Want to know the best Joel Schumacher movies? How about the worst Joel Schumacher movies? Curious about Joel Schumacher box office grosses or which Joel Schumacher movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Joel Schumacher movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Joel Schumacher (1939-2020) was an American filmmaker. Schumacher rose to fame after directing three hit films: St. Elmo’s Fire (1985), The Lost Boys (1987), and Flatliners (1990). His IMDb page shows 35 directing credits from 1974 to 2013. This page will rank Joel Schumacher movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos, uncredited roles, and movies that were not released in North American were not included in the rankings.
Joel Schumacher 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
1994
The Client (1994)
Director
1996
A Time to Kill (1996)
Director
1995
Batman Forever (1995)
1990
Flatliners (1990)
1993
Falling Down (1993)
1987
The Lost Boys (1987)
2002
Phone Booth (2002)
1997
Batman & Robin (1997)
1985
St. Elmo's Fire (1985)
2004
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
1989
Cousins (1989)
1981
The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
1983
D.C. Cab (1983)
Director
1991
Dying Young (1991)
2000
Tigerland (2000)
2003
Veronica Guerin (2003)
1999
8MM (1999)
1999
Flawless (1999)
2007
The Number 23 (2007)
2002
Bad Company (2002)
2009
Blood Creek (2009)
2010
Twelve (2010)
Director
2011
Trespass (2011)
Joel Schumacher 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 any way you want.
- Sort Joel Schumacher movies by his co-stars
- Sort Joel Schumacher movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Joel Schumacher movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Joel Schumacher 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 Joel Schumacher movie received.
- Sort Joel Schumacher movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews, and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
| CreditRank | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Review % | Oscar Nom / Win | S | UMR Score | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CreditRank | 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 | S | UMR Score |
| 1 | The Client (1994) Director |
Susan Sarandon & Tommy Lee Jones |
92.10 | 243.4 | 310.8 | 13 | 70 | 01 / 00 | 95.4 | |
| 2 | A Time to Kill (1996) Director |
Matthew McConaughey & Sandra Bullock |
108.80 | 265.3 | 371.4 | 10 | 66 | 00 / 00 | 94.2 | |
| 3 | Batman Forever (1995) | Val Kilmer & Tommy Lee Jones |
184.00 | 456.1 | 834.0 | 2 | 52 | 03 / 00 | 90.4 | |
| 4 | Flatliners (1990) | Kiefer Sutherland & Kevin Bacon |
61.50 | 156.7 | 156.7 | 18 | 59 | 01 / 00 | 87.8 | |
| 5 | Falling Down (1993) | Michael Douglas & Robert Duvall |
40.90 | 106.5 | 106.5 | 36 | 71 | 00 / 00 | 86.4 | |
| 6 | The Lost Boys (1987) | Jason Patric & Corey Haim |
32.20 | 88.8 | 88.8 | 36 | 72 | 00 / 00 | 83.8 | |
| 7 | Phone Booth (2002) | Colin Farrell & Kiefer Sutherland |
46.60 | 86.5 | 181.8 | 53 | 67 | 00 / 00 | 80.7 | |
| 7 | Batman & Robin (1997) | Arnold Schwarzenegger & George Clooney |
107.30 | 252.1 | 559.4 | 11 | 26 | 00 / 00 | 77.4 | |
| 9 | St. Elmo's Fire (1985) | Demi Moore & Rob Lowe |
37.80 | 114.8 | 114.8 | 23 | 54 | 00 / 00 | 77.3 | |
| 10 | The Phantom of the Opera (2004) | Gerard Butler & Patrick Wilson |
51.30 | 89.0 | 268.5 | 63 | 57 | 03 / 00 | 75.3 | |
| 11 | Cousins (1989) | Ted Danson & Isabella Rossellini |
22.00 | 59.8 | 59.8 | 48 | 62 | 00 / 00 | 68.6 | |
| 12 | The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981) | Lily Tomlin & Charles Grodin |
20.30 | 78.6 | 78.6 | 42 | 50 | 00 / 00 | 59.9 | |
| 13 | D.C. Cab (1983) Director |
Max Gail & Adam Baldwin |
16.10 | 55.2 | 55.2 | 45 | 54 | 00 / 00 | 53.6 | |
| 14 | Dying Young (1991) | Julia Roberts & Campbell Scott |
33.70 | 86.2 | 210.6 | 41 | 42 | 00 / 00 | 49.4 | |
| 15 | Tigerland (2000) | Colin Farrell & Matthew Davis |
0.10 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 249 | 66 | 00 / 00 | 42.5 | |
| 16 | Veronica Guerin (2003) | Cate Blanchett & Colin Farrell |
1.60 | 2.8 | 16.9 | 172 | 61 | 00 / 00 | 33.4 | |
| 18 | 8MM (1999) | Nicolas Cage & Joaquin Phoenix |
36.70 | 78.1 | 205.8 | 56 | 35 | 00 / 00 | 32.2 | |
| 17 | Flawless (1999) | Robert DeNiro & Philip Seymour Hoffman |
4.50 | 9.6 | 9.6 | 152 | 58 | 00 / 00 | 30.5 | |
| 19 | The Number 23 (2007) | Jim Carrey & Virginia Madsen |
35.20 | 55.1 | 121.5 | 76 | 36 | 00 / 00 | 17.8 | |
| 21 | Bad Company (2002) | Anthony Hopkins & Chris Rock |
30.20 | 56.1 | 122.6 | 89 | 35 | 00 / 00 | 16.3 | |
| 20 | Blood Creek (2009) | Henry Cavill | 0.10 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 324 | 51 | 00 / 00 | 13.9 | |
| 22 | Twelve (2010) Director |
Chace Crawford & Emma Roberts |
0.20 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 236 | 41 | 00 / 00 | 4.5 | |
| 23 | Trespass (2011) | Nicolas Cage & Nicole Kidman |
0.10 | 0.1 | 13.1 | 271 | 35 | 00 / 00 | 1.8 |
SECTION 1: JOEL S’s CONTRIBUTION ON TOP OF HIS BIG SCREEN FILMOGRAPHY
1/9 TV main filmmaking credits
2/6 costume designed credits for the big screen
3/2 cameo appearances: one big screen; 1 television
4/1 production designed credit for television
5/6 musical video director credits.
SECTION 2: BOB’s “HAVE SEEN” JOEL S CREDITS
Falling Down
Batman Forever
A Time to Kill – my fave Joel S and my fave Sandra Bullock film too.
Bad Company
Batman and Stephen
8mm-I saw this [on Blockbuster -rented video] on my visit to the States in 1999.
Flatliners
Phone Booth-exceptionally short for a modern film: running time 81 minutes. Presumably very profitable though. WH credits it with an adjusted worldwide gross of around $155 million and its budget in 2020 dollars was just 18 million according to Wiki. and the US Bureau of Labor Stats
SECTION 3: OTHER TRIVIA
It would have been nice if Joel S had left in the pipeline for us some work for posthumous release but regretfully that is not the case. Indeed his last projects of any kind were seemingly way back in 2013/15 (1) directing in 2013 two episodes of Kevin Spacey’s 6 series House of Cards [2013-2018] (2) executive producer of 3 episodes of the 2015 documentary TV miniseries Do Not Disturb: Hotel Horrors. The Work Horse above faithfully records that 2011’s Trespass nearly a decade ago was Joel’s last big screen contribution.
Joel S was an open member of the gay community and politically he donated thousands of dollars to Democratic Party members. He expressed belief in a God – ie in a being higher than himself – but felt that religion was overused in the States and believed that it was wrong to weaponise it for politically discriminatory purposes and that it should primarily be considered as a private and personal matter.
Hey Bob…thanks for the futher comments on Joel. Good facts on Phone Booth. Good memory of seeing 8MM while you were in the states. I think he had been struggling with his illness for awhile…so that probably made it difficult to make movies. I think it is a good sign that Joel was an open member of the gay community….and I did not even realize it. To me that means his movies stood on their own….versus getting some unneccesary labels. Maybe our society is growing. Rest in peace Mr. Schumacher.
When the name Joel was flagged-up I had just awakened from sleep and I groaned “Oh no – here we go again!” Then I noticed that for once WH was talking about a good guy Joel – though the occasion saddened me.
Joel S’s contributions to entertainment on both the big and small screens were diverse and included as well music video work– see section 1 of Part 2 of this post. My 8 “have seen” Joel S films are listed in section 2 of part 2 -waiting numerically like bowling ninepins for maybe Steve to knock down WH having declared himself front runner and Flora unusually being the first to throw in her hand.
IMDB credits Joel S with 9 acting awards and 9 Noms; and in 2018 Celebrity Net Worth assessed his wealth at $80 million-equivalent to about $83 million in today’s money.
Congratulations once more WH on putting together a quick but comprehensive tribute to a sadly-deceased versatile entertainer – “Voted Up!” RIP Joel S.
Hey Bob….thanks for the thoughts on Joel Schumacher and his movies. I think seeing 8 of his movies is pretty impressive. That is a decent amount of award recognition and a very impressive net worth. Rest in Peace Mr. Joel.
Rest in Peace. I did not realize he had made so many movies that I enjoyed. Phone Booth was far better than it had any right to be. Falling Down is great. My favorite movie of his is The Lost Boys, what a great soundtrack. Nice tribute.
Hey Harvey L. Thanks for checking out our Joel Schumacher Movie tribute page. I agree with you 100% on the soundtrack for The Lost Boys. RIP Joel.
I have seen two Joel Schumacher movies: The Phantom of the Opera is a favourite.
I have also seen Phone Booth. That is a good film, but not a favourite.
RIP
Hey Flora…thanks for checking out our Joel Schumacher tribute page. I have seen 21 of his 23 movies….the only two I have not seen are #20 Blood Creek (never even heard of it before today) and #22 Twelve (might have heard of it before). We own his The Phantom of the Opera….you and WoC agree on it’s quality. Good stuff. Rest in peace Joel Schumacher.
R.I.P. Joel.
Mike
Thank you Mike. Sad news. I was just reading about the behind the scenes chaos of Batman Forever….and then today I heard about his passing. RIP.