Want to know the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movies? How about the worst Arnold Schwarzenegger movies? Curious about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s box office grosses or which Arnold Schwarzenegger movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Arnold Schwarzenegger movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which ones got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
I have already done pages on 1980s action stars Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone, so I figured a page on the last original founder of Planet Hollywood was overdue. Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947-) is a body builder, turned actor, turned politician who has returned to acting. Arnold first appearance in a movie was in 1970’s Hercules In New York. He was billed as Arnold Strong and had his voice dubbed over. The rest of the 70s saw Arnold appear in a couple of weight-lifting movies and some supporting roles in movies like Stay Hungry and The Villain. In 1982, Arnold starred in Conan the Barbarian. Conan was a box office success and showed that Arnold could carry a film.
In 1984, he made the first of three appearances as the title character in director James Cameron’s The Terminator. The success of The Terminator, turned Arnold into a Hollywood superstar. From 1984-1997 he appeared in numerous successful films. Films like The Running Man, Predator, Twins, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop and True Lies. In 1997 he appeared as Mr. Freeze in the worst Batman movie ever….Batman and Robin. After the critical failure of Batman & Robin, his film career and box office pull went into decline. His last movie before he became Governor of California was Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines. After leaving office, Arnold, returned to making movies. So far the results have been pretty disappointing. Maybe the big man has one more big movie in him.
His IMDb page shows 74 acting credits since 1970. This page will rank 35 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Arnold Schwarzenegger 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 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger 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 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie received.
- Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the search and sort buttons to make this a very interactive page….for example…if you want to see the three James Cameron/Arnold movies only….then type “James Cameron” in the search box and up pop the three movies.
The Best of Arnold Schwarzenegger
#5 Predator (1987) Predator is Arnold’s third highest rated movie by critics and audiences with a 85% score, while finishing 9th on his top box office hits list. Whenever you read a article on the greatest action movies this movie is always in the conversation. Like the Terminator this movie also spawned many sequels. The movie was directed by John McTiernan, who after finishing this movie moved on to another action film called Die Hard. No wonder he became known as a great action director after those back to back movies. Did you know….that Kevin Peter Hall who played the Predator also played Bigfoot in Harry and the Hendersons? Did you know? The Predator’s mandibles came from a suggestion by James Cameron. Mandibles (jawbones) are the bones that form the skull with the cranium. I was not really sure what mandibles were so I had to look it up.
#4 The Terminator (1984) I have very fond memories of watching this movie at the theater. The audience reaction was one of the best I have ever experienced. I have forced my teenagers to watch this movie and even they like it….imagine that. The Terminator is Arnold’s highest rated movie according to critics and audiences with a 91% score but it barely cracks his Top Ten box office hit list…coming in at #10. This movie put James Cameron on the Hollywood map, turned Arnold into a superstar and started one of the most successful movie franchises ever. I can not believe it has been over 30 years since the release of this classic movie.
#3 True Lies (1994) Arnold plays Harry Tasker, a man leading a double life. For the sake of his wife and daughter he pretends to be a boring computer salesperson. For the sake of the country, he is a super agent and one of the last defenses who works for the secret government agency The Omega Sector. Since this is a James Cameron movie, True Lies was one of the most expensive films ever made, costing about $110 million in 1994. But the money was well spent as True Lies was the number three movie of the year with over $750 million dollars in adjusted worldwide box office grosses. Many highlights in this movie. For me the performance of Tom Arnold is one that I think about when I think about True Lies. I thought at the time Tom Arnold was headed for big things…..sadly nearly twenty years later and this is his career pinnacle.
#2 Total Recall (1990) Arnold’s 3rd biggest blockbuster hit with over 229 million in adjusted domestic box office dollars dollars. This great science fiction film was based on Phillip K. Dick’s story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”. Of all the Phillip K. Dicks’s stories to be turned into movies, Total Recall joins Blade Runner and Minority Report as the best of the bunch. This was one of the last big budget movies to use miniature sets versus computer effects. Before Arnold got the role, Richard Dreyfuss, Christoper Reeve and Patrick Swayze were offered the role
#1 Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) Schwarzenegger’s biggest box office hit with a box office gross of over 1 BILLION when looking at worldwide adjusted box office dollars. Terminator 2: Judgement Day(or T2) is ranked the forty-second best movie on IMDB. Arnold, Linda Hamilton and James Cameron all returned for this sequel. Even Kyle Reese shows up in a dream sequence if you ever watch the director’s cut.
The film’s visual effects included many breakthroughs in computer graphics that would change the way movies would be made. T2 won four Oscars® for makeup, sound mixing, sound editing, and visual effects. Arnold gets to play the good terminator this time out, while Robert Patrick as the bad T-1000, steals the show in my opinion.
There were two more sequels in this franchise but they have not been in the class as the first two. I am thinking that might have something to do with James Cameron or more like the lack of James Cameron.
Check out Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve Lensman’s Arnold Schwarzenegger You Tube Video
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
ARNIE
Total Cogerson adjusted domestic $100 million barrier crashers: 15
Overall adjusted Cogerson worldwide gross $9.7 billion
Reputed net worth $400 million
25 acting awards and 36 nominations.
JASON
Total Cogerson adjusted domestic $100 million barrier crashers: 7
Overall adjusted Cogerson worldwide gross: $6.5 billion
Reputed net worth $70 million
1 acting award and 3 nominations
Regretfully that single award to Jace was a negative one: The Women’s Film Critics Circle voted him “the most offensive male of 2006”.
NOTE: Both Arnie and Jace have the same number of 35 films each in the tables on their Cogerson pages. However most of Arnie’s mega hits such as The Terminator series and True Lies were “stand-alone” movies – ie HE was the undoubted main star of them – whereas Jason’s mega hits were largely ensemble movies such as the Fast and Furious and Expendables franchises headed by respectively Vin Diesel and Stallone and including other prominent action stars of modern times such as The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, Kurt Russell, Jet Li, Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson -and even Arnie himself!
In a relatively recent [2010] book profiling in alphabetical order the perceived 100 greatest entertainment, political, social, cultural and sporting icons of all time Jace is not mentioned whereas Arnie is placed alongside the likes of Bogie, Brando, Chaplin, Monroe, Elvis, Tiger Woods, Muhammed Ali, Mother Teresa [not Theresa May!] and Barak Obama. Until I comprehensively researched Arnie I personally didn’t appreciate how truly mega- legendary he is perceived to be today.
Hey Bob…great breakdown on Arnold and Jason. I agree that Arnold has done more heavy lifting than Jason. Jason’s stand alone movies do ok in North America and pretty good overseas. Arnold’s starring roles were ground shaking events…..True Lies, The Terminator, T2 and others. They did well everywhere they played.
Interesting that Arnie got a spot in that book. Would he have a spot in the 2020 version? The last decade have not been the greatest publicity for Arnie…and I am betting Arnie would get knocked off the list….while somebody like Justin Timberlake (a force in all entertainment fields) would get a spot. Good stuff…as always.
I am not really a big fan of modern action heroes overall but notable exceptions for me are
(1) Bruce Willis, who I think is a very good actor [see 6th Sense of 1999] and at times in his roles displays an excellent sense [call it his 7th one!] of humour. Brucie is a Golden Globe winner and 3 times nominee and has accumulated 21 other awards and 35 other noms according to IMDB – ie overall 60 awards/noms combined.
(2) Arnie who whilst only a passable actor in my opinion does also possess in his movies a good sense of humour, often self-depreciating – see for example the excellent True Lies of 1994.
At the other end of my personal scale are Jason Statham and The Rock who I feel are devoid of any screen charisma whatsoever and as thespians make look like Olivier or Tracy even Stallone [whom Tennessee Williams was not impressed with as a serious actor]
Naturally not being a descendant of the Hirschhorn clan I respect the opinions of others who do not share my own assessments of these personalities but I thought it would be fun to compare two of my own contrasts, Arnie and Jason and results are in Part 2
Hey Bob….good breakdowns on the different generations of action stars. I think historically you can see how the action genre changed with each new generation action star. From John Wayne to Steve McQueen to Clint Eastwood to Charles Bronson (Charlie became a star after Clint) to Stallone and Arnold to Willis to Johnson and Statham.
