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

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

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78 thoughts on “Best Picture Oscar Winners”

  1. I’m disappointed to see “Gigi” and “Going my Way” on the Worst list, because I love both those films. Oh well!

    Rob

    Reply

    1. Hey Rob….at least it is the best worst list to appear on….as all of these movies are quality movies…Gigi’s 9 Oscar wins is one of the highest totals in Oscar history…and Going My Way’s 7 Oscars is impressive too.

      Reply

  2. Well then, I will comment on the table about worst films according to critics ratings: I have seen seven of them. I love Gigi and Going My Way. I don’t hate any of them that I’ve seen, regardless of if I think they should not have won best picture or am happy they won best picture.

    The three I have not yet seen:

    The Greatest Show on Earth

    Calvacade

    The Life of Emile Zola

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora, thanks for checking out my Worst Best Picture table….now that is a strange combination of words….it looks like some of the really early winners have not aged well at all….having seen The Broadway Melody…I can tell you that it is really not a great movie…so I would agree with the critics that Broadway Melody is the worst Best Picture winning movies
      RobWrite

      Reply

  3. Another well researched movie page, cogerson. I’ve seen every one of these movies. I’m surprised at some of the rankings. “All About Eve” seems too low and “Around the World in 80 days” seems too high. “Amadeus” seems pretty low, as well, and “Forest Gump” is way too high. (I agree with Flora. It was a very over-rated film that didn’t deserve to win the Oscar.)

    I’m not surprised that “the Godfather” is on top. It’s one of the greatest American films ever. (“Citizen Kane” didn’t win the best picture Oscar, sadly, so it doesn’t get to be on the list.)

    Another winning movie page. Well done,

    Rob

    Reply

    1. Thanks for the compliment Rob…..let’s see All About Eve comes in at #71 and Amadeus comes in at #72….they both did well on the critics and audience side of things…but there average box office totals caused them to take a hit in the rankings.

      As for Forrest Gump…sitting at #19….it does finish pretty low according to critics/audiences 53rd but it is currently with inflation the 24th biggest box office hit..which tends to help the score….and finally Around the World in 80 Days…sitting at #42….it is actually one of the worst reviewed movies on the list….76th or 8th worst…but once again its box office number is stellar…Mike Todd knew how to promote a movie…and Around the World in 80 Days is currently with inflation the 46th biggest box office hit of all-time.

      After reading your comment I actually went back and added another table of the Worst Best Picture Winners according to critics and audiences. As always I appreciate you checking out my latest page.

      Reply

  4. Thanks for describing how box office has been a part of movie scores from the start until now. Only one studio did films like Gentlemen’s agreement. The others tried very hard not to do anything controversial during Hitler’s era and especially didn’t want to discuss being Jewish at all.But the Warners did because they weren’t Jewish and were unafraid of backlash. The other mogels begged Jack Warner not to make the film.

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora…well Peck is awesome in Gentleman’s Agreement…thanks for the behind the scenes information on the movie…the movie did pretty well at the box office….according to Variety it finished 8th for the year and 83rd for the decade…not bad for a movie not many people wanted made….thanks for stopping by.

      Reply

  5. My Favorite Best Picture:

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest:

    McMurphy: “I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this”.

    My Close Second Favorite:

    Deer Hunter:

    Michael: We gotta play with more bullets.

    Nick: What?

    Michael: More bullets…

    [gunshot]

    Michael: I gotta get more bullets in the gun.

    Nick: What?

    Michael: We gotta play with more bullets.

    Nick: More bullets in the gun?

    Michael: More bullets in the gun.

    Nick: How many more bullets?

    Michael: Three. That means we gotta play each other.

    Nick: More bullets against each other?

    Michael: We gotta do it!

    Nick: What? Are you Crazy?

    Michael: Nicky, it’s the only way. I’ll pick the moment. The game goes until I move. When I start shootin’, go for the nearest guard, get his gun and zap the fucker!

    Nick: I’m not ready for this!

    Michael: You gotta listen to me… You wanna stay down here and die? Go on. It’s up to you. Now it’s up to you.

    Nick: NOOOOOOOO!

    Michael: Hey! Him against me! Side by side! Side by side!

    Nick: Get away! Get away!

    Michael: Side by side! Me and him! Me against him!

    Reply

    1. Hey Mentalist Acer….you two favorite Oscar winning movies are pretty far apart in the rankings…#2 Cuckoo’s Nest and #57 Deer Hunter….the Russian Roulette scenes in Deer Hunter are some of the most intense movie scenes I have ever watched. Great lines that you have included.

      Reply

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