Katharine Hepburn Movies

Want to know the best Katharine Hepburn movies?  How about the worst Katharine Hepburn movies?  Curious about Katharine Hepburn box office grosses or which Katharine Hepburn movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Katharine Hepburn 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 and a lot more!

Katharine Hepburn’s movie career was one heck of a roller coaster ride. The ride started on a high note with an Oscar® win for 1933’s Morning Glory and a blockbuster hit in 1934’s Little Women. She was unable to maintain her early success. The rest of the 1930s did not go very well for her. Hepburn made eleven more movies in the 1930s, and with a couple of exceptions (Alice Adams & Stage Door), they were all box office bombs. After being labeled “box office poison” she returned to the stage.

In 1940 Hepburn returned to Hollywood to make the film version of The Philadelphia Story. The film was one of the biggest hits of the year and earned Hepburn her third Oscar® nomination. After that success she appeared for the first time with Spencer Tracy in 1942’s Woman of the Year. Tracy and Hepburn would make nine films together over the next twenty-five years and become one the greatest screen couples ever. Their final appearance together would be 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, which was a blockbuster hit and earned Hepburn her 2nd Oscar® win. The following year she appeared in The Lion in Winter. She amazingly won her 3rd Oscar® win for Best Actress. Following her back to back Oscar® wins, Hepburn’s movie career took another downward spiral.

For the next twenty-five years, she would appear in only eight more movies. Most of those movies died at the box office, but she had one more major role left in her. In 1981 she appeared in On Golden Pond opposite Henry Fonda. On Golden Pond was her second biggest box office hit and earned her a record fourth Academy Award® for Best Actress. Her last role was in 1994’s Love Affair. Katharine Hepburn passed away June 29th 2003 at the age of 96.

Her IMDb page shows 52 acting credits from 1932-1994. This page will rank Katharine Hepburn movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies not released in North American theaters were not included in the rankings.

Katharine Hepburn in 1968's The Lion In Winter
Katharine Hepburn in 1968’s The Lion in Winter

Katharine Hepburn Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Katharine Hepburn 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 Katharine Hepburn movies by co-stars of her movies
  • Sort Katharine Hepburn movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Katharine Hepburn movies by domestic box office rank
  • Sort Katharine Hepburn movies by 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 Katharine Hepburn movie received.
  • Sort Katharine Hepburn 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 sort and search button to make this a very interactive page.
 
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in 1967's Guess Who's Coming To Dinner
Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner

Check out Katharine Hepburn‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Wait! Want more Katharine Hepburn stats?  Well we have adjusted worldwide grosses on 24 of her movies.

  1. Dragon Seed (1944) $393.70 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  2. The Sea of Grass (1947) $288.00 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  3. The Philadelphia Story (1940) $280.20 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  4. Undercurrent (1946) $276.10 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  5. Song of Love (1947) $268.90 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  6. Keeper of the Flame (1942) $267.90 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  7. State of the Union (1948) $261.10 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  8. Without Love (1945) $260.10 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  9. Stage Door (1937) $229.10 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  10. Woman of the Year (1942) $224.70 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  11. Little Women (1933) $223.10 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  12. Adam’s Rib (1949) $214.80 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  13. Bringing Up Baby (1938) $158.30 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  14. Mary of Scotland (1936) $143.90 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  15. Pat and Mike (1952) $117.40 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  16. The Little Minister (1934) $115.70 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  17. Alice Adams (1935) $76.60 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  18. Break of Hearts (1935) $72.00 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  19. A Woman Rebels (1936) $65.00 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  20. Spitfire (1934) $64.90 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  21. The Iron Petticoat (1957) $60.60 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  22. A Bill of Divorcement (1932) $57.90 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  23. Sylvia Scarlett (1935) $51.10 million in worldwide adjusted gross
  24. Quality Street (1937) $42.60 million in worldwide adjusted gross

Check out Steve’s Katharine Hepburn 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.

(Visited 4 times)

88 thoughts on “Katharine Hepburn Movies”

  1. What an amazing actress she is! Arguably the greatest actress of all time (With the possible exception of Bette Davis and Meryl Streep). She’s won more acting oscars than any other person, man or women. It’s hard to pick her best performance. Personally, I’d say its in “The Lion in Winter” but “The Philadelphia Story” is a great comic performance.

    Looking forward to Cagney.

    Peace,

    Rob

    Reply

    1. Hey Robwrite….one of things I found interesting was the number of movies she appeared in….only 43 movies in a 62 year career…not counting tv movies of course…..12 Oscar nominations in those 43 movies though….I will have to compare her % of Oscar nominations to movies with Streep….each passing year I appreciate The Philadelphia Story more and more…thanks for commenting….Cagney’s 1930s movie grosses are evidently top secret information….but I am getting close to being finished.

      Reply

      1. Hey Robwrite…here are the %….Hepburn 12 nominations in 43 movies…for a 27.90%

        while streep is 16 nominations for 42 movies(I did not add in any voice work movies)….for a 38.09%

        both pretty high %

        Reply

    1. BentleyMom….when I think of Katharine Hepburn…..I hear her voice saying….”Norman” from On Golden Pond thanks for reading

      Reply

    1. Thanks for stopping by Paradise….the Great Kate was one of my grandmothers favorites ….so it was interesting researching movies I remember her talking about years ago….thanks for the compliment

      Reply

  4. