AFI Top 100 Movies

top100moviesWant to know the best AFI Top 100 movies?  How about the worst AFI Top 100 movies?  Curious about AFI Top 100 box office grosses or which AFI Top 100 movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which AFI Top 100 movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

In 1998, AFI (American Film Institure) invited more than 1,500 leaders from across the American film community – screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, editors, executives, film historians and critics among them – to choose from a list of 400 nominated films compiled by AFI and select the 100 greatest American movies.  In 2007 they released an updated list….which means next year they will be updating the list again.  Recently we complete a massive project that looked at the careers of the AFI Top 50 Screen Legends. One of the comments on that page suggested doing a Ultimate Movie Rankings page on the AFI TOP 100 movies….well….Steve Lensman here you go.

We were happy to see not one but two Bruce Willis movies made the Top 100.
We were happy to see not one but two Bruce Willis movies made the Top 100.

AFI Top 100 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 AFI Top 100 movies by stars of the movies
  • Sort AFI Top 100 movies by adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort AFI Top 100 movies by yearly domestic box offic rank
  • Sort AFI Top 100 movies by 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 AFI Top 100 movie received.
  • Sort AFI Top 100 movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
  • Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star or director’s UMR movie page
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My late father would be happy how highly ranked Lawrence of Arabia is by AFI and by UMR Score.
My late father would be happy how highly ranked Lawrence of Arabia is by AFI and by UMR Score.

Things we found interesting in the above AFI Top 100 Movies table

  1. On the actor side: James Stewart, Robert DeNiro and Harrison Ford lead the way with 5 movies on the Top 100.  Dustin Hoffman, Humphrey Bogart and Robert Duvall have 4 movies.
  2. On the actress side: Katharine Hepburn leads the way with 3 movies in the Top 100.  Meryl Streep, Vivien Leigh, Marilyn Monroe, Jodie Foster, Grace Kelly and Natalie Wood have 2 movies.
  3. On the director side:  Steven Spielberg leads the way with 5 movies in the Top 100.  Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock have 4 movies .
  4. The average adjusted domestic box office gross for the Top 100 AFI movies is $368.60 million.
  5. 73 of the AFI Top 100 movies were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar® nomination. 28 of the AFI Top Movies won the Best Picture Oscar®.
  6. Overall the AFI Top 100 movies earned 648 Oscar® nominations…winning 265 Oscars®.
  7. When looking at the lowest scoring movies according to critics and audiences there are a few surprises. Nashville was the worst reviewed AFI Top 100 movie (ok…not too surprising) but Titanic as the 2nd worst movie and Forrest Gump as the 3rd worst movie by critics and audiences really seemed surprising.
  8. The average critic/audience rating is 88.50%….according to RottenTomatoes.com…..60% is the gold standard for a good movie.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.

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27 thoughts on “AFI Top 100 Movies”

  1. Hey Steve-

    Re: The Best Years of Our lives.

    If you did not own a copy of this I would understand, but geez.

    Reply

    1. One day he will watch the movie. It is a good movie…but certainly not a movie that begs for re-watching.

      Reply

  2. Some of my favorite movies are considered good films while others are mostly loathed and/or unseen by the thronged masses.

    Movies like JAWS, THE MALTESE FALCON, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, IN HEAT OF THE NIGHT and BULLITT are among my all-time favorites and are well-regarded features while GAS (apparently universally loathed by all others who’ve seen it), SCAVENGER HUNT, WACKO, EVILSPEAK, THE POSSESSION OF VIRGINIA (original French-Canadian title: “Le Diable est Parmi Nous”) are unknown or un-liked.

    SHAMELESS ♣PLUG♣ for a movie I’m very fond of: “The Man Who Had Power Over Women” (1970). It stars Rod Taylor, Carol White, James Booth, Charles Korvin, Penelope Horner, Keith Barron, Clive Francis, Magali Noel and Alexandra Stewart. I don’t know anyone else who has ever seen it so I can’t talk about it with anyone to compare opinions. But I like it quite a lot. There’s a mad scene in the film where a character gets killed by a truck carrying toilets. It’s not played for comedy.

    Honorable mention goes to ONE-WAY PASSAGE (1932). One of the very few romance-oriented movies that made my innards sad . . . at the end when the little toasting glasses broke at the bar. I thought the 1940 remake was an alright movie overall (having watched it on TCM), but the ‘glasses breaking’ moment at the end had no resonance with me whatsoever. I felt nothing. Hiss! Stick with the ’32 movie.

    I’ve tried to watch EASY RIDER twice and found it very un-involving, including on TCM recently. I didn’t finish watching either time so I’ve yet to see the last part of the movie, although I reckon I know what happens at the end. ♠ I wouldn’t put this movie in my Top 750 films of all time. ♠

    2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY doesn’t rate in my Top 100. I don’t hate the movie, but it’s boooooring. I swear I’d need a B-12 shot to stay awake should I fancy watching it again. If someone were to tell me they loved “2001” and watched it frequently I would simply not believe them; I may not call such person a liar, but I’d be thinking it. I liked Kubrick’s 1980 movie THE SHINING, which is very slowly-paced, because I found it interesting. That’s my issue with “2001”. I don’t find it interesting enough to spend my time watching it and trying to stay focused on the film while doing so. I need a NO-DOZ!

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    For all the films I’ve watched over the past 4 decades (BAD GRAMMAR ALERT!) the singular most screwiest ‘Happy Ending’ I’ve seen comes from the 1978 low-budget teen-oriented flick SUMMER SCHOOL. The original title was “MAG WHEELS”, btw. Directed by Bethel Buckalew. I wrote a review of this movie on the IMDb as the ending so moved me to put fingers to keypad. And that darned catchy ‘ANITA Song’ by garage band THE WORD . . .

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    I need to watch both versions of ‘THE BIG SLEEP’ sometime.

    If you combine the talents of Gene Kelly and Sidney Poitier you get “SINGIN’ IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT”.

    I’ve never seen TITANIC, but I have watched via TCM and thoroughly enjoyed the 1958 British movie “A Night to Remember”. I reckon I’d rather watch it again than see James Cameron’s TITANIC once.

    I’ve never seen GONE WITH THE WIND, THE GODFATHER, SCHINDLER’S LIST or WEST SIDE STORY. Maybe I’ll give them a go sometime. Haven’t decided yet. I’ve never seen CABARET, but it just doesn’t interest me in the least so it’s a ‘no-go’. I’d rather watch the 1977 movie ‘OUTRAGEOUS!’ instead.

    I’ve never seen — in their entirety — these flix: THE SOUND OF MUSIC, BEN-HUR, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. I probably never will. I can get through DOCTOR ZHIVAGO. I didn’t think I could, but I did watch it once in its entirety. I think I could watch DOC Z again sometime, but it’s a less-than-1% chance of me watching fully THE SOUND OF MUCUS, BEN-HERD or LAWRENCE OF UPPER SADDLE RIVER.

    My apologies for being so wordy; I was offline from Dec. 24 thru Feb. 26 and my typing hands are itching to go!

    Reply

    1. Hey Mr. Gorman…..I love your comment….entertaining and educational. I will have to check some of the movies you mentioned….you make them sound interesting for sure. I agree with you 100% about Easy Rider. I saw Night To Remember just last year…it made my Top 10 for the year….and I watched over 600 movies in 2015. Far outshines Titanic. Glad you itching hands were ready to go.

      Reply

  4. Interesting list. I think most are worthy additions to the Top 100. Though gotta admit Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring is pretty questionable. The weakest of the trilogy makes the list while ignoring the better two parts. Nicely done.

    Reply

    1. Hey Helakoski….I agree with you 100%….actually when I was putting the 100 on my table…when I saw LOR…I automatically put Return Of The King on the list…..when I was looking for mistakes I realized I had put the wrong movie on the table….so King left and Fellowship made the table. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

      Reply

  5. Hey, that is quite a list. I was surprised at how many movies I have seen. Yes, your father really enjoyed Lawrence of Arabia. THAT WAS A GOOD MOVIE… This list is quite interesting – getting all the facts, etc. HEY, ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW HOW MUCH ACTORS MAKE ON RESIDUALS ON MOVIES AND TELEVISION. BRUCE HAS TRIED TO FIND IT BUT CANNOT AT THIS TIME. That would be interesting to know………………Thanks for another great site…….My hat is off to you son.

    Reply

    1. Hey Bern1960…..thanks for checking out my AFI top 100. Anytime I can get dad into the page…I make sure to do it. You and your quest for residual information…maybe somebody here can help you. Thanks for the compliment and the visit.

      Reply

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