Want to know the best Elvis Presley movies? How about the worst Elvis Presley movies? Curious about Elvis Presley box office grosses or which Elvis Presley movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Elvis Presley movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences…and which Elvis movie got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place …. because we have all of that information.
Elvis Presley (1935-1977) the singer was the “King of Rock and Roll”. The “King” has sold over 2.5 billion in worldwide records. Following in the footsteps of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, Presley went from singing to acting in movies. Elvis Presley’s first number one song, Heartbreak Hotel, was released in January 1956. By the end of 1957 he had appeared in three movies (Love Me Tender, Loving You, and Jailhouse Rock) and they were all box office hits. After Presley finished filming King Creole he was drafted. He would return to movies with G.I. Blues in 1960. For the rest of the 1960s he averaged nearly three movies a year.
When looking at his IMDb page you find some pretty interesting Elvis Presley credits. Presley has 31 acting credits. His music has been featured in 397 movies and television shows. And he appeared as himself in 23 projects…including many documentaries. This page will rank 31 Elvis Presley 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….I did include two of his most famous documentaries in the rankings.
Elvis Presley Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Year
Movie (Year)
Rating
S
Year Movie (Year) Rating S
1957
Jailhouse Rock (1957)
1957
Loving You (1957)
1961
Blue Hawaii (1961)
1960
G.I. Blues (1960)
1964
Viva Las Vegas (1964)
1956
Love Me Tender (1956)
1962
Follow That Dream (1962)
1960
Flaming Star (1960)
1958
King Creole (1958)
1965
Girl Happy (1965)
1964
Roustabout (1964)
1962
Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)
1970
Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970)
1962
Kid Galahad (1962)
1963
Fun in Acapulco (1963)
1965
Tickle Me (1965)
1961
Wild in the Country (1961)
1968
Speedway (1968)
1964
Kissin' Cousins (1964)
1966
Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)
1981
This Is Elvis (1981)
1966
Spinout (1966)
1966
Frankie and Johnny (1966)
1972
Elvis On Tour (1972)
1969
Charro! (1969)
1968
Live a Little, Love a Little (1968)
1963
It Happened at the World's Fair (1963)
1967
Double Trouble (1967)
1967
Clambake (1967)
1969
The Trouble with Girls (1969)
1967
Easy Come, Easy Go (1967)
1968
Stay Away, Joe (1968)
1965
Harum Scarum (1965)
1969
Change of Habit (1969)
Elvis Presley 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 by Elvis Presley movie titles…link takes you to that movie’s trailer
- Sort by Elvis Presley’s co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Elvis Presley movies by actual domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Elvis Presley movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Elvis Presley movies by movie’s domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Elvis Presley movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort Elvis Presley 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.
| R | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Adj. B.O. Worldwide (mil) | Review | Oscar Nom / Win | UMR Score | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Actual B.O. Domestic (mil) | Adj. B.O. Domestic (mil) | Adj. B.O. Worldwide (mil) | B.O. Rank by Year | Review | Oscar Nom / Win | UMR Score | S |
| 1 | Jailhouse Rock (1957) | Judy Taylor | 11.10 | 214.5 | 214.50 | 13 | 71 | 00 / 00 | 95.5 | |
| 3 | Loving You (1957) | Lizabeth Scott | 10.60 | 203.5 | 203.50 | 16 | 66 | 00 / 00 | 94.0 | |
| 3 | Blue Hawaii (1961) | Angela Lansbury | 13.40 | 195.6 | 195.60 | 11 | 64 | 00 / 00 | 93.3 | |
| 5 | G.I. Blues (1960) | Juliet Prowse | 12.30 | 191.9 | 191.90 | 16 | 65 | 00 / 00 | 93.2 | |
| 4 | Viva Las Vegas (1964) | Ann-Margret | 14.70 | 168.8 | 168.80 | 10 | 72 | 00 / 00 | 93.1 | |
| 6 | Love Me Tender (1956) | Richard Egan | 12.00 | 235.2 | 235.20 | 20 | 60 | 00 / 00 | 92.4 | |