I think Statham’s career has been saved with humor. I think if he had not gotten lighter in tone….he would be a direct to home entertainment actor by now. Spy really changed that for him. He was the comedy relief in the last Fast and Furious….and his upcoming Hobbs and Shaw seems to follow that blueprint.
Good stuff.
HI BRUCE
Thanks for the feedback and I agree with most of what you say with the following qualifications-
1/I have not seen any recent Statham movies barring The Meg so I have not had the opportunity to observe his newfound sense of humor.
2/When the 2010 Icons list that I mentioned was compiled Jason’s movie career was only 12 years old as opposed to 21 years now, the exact same years and span as Roger Federer’s career also 1998 to 2019 and Roger is now spoken of in the same breath as giants of sport such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are.
To believe that Jason equates with Arnie as an icon/legend one would have to presuppose that if the authors of that book and list were to update it to 2019 Jason would rank in it alongside not just the legends I mentioned in my last posts but also the likes of Marie Curie, Diana Princess of Wales, Bob Dylan, Clint Eastwood, Judy Garland, Alexander Archibald Leach, Marie Curie, JFK, Albert Einstein etc.
As I’ve said Arnie has been recognised as belonging to that company so is it your own opinion [in the absence of the update of the book] that Statham is indeed in the same bracket as those people?
Hey Bob. I would recommend Spy. And I am not a Melissa McCarthy fan at all. Statham is the highlight of that movie. Too bad it was a supporting one.
Not thinking Statham will ever reach the Arnold levels of fame. He might have to life with being this generations Charles Bronson. He has remade two Bronson movies already.
Glad you could sneak in a Roger thought….lol. Good stuff.
HEY I even snuck in The Master – again “Something for everybody!”
Two other thoughts:
1/Thanks for the recommendation about Spy
2/Two stars whose great reputations came nowhere near being justified by their box office performance are Garbo and Bronson. I was never that interested in Garbo but I will confess to a strong liking to Charlie though neither made that 2010 icons list that I mentioned.
I loved Spy. Statham is indeed funny but that is the best Melissa performance.
Hey Helakoski….glad you enjoyed Spy as well.
Hey Bob….thanks for the follow up comment. Always glad when you give Joel some love…lol. Hope your weekend is awesome.
TV MOVIE REVIEW – 5STAR 9PM MON 1 OCT HERCULES [2014]
Plot:
Dwayne The Rock Johnson as the mythical hero quickly deals with the fabled 12 Labours of the Roman hero and God and then leads a band of muscular mercenaries to Thrace.
Critical Opinion:
For fans of action rather than acting and female fans who like watching continual heaving of animated male torsos.
REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE STORMONT HOTEL BELFAST 1974 at a Bodybuilding Competition.[Extract from Belfast Telegraph]
Like female fashion models an endless parade of young muscular males competed with each other for the award of Belfast’s Best Bodybuilder 1974 by strutting back and forward along a catwalk and flexing their muscles. Strong lights illuminated the well-oiled figures of the bodybuilders as an excited crowd applauded every pose and flex. Suddenly a moth flew under one of the glaring lights and a middle aged women shrieked out “God I wish I was a moth!” to howls of laughter from the onlookers whilst the strutting giants remained stony faced.
Speaking to the competitors afterwards in their dressing room I learned that without exception the Patron Saint of these young men was Arnold Schwarzenegger who had been in 1970’s Hercules in New York [though then under the name of Arnold Strong “Mr Universe”] and whom they affectionately called “Arnie”
They told me that Arnie’s own idols were actors Steve Reeves and the legendary Hollywood Tarzan Johnny Weissmuller and maybe that explains Arnold’s own determination to turn bodybuilding success into an acting career. His motto “If it bleeds we can kill it!”
[From Belfast Telegraph Sports Correspondent]
Bob, I have Dwayne Johnson’s Hercules on blu-ray. Not a great film but it looks good and it has a good cast of supporting actors too.
I wonder if the myth is true about bodybuilders, they bulk up on steroids, muscles on top of muscles while other parts of their anatomy start to shrink. Sacrifices have to be made mister! 😉
HI STEVE The Rock’s Hercules worth the watch? If so I would record it for my grandson.
In the 1970s I attended a gym where some of the bodybuilders who competed in that event in the Stormont hotel that I have described trained. Many of them were “prima donnas” who wouldn’t even speak to us ordinary mortals such as I who were just in the gym for some exercise so there was no way they were going to tell us what they were on. I tried to open a conversation with one of them once and he curtly cut me short with ”If you want to improve your body you come here. If you want to talk there’s a public bar down the street. Go there!”
By the way
1/The owner of my gym organised the Stormont Hotel event and had been in Arnie’s company [albeit as one of the “small fry”] on a couple of occasions on the bodybuilder exhibitions circuit.
2/Two years before the 1974 event my own wedding reception was held in the same hotel.
3/I’ve mentioned before that a few years ago I was bought as a Xmas present a book which had anthologies on about 100 of what it claimed were the greatest sporting and entertainment Icons of all time. Arnie was in there among the “Usual Suspects” like, Sinatra, Liz, Mumbles, Marilyn, Dean and the Kings Gable and Presley. Conspicuous by their absence as Legends were Stallone, The Rock and Jason. Just as well or I might have had to return the present! It does seem though that historians regard Arnie as the template for the modern action “heavy”.
Bob
Arnold certainly has had one of the most amazing careers and life histories of anyone in any field I can think of. From Mr. Universe to #1 box office movie star to marrying into the Kennedy family and being elected governor of California. I always found him to be terrifically charismatic in his movie roles.
JOHN
I agree . Also for me he had in a way an original screen persona in the way that he mixed up his tough guy behaviour with at times modest self-depreciation as in True Lies and Kindergarten Cop.
🙂
Hey John….he might not be a great actor…but his screen persona kept all eyes on him….there will never be another like him.
BRUCE/JOHN
1 Years ago I was a member of a gymnasium in Belfast and because most of its members were bodybuilders and Arnie was a world-famous bodybuilder he was like a God to those training in that gym. When he broke into movies we thought it was a gimmick and none of us foresaw that he would soon become a top movie star with a string of great hits that would generate almost $ 9 billion worldwide in adjusted dollars.
2 In a book on the perceived “100 Greatest Icons of All Time” drawn from all professions and walks of life of the 22 male movie stars that were included Arnie was one. The list is alphabetically –
Woody Allen/Fred Astaire/Humphrey Bogart/Marlon Brando
Charlie Chaplin/Sean Connery/Robert DeNiro/James Dean
Johnny Depp/Clint Eastwood/Harrison Ford/Michael J Fox
Clark Gable/Cary Grant/Bruce Lee/Steve McQueen/Paul Newman
Jack Nicholson/Laurence Olivier/Elvis/Arnie/Sinatra.
3 Of course Arnie’s physique would not have carried him too far in mainstream movies if he had not also had a pleasing screen personality and the exciting new page on 80s Action Heroes illustrates that in terms of commercial success Arnie is a strong contender for tag Greatest action/adventure star of all time with Willis and Stallone from the modern era being the other two main contenders for that accolade. Ironically therefore Sly is not included among the Icons listed in the book that I have mentioned and whilst I am not arguing that that list is entirely definitive it does at least indirectly support John’s preference for downplaying the complete importance of billing as in Escape Plan the only movie that Stallone/Schwarzenegger have paired in Sly is billed over Arnie.
Hey Bob….good comments on Arnold…I can see him being listed as one of the top 22 icons. He is a star celebrity….and I think those types have a much longer lasting legacy. Arnold’s first roles were horrible at best. The Terminator jump started that career….which only required him to say about 10 lines of dialogue. Good feedback.