Best Picture Oscar Winners

Oppenheimer is the latest movie to win the Best Picture Oscar
Oppenheimer is the latest movie to win the Best Picture Oscar

Want to know the best Best Picture Oscar Winners?  How about the worst Best Picture Oscar Winners?  Curious about Best Picture Oscar Winners’ box office grosses or which Best Picture Oscar Winners picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Best Picture Oscar Winners got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which one got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place …. because we have all of that information.

My first experience with the Oscars® was back in 1982 when I was 14. I had watched Raiders of the Lost Ark many times during the summer of 1981. And I was convinced it was the best movie ever to be filmed. When the Oscar® nominations came out I was so happy that Raiders received 8 nominations and I was convinced that Steven Spielberg would win Best Director and Raiders won would Best Picture. The night of the Oscar® show, I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark win 4 minor Oscars® and 1 special Oscar® for sound.

After being sent to bed, I quietly turned on my black and white television that was in my room. I watched the last part of the show when they give out the major awards with the volume almost on mute. Finally they got to Best Director…and the winner was…..Warren Beatty ????? for Reds….I was stunned, but that was nothing compared to when they called Chariots of Fire for Best Picture of the Year. I could not believe they did not call out Raiders….I was convinced there most have been a mistake. No mistake, as the producers of Chariots of Fire got their Oscars®. Spielberg applauded the win, while I turned off the television and though how unfair life is sometimes. Not saying I am still bitter about the loss, but I still refuse to acknowledge Chariots of Fire as Best Picture of 1981. So there will be no Oscar® winner for the 1981 year on the tables.

Since 1927, there have been 97 Best Picture Oscar Winners. The following table ranks those 97 movies many different ways.   Just in case you are wondering Chariots of Fire is on the table….all the way down at #65.
Peter O'Toole in 1962's Lawrence of Arabia
Peter O’Toole in 1962’s Lawrence of Arabia

Best Picture Oscar Winning Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In The Table Below

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

  • Sort Best Picture Oscar Winners by star of the movie
  • Sort Best Picture Oscar Winners by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
  • Sort Best Picture Oscar Winners by critic reviews and audiences voting.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Best Picture Oscar Winners received.
  • Sort Best Picture Oscar Winners by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.  The ceiling to earn points for box office is $200 million…once a movie passes that mark it stops earning points in that category.
  • You can use the search button to sort by year
Charlton Heston in 1959's Ben-Hur
Charlton Heston in 1959’s Ben-Hur

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78 thoughts on “Best Picture Oscar Winners”

  1. You know Cogs, I think this might be one of the better pages that you have come up with, I am impressed. Sorry that one of my recent favorites finishes dead last. You gotta give The Hurt Locker a little more love.

    Reply

    1. Hey hinton…thanks for the great compliment….I thought this page turned out well ….lots of great movies makes the page look better. Sorry Hurt Locker ranks so poorly…but it is easily the worst performing Best Picture winner at the box office..which killed its score….thanks for stopping by

      Reply

  3. Hi Mr C, another fascinating delve into the movie world, I actually liked Chariots Of Fire, but no where near as much as Raiders, so i’m with you there. I thought Russell Crowe should have won best actor for A Beautiful Mind. Densil washington is just as good, if not a better actor, but the movie he won it for was crap. I’ve seen a lot of these great movies and it would be difficult to put them in order. I’m looking forward to seeing Meryl Streep in action, playing Maggie Thatcher is a real meaty role that I’m sure Meryl will thrive on. Oh well have to dash off to work. Cheers

    Reply

    1. Thanks for checking in attempted humour….as I have gotten older…I realize movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark do not win the big prize….but as a 14 year old I was so mad that Chariots of Fire won the Oscar….at least now I can understand the logic of picking Chariots over Raiders.

      I agree Russell Crowe was awesome in A Beautiful Mind…in my opinion much better there than in Gladiator…and the movie Denzel won for was a cop story that had been done many many times before and since.