| 9 | Follow That Dream (1962) | Arthur O'Connell | 7.70 | 110.9 | 110.90 | 30 | 66 | 00 / 00 | 84.1 | |
| 8 | Flaming Star (1960) | Barbara Eden | 5.70 | 89.3 | 89.30 | 49 | 72 | 00 / 00 | 83.7 | |
| 9 | King Creole (1958) | Walter Matthau | 3.40 | 61.6 | 61.60 | 65 | 79 | 00 / 00 | 83.1 | |
| 10 | Girl Happy (1965) | Shelly Fabares | 8.60 | 90.7 | 90.70 | 33 | 65 | 00 / 00 | 80.0 | |
| 11 | Roustabout (1964) | Barbara Stanwyck | 9.00 | 103.2 | 103.20 | 29 | 60 | 00 / 00 | 79.3 | |
| 12 | Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) | Stella Stevens | 9.40 | 135.5 | 135.50 | 27 | 46 | 00 / 00 | 76.5 | |
| 11 | Elvis: That's the Way It Is (1970) | Elvis Documentary | 3.00 | 21.1 | 21.10 | 81 | 82 | 00 / 00 | 76.4 | |
| 14 | Kid Galahad (1962) | Charles Bronson | 6.10 | 87.3 | 87.30 | 44 | 61 | 00 / 00 | 76.3 | |
| 16 | Fun in Acapulco (1963) | Ursula Andress | 8.00 | 100.3 | 100.30 | 35 | 56 | 00 / 00 | 75.4 | |
| 15 | Tickle Me (1965) | Julie Adams | 8.10 | 85.7 | 85.70 | 38 | 60 | 00 / 00 | 75.3 | |
| 17 | Wild in the Country (1961) | Tuesday Weld | 6.10 | 88.9 | 88.90 | 39 | 56 | 00 / 00 | 71.8 | |
| 18 | Speedway (1968) | Nancy Sinatra | 8.60 | 70.5 | 70.50 | 42 | 59 | 00 / 00 | 69.3 | |
| 20 | Kissin' Cousins (1964) | Arthur O'Connell | 8.30 | 95.0 | 95.00 | 33 | 49 | 00 / 00 | 66.2 | |
| 19 | Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) | Suzanne Leigh | 7.10 | 69.8 | 69.80 | 40 | 57 | 00 / 00 | 66.2 | |
| 19 | This Is Elvis (1981) | Elvis Presley & David Scott |
2.00 | 7.9 | 7.90 | 115 | 75 | 00 / 00 | 63.5 | |
| 21 | Spinout (1966) | Shelly Fabares | 6.00 | 58.4 | 58.40 | 47 | 58 | 00 / 00 | 62.7 | |
| 23 | Frankie and Johnny (1966) | Harry Morgan | 6.00 | 58.8 | 58.80 | 46 | 53 | 00 / 00 | 54.3 | |
| 23 | Elvis On Tour (1972) | Elvis Documentary | 2.70 | 17.3 | 17.30 | 97 | 64 | 00 / 00 | 49.5 | |
| 24 | Charro! (1969) | Victor French | 3.90 | 29.8 | 29.80 | 59 | 58 | 00 / 00 | 46.2 | |
| 25 | Live a Little, Love a Little (1968) | Dick Sargent | 2.70 | 22.3 | 22.30 | 102 | 60 | 00 / 00 | 44.5 | |
| 27 | It Happened at the World's Fair (1963) | Kurt Russell | 6.80 | 85.1 | 85.10 | 42 | 37 | 00 / 00 | 38.6 | |
| 28 | Double Trouble (1967) | Annette Day | 4.00 | 35.6 | 35.60 | 61 | 52 | 00 / 00 | 36.1 | |
| 29 | Clambake (1967) | Shelly Fabares | 2.20 | 20.0 | 20.00 | 90 | 57 | 00 / 00 | 36.1 | |
| 30 | The Trouble with Girls (1969) | Marlyn Mason | 2.70 | 20.9 | 20.90 | 79 | 56 | 00 / 00 | 35.8 | |
| 31 | Easy Come, Easy Go (1967) | Elsa Lanchester | 4.80 | 42.9 | 42.90 | 52 | 45 | 00 / 00 | 27.5 | |
| 32 | Stay Away, Joe (1968) | Burgess Meredith | 4.30 | 35.3 | 35.30 | 69 | 47 | 00 / 00 | 25.7 | |
| 32 | Harum Scarum (1965) | Mary Ann Mobley | 4.10 | 42.8 | 42.80 | 65 | 40 | 00 / 00 | 17.5 | |
| 34 | Change of Habit (1969) | Mary Tyler Moore | 1.60 | 12.2 | 12.20 | 115 | 31 | 00 / 00 | 1.9 |
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Elvis Presley Table
- Seven Elvis Presley movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 21.21% of his movies listed. Love Me Tender (1956) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Elvis Presley movie grosses $68.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 14 of Elvis Presley’s movies are rated as good movies…or 42.42% of his movies. King Creole (1958) is his highest rated movie* while Change of Habit (1969) was his lowest rated movie. *Documentaries excluded.
- Zero Elvis Presley movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 0.00% of his movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60. 12 Elvis Presley movies scored higher that average….or 36.36% of his movies. Jailhouse Rock (1957) got the the highest UMR Score while Change of Habit (1969) got the lowest UMR Score.
Check out Elvis Presley‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
If you are interested in Elvis’ Top 40 Billboard Hits…..we have 107 Elvis Songs Ranked Best To Worst as well. Elvis Top 40 Hits.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Hi,
Great site! Can you explain the “actual domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost”? How does this compare to Variety magazine’s rental figures of the time?
Hey Kat…an answer to your question. Back then Variety reported box office results in box office rentals versus box office dollars. Rentals were the amount of money a studio got back for a movie. To figure out the gross of money I found over 3,000 movies that the rental and actual gross were KNOWN. The average of those movies was a multiplier of 2.2. So to determine the gross I multiply the rentals times 2.2…..it is not an exact number but I feel it is pretty close. I think actually numbers will never be know.
Let’s look at my favorite Elvis movie as an example. Variety reports that the box office rentals for Blue Hawaii were $4,700,000. To get the gross….I use the multiplier of 2.2. 4.7 million times 2.2 = $10,340,000 in 1961. So now that we know the gross we have to figure out how many tickets were sold in 1961. A movie ticket cost .76 cents in 1961. So divide the gross by ticket cost gets you 13.69 million tickets sold. A movie ticket in 2015 is $8.30. So 13.69 million tickets sold times $8.30 = a adjusted gross of $113,627,000. Hope that explains…..luckily my program does all the math for me….I just type in the box office rental…and the program does all the rest.
Thanks for checking out my Elvis movie page.
Thank you for explaining this! You’ve come up with a smart way to calculate actual box office earnings. I appreciate all your hard work.
I’ve been doing some research on Elvis movies, and I could not find any Variety rental figures for seven of his movies including King Creole (none of these movies made it into the top movies for the year as you’ve indicated on your list). So how do you come up with the rental figures for those movies in order to calculate the actual box office earnings?
Hey Kat…..that is when it gets frustrating. When my old Variety magazines let me down. I start searching any and everywhere. Biographies, auto biographies, wikipedia, google searches using the “book” option, IMDb, libraries (especially college ones…I am lucky to be pretty close to William and Mary and they have awesome reference books…including some studio books that break down every movie in their history) other books in my library with the best being Reel Facts, Hollywood Power Stats. It is really like putting a puzzle together and sometimes you do not have all the pieces.
very interesting I though Blue Hawaii would be at top like first or second rating.
@kandy….Blue Hawaii is one of my favorites as well….it did well at the box office…his 4th biggest hit….but critics seemed to really dislike this movie….and that bumped it out of the Top 5…but 6th is still pretty good. Thanks for the comment and for checking out my Elvis page.
Blue Hawaii was ok but more of a musical travelogue. It was probably dated by the time it was made. Elvis could certainly sing but he lacked any dancing skills. As a film, it was quite entertaining, but strictly speaking it was a ‘lightweight’ film. This film unfortunately set the tone for many of those forgettable Presley films of the 60’s. His films did really well in commercial terms but they painfully showed his lack of depth as an actor.
Hey Geoff….Thanks for your mini-review of Blue Hawaii. I think you are right…..this set the tone for the rest of Elvis’s movies in the 1960s. Seems after Jailhouse Rock…he stopped trying when it came to dancing. But based on Jailhouse Rock…I think the man could dance if he really wanted to. I agree with your last sentence 100%….thanks for stopping by and commenting…it is greatly appreciated.
Hi Cogerson
How about these suggestions.
Glenn Ford
Tony Curtis
Laurence Olivier
Jane Mansfield
Walter Brennan
Laurel & Hardy
Thanks for the suggestions….Soren. I will put them on the list of pages to do.
Hey, I like Elvis Presley – thought his voice was pretty good. I especially liked his songs without the rock and roll. Ann Margaret was good with him in their movie. Thanks once again for the information. Another good site Cogerson…
Hey BERN1960 thanks for checking out my latest movie page. And thanks for the comment. I actually just watched Viva Las Vegas the other day…and I agree 100% with you that Ann-Margret more than held her on against the “King”.
Agreed. GI Blues was a really entertaining film, but after that most of his films were made in the assembly line principle, consisting of Presley singing to scores of adoring women, while the other male actors behaved like simpletons. His manager, Parker, realised he was a limited actor, thus he put him into these films which required very little in the way of acting. His film career was entirely guided by Parker who only wanted financial box office success. Presley should have protested at the scripts he was given, but I feel he lacked the confidence or will to challenge his manager.
P
Hey Geoff….I agree I do not think Parker was very interested in Elvis doing serious roles….to him the movies were just a means to sell more records. I think King Creole showed he had some acting skills….but it is one of his least successful movies…I think Parker and Elvis learned quickly what his fans wanted him to do in movies…and for 10 years he was one of the most successful actors working…which is actually a very impressive amount of time. Thanks for your input….I enjoyed reading your thoughts on Elvis and his movies.
Elvis the King, I’m a huge fan as you know Bruce. Fascinating seeing all the statistics. Jailhouse Rock no.1 on the CMS-Chart, no arguments there, that and King Creole are my two favourites of his films. I have all 31 films in my collection here. Fans usually include Elvis Thats the Way it Is and Elvis on Tour, both theatrical releases, with the others. 33 movies. Excellent work as usual. Thank you very much. 🙂
Hey Steve…I went ahead and included the two Elvis documentaries that I did not include originally. Wow you have all 31 of his movies in your collection….I can not image you pull out Harum Scarum or Change of Habit to often. Thanks for the visit and the comment.