECHE Heaven Can Wait (1943)
DON AMECHE Hollywood Cavalcade (1939)
DON AMECHE Moon Over Miami (1941)
DON AMECHE Ramona (1936)
DON AMECHE Swanee River (1939)
DON AMECHE That Night in Rio (1941)
DONALD CRISP HILLS OF HOME (1948)
DONALD CRISP LASSIE COME HOME (1943)
DONALD CRISP NATIONAL VELVET (1944)
DONALD CRISP SON OF LASSIE (1945)
DONALD CRISP SONS OF LIBERTY (1939)
DONALD CRISP THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX (1939)
DONALD CRISP VALLEY OF THE GIANTS (1938)
DONALD CRISP WHISPERING SMITH (1948)
DONNA REED Thousands Cheer (1943)
DOROTHY MALONE Frontier Days (1945)
DOROTHY MALONE Night and Day (1946)
DOROTHY MALONE One Sunday Afternoon (1948)
DOROTHY MALONE South of St. Louis (1949)
DOROTHY MALONE Two Guys from Texas (1948)
EDMOND O’BRIEN Fighter Squadron (1948)
EDMOND O’BRIEN Task Force (1949)
EDMUND GWENN Apartment for Peggy (1948)
EDMUND GWENN Hills of Home (1948)
EDMUND GWENN Lassie Come Home (1943)
EDMUND GWENN Life with Father (1947)
EDMUND GWENN Thunder in the Valley (1947)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR A Date with Judy (1948)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR Courage of Lassie (1946)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR Lassie Come Home (1943)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR Life with Father (1947)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR Little Women (1949)
ELIZABETH TAYLOR National Velvet (1944)
FAY BAINTER GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROADWAY (1948)
FAY BAINTER MARYLAND (1940)
FAY BAINTER SALUTE TO THE MARINES (1943)
FAY BAINTER STATE FAIR (1945)
FAY BAINTER THE KID FROM BROOKLYN (1946)
FAY BAINTER THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY (1947)
FAY BAINTER THE VIRGINIAN (1946)
FRANK SINATRA Anchors Aweigh (1945)
FRANK SINATRA Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)
FRANK SINATRA The Kissing Bandit (1948)
FRANK SINATRA Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
FREDRIC MARCH A Star Is Born (1937)
FREDRIC MARCH Christopher Columbus (1949)
FREDRIC MARCH Nothing Sacred (1937)
GALE SONDERGAARD GYPSY WILDCAT (1944)
GALE SONDERGAARD NIGHT IN PARADISE (1946)
GALE SONDERGAARD PIRATES OF MONTEREY (1947)
GALE SONDERGAARD SONS OF LIBERTY (1939)
GALE SONDERGAARD THE BLUE BIRD (1940)
GALE SONDERGAARD THE CLIMAX (1944)
GARY COOPER For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
GARY COOPER It’s a Great Feeling (1949)
GARY COOPER Task Force (1949)
GARY COOPER The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944)
GARY COOPER Unconquered (1947)
GEORGE SANDERS Bitter Sweet (1940)
GEORGE SANDERS Forever Amber (1947)
GEORGE SANDERS Samson and Delilah (1949)
GEORGE SANDERS The Black Swan (1942)
GIG YOUNG Captains of the Clouds (1942)
GIG YOUNG Dive Bomber (1941)
GIG YOUNG The Tanks Are Coming (1941)
GIG YOUNG The Three Musketeers (1948)
GINGER ROGERS Lady in the Dark (1944)
GINGER ROGERS The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
GREER GARSON Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
GREGORY PECK Duel in the Sun (1946)
GREGORY PECK The Yearling (1946)
HATTIE MCDANIEL GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
HATTIE MCDANIEL MARGIE (1946)
HATTIE MCDANIEL MARYLAND (1940)
HATTIE MCDANIEL NOTHING SACRED (1937)
HATTIE MCDANIEL SONG OF THE SOUTH (1946)
HATTIE MCDANIEL THE LITTLE COLONEL (1935)
HENRY FONDA Chad Hanna (1940)
HENRY FONDA Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
HENRY FONDA Jesse James (1939)
HENRY FONDA The Return of Frank James (1940)
HENRY FONDA The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936)
HENRY FONDA Wings of the Morning (1937)
INGRID BERGMAN For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
INGRID BERGMAN Joan of Arc (1948)
INGRID BERGMAN Under Capricorn (1949)
JAMES CAGNEY Captains of the Clouds (1942)
JAMES STEWART Rope (1948)
JAMES STEWART The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)
JANE DARWELL 3 Godfathers (1948)
JANE DARWELL Chad Hanna (1940)
JANE DARWELL Gone with the Wind (1939)
JANE DARWELL Jesse James (1939)
JANE DARWELL Ramona (1936)
JANE DARWELL Red Canyon (1949)
JANE WYMAN It’s a Great Feeling (1949)
JANE WYMAN Little Pioneer (1937)
JANE WYMAN Night and Day (1946)
JANE WYMAN The Sunday Round-Up (1936)
JANE WYMAN The Yearling (1946)
JANET GAYNOR A Star Is Born (1937)
JENNIFER JONES Duel in the Sun (1946)
JESSICA TANDY Forever Amber (1947)
JOAN CRAWFORD It’s a Great Feeling (1949)
JOAN CRAWFORD The Ice Follies of 1939 (1939)
JOAN FONTAINE Frenchman’s Creek (1944)
JOAN FONTAINE The Emperor Waltz (1948)
JOHN MILLS Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
JOHN MILLS This Happy Breed (1944)
JOHN WAYNE 3 Godfathers (1948)
JOHN WAYNE Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
JOHN WAYNE She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
JOHN WAYNE Tycoon (1947)
JOSE FERRER Joan of Arc (1948)
JOSEPH SCHILDKRAUT THE GARDEN OF ALLAH (1936)
JUDY HOLLIDAY Greenwich Village (1944)
JUDY HOLLIDAY Something for the Boys (1944)
KIM HUNTER Stairway to Heaven (1946)
LAURENCE OLIVIER The Divorce of Lady X (1938)
LAURENCE OLIVIER This Happy Breed (1944)
LIONEL BARRYMORE Duel in the Sun (1946)
LIONEL BARRYMORE The Little Colonel (1935)
LIZA MINNELLI In the Good Old Summertime (1949)
LORETTA YOUNG Kentucky (1938)
LORETTA YOUNG Mother Is a Freshman (1949)
LORETTA YOUNG Ramona (1936)
MARGARET RUTHERFORD Blithe Spirit (1945)
MARY ASTOR Desert Fury (1947)
MARY ASTOR Fiesta (1947)
MARY ASTOR Little Women (1949)
MARY ASTOR Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
MARY ASTOR Thousands Cheer (1943)
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND Dodge City (1939)
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND Gold Is Where You Find It (1938)
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND Gone with the Wind (1939)
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
PATRICIA NEAL It’s a Great Feeling (1949)
PAUL MUNI A Song to Remember (1945)
RAY MILLAND California (1947)
RAY MILLAND Lady in the Dark (1944)
RAY MILLAND Men with Wings (1938)
RAY MILLAND Reap the Wild Wind (1942)
REX HARRISON Blithe Spirit (1945)
REX HARRISON Over the Moon (1939)
RONALD COLMAN Kismet (1944)
SHELLEY WINTERS A Thousand and One Nights (1945)
SHELLEY WINTERS Cover Girl (1944)
SHELLEY WINTERS Tonight and Every Night (1945)
SPENCER TRACY ‘Northwest Passage’ (Book I — Rogers’ Rangers) (1940)
SUSAN HAYWARD Canyon Passage (1946)
SUSAN HAYWARD Tap Roots (1948)
SUSAN HAYWARD The Forest Rangers (1942)
SUSAN HAYWARD Tulsa (1949)
THOMAS MITCHELL BUFFALO BILL (1944)
THOMAS MITCHELL GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
THOMAS MITCHELL SONG OF THE ISLANDS (1942)
THOMAS MITCHELL THE BLACK SWAN (1942)
THOMAS MITCHELL WILSON (1944)
VAN HEFLIN Tap Roots (1948)
VAN HEFLIN The Three Musketeers (1948)
VAN HEFLIN Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
VICTOR MCLAGLEN She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
VICTOR MCLAGLEN The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
VIVIEN LEIGH Caesar and Cleopatra (1945)
VIVIEN LEIGH Gone with the Wind (1939)
WALLACE BEERY A Date with Judy (1948)
WALLACE BEERY Salute to the Marines (1943)
WALTER BRENNAN Centennial Summer (1946)
WALTER BRENNAN Home in Indiana (1944)
WALTER BRENNAN Kentucky (1938)
WALTER BRENNAN Maryland (1940)
WALTER BRENNAN ‘Northwest Passage’ (Book I — Rogers’ Rangers) (1940)
WALTER BRENNAN Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948)
WALTER BRENNAN Task Force (1949)
WALTER BRENNAN The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
WALTER BRENNAN The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
WALTER HUSTON Duel in the Sun (1946)
WALTER HUSTON Summer Holiday (1948)
WARNER BAXTER Lady in the Dark (1944)
WARNER BAXTER Vogues of 1938 (1937)
WILLIAM HOLDEN Apartment for Peggy (1948)
WILLIAM HOLDEN Streets of Laredo (1949)
WILLIAM HOLDEN The Man from Colorado (1948)
Hey Dan. Good question. Though I have no idea of the answer. A couple of theories quickly fizzled out. Look forward to the answer.
Hey In The Shadows……thanks for the feedback on Dan’s trivia question.
Maybe……..Natalie Kalmus … Technicolor color director
Good answer Mike. I am pretty sure you are correct. We will have to wait until Dan provides the answer.
Give the man a cigar, you are correct.
Hey Dan…..great trivia question. Not sure I would have guessed it without seeing Mike’s answer. Good stuff.
On Long Island, AMC theaters in Glen Cove, Levittown, Westbury, Rockville Centre, East Northport, Huntington and Stony Brook are now open only 3 days a week (Fri – Sun). The East Northport theater just opened in November.
We went to see One Night in Miami at the Malverne theater in Malverne, NY. This and the Raceway 10 are the only theaters we had been able to go since they reopened in Long Island, what the first week of November. Malverne at the beginning of the year dropped Mon – Wed. This week it was closed for those 3 days, Thursday became bargain day and then they were closing again, no timetable on or if they are reopening.
Hello Bruce,
Yes, we survived ! And it was’nt easy…
Happpy new year to you Bruce !
Happy New Year Laurent. Good to hear from you.
2020, the year of Covid-19. We saw 535 films, old and new for the first time in 2020, down 10.2 %. I saw 214 2020 films during the year. Of that total a whopping 27 were seen in cinemas, the lowest total by at least 60 since 1977. I saw films in 11 cinemas, 2 in Queens (none of which have reopened thanks to our governor. I saw films in 9 other Long Island towns. Of that total 7 never reopened, 5 officially permanently closed. These were outside of Huntington, the only theaters in those towns.
We saw most films on DVD, VOD and some streaming ones on DVD (a lot of Netflix ones). Some 2020’s show up on TV. First Cow which won the New York Film Critics award for best picture is running on Showtime.
When I lived in the Bronx. we had up to 3 neighborhood cinemas (all now closed) but most years back then I saw most films in Manhattan. So while we have the AMC Bay Terrace a few blocks from where we live, it is in NYC where no theaters have reopened. I fear it won’t be back. I bring these stats up because we saw 8 films there till they were shut down and 11 in the independent Malverne. WE saw more in Malverne because the rest of New York state could reopen. But now the Malverne theater is eliminating showings on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays after Sunday plus the evening performances on Sunday. Monday and Wednesday were the bargain daysThey are doing this also at their sister cinema the 1 screen Bellmore. Even with Wonder Woman there it is not cutting. The highest attendance they have had for any film at any one show since re-opening has been 10 films. They had a couple of private screenings for Wonder Woman which costs $158 for an afternoon showing and $182 for nighttime.
Only 1 film received 4 stars from me this year and 6 films got 3 1/2 stars (all time lows). Honorable mention is all films I gave 3 stars. Here goes the best of 2020. I did not see Wonder Woman yet.
1 MULAN
2 BANKER, THE
3 LAST VERMEER
4 LAST FULL MEASURE
5 TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
6 EMPEROR
7 HILLBILLY ELEGY
Honorable Mention (there wasn’t enough for 10, these are all films I gave 3 stars)
ANTEBELLUM
BAD BOYS FOR LIFE
BEANPOLE
BIRDS OF PREY
CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES 2
ECHO BOOMERS
ENOLA HOLMES
EXTRACTION
FATIMA
GREED
HAMILTON
HONEST THIEF
INCITEMENT
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM
MISBEHAVIOUR
NEWS OF THE WORLD
PINOCCHIO
PROM, THE
SIX MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT
UNHINGED
WAR WITH GRANDPA
WILD MOUNTAIN THYME
WORST OF 2020
1 LIKE A BOSS
2 DEVIL HAS NO NAME
3 WENDY
4 OWNERS, THE
5 HALF BROTHERS
DISHONORABLE MENTION (all other 1 star films).
2067
2 GRAVES IN THE DESERT
BATTLE STAR WARS
CALL, THE
COME AWAY
COVER ME
DUNE: DRIFTER
ENDINGS, BEGINNINGS
FAST AND FIERCE: DEATH RACE
FINAL KILL
FIRST COW
FIRST LADY
GREENLAND
GRETEL & HANSEL
GRUDGE, THE
HARD KILL
I AM VENGEANCE
INSIDE THE RAIN
INTERGALACTIC ADVENTURES OF MAX CLOUD
LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME
LEGACY OF LIES
MIDNIGHT SKY
NATION’S FIRE
NEST, THE
NEW MUTANTS
ON THE ROCKS
POSSESSOR
RECON
ROBERT THE BRUCE
ROGUE
SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE
SPYCIES
SWALLOW
TENET
TESLA
TURNING, THE
UNDERWATER
WAVE, THE
WOLF AT SNOW HOLLOW
Happy New Year Dan. Great comment and great review of your 2020 movie watching. I am working on a Best and Worst myself…I am running about a day late…it least compared to last year. Looking at your best list…The Trial of the Chicago 7 and The Last Full Measure will make my Top 10 too. Wow…you have some well respected movies on your DISHONORABLE MENTION list….Tenet being the biggest surprise. Movie tally count…I feel like I accomplished something…as I barely topped your tally for the year….but I did…552 for me and 535 for you. Good stuff as always.
Hey Dan… I included your movie tally count on our UMR 2020 Year in Review page.