      I hope the Iron Lady is a great movie…it will be interesting to see Streep do the English accent…it might get her the third Oscar win…enjoy work.

      Reply

  4. Okay, this is difficult to decide how to respond to this as I have seen a huge number of these films. It might be easier to state which films I *haven’t* seen overall being that I like list to all films that I’ve seen. I do not really want to do that, though.

    However, in terms of the top 10 box office and top ten critics pics, I can list them all as I have seen six of the top ten box office hits and 5 of the top ten critics list. Not bad when you consider that some of those top ten films are titles that I am not sure are the types of movies I want to see.

    Those top ten listed films I’ve seen in alphabetical order are:

    All about Eve-admire this more than I enjoy it

    Around the World in 80 Days

    The Best Years of Our lives-see comment on All about Eve

    Casablanca

    Forest Gump-I did not like this and don’t think it deserved to win. I saw it at a friend’s house. Richard Widmark hated it and said it celebrated stupidity.By the way. I have always disagreed with sally Field’s famous quote in the film. Every box of chocolates I’ve ever had had a code on the back of the lid to let you know which was what filling.

    Gone with the Wind-are there any 1939 films I haven’t seen? If so, it is not for lack of trying to find them

    Lawrence of Arabia-Wow. But long so rarely watch.

    On the Waterfront-see comment on All about Eve

    The Sound of Music

    The Sting

    my favourite of these is Gone with the Wind followed closely by The Sting.

    I refuse to see Titanic and Silence of the Lambs for completely different reasons. Others I’ve not seen I think I’ve mentioned before or don’t feel strongly about seeing or avoiding.

    Regarding the top ten movie score list: films I’ve seen that were not on those other two lists that I’ve seen are:

    Bridge on the River Kwai-I see this at least once a year

    You Can’t take it With You-not my favourite of anyone involved even though I enjoy it

    Overall, I’ve seen: 51 of the 84 films at 61%. And no, not only films made before I was born. In fact of the films I’ve seen, 7 have been made since I entered Junior High. The earliest film I’ve seen is from the first year: Sunrise – still haven’t seen Wings. The latest film I’ve seen is from last year: The king’s Speech.

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora…..51 out of 84 is outstanding…the only reason I have seen 83 out of 84….is about two years ago I decided to watch all the Best Picture winners….I was never able to find a copy to watch Cavalcade on DVD or VHS and it never appeared on tv when I was searching weekly for the movie…but one day I am sure I will find it.

      Looking at the ones you like…Gone With The Wind and then The Sting…I am surprised that Sound of Music is not in that group….a classic musical with great music….seems to be a movie that would be an all-time favorite for you.

      I know you feelings about The Godfather and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest…so you will just have to trust me that they are very good movies.

      And finally no thoughts on the only Gregory Peck movie to win Best Picture….Gentleman’s Agreement….it came it at number 43…..almost right in the middle….I figured two things when doing this list….Steve would say Ben-Hur was too low….and you might say Gentleman’s Agreement was not getting enough Movie Score love….thanks as always for your great comments.

      Reply

  5. At least Ben-Hur made the top 10 Cogerson! Btw I have the blu-ray on order from Amazon mmm can’t wait. 🙂

    I liked You Can’t Take it With You but it’s not one of my favourite Capra films, much prefer Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It Happened One Night and It’s a Wonderful Life. I always watch his films at xmas.

    As a film buff I would really have put Lawrence of Arabia at no.1 on that list. But I’m not complaning Godfather placed no.1.

    From a historic point of view I’d say Gone With the Wind should be numero uno.

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve…you have a point You Can’t Take It With You has not aged well at all….so I admit I would not put it on my Top Ten either…but the numbers have it ranked pretty high. Overall I think Movie Score did a pretty good job of ranking all of these great movies…the top nine are all all-time classics….and looking at your profile…I see 7 of 10 on the Movie Score made your Top 100…so Movie Score must be working…lol.

      Reply

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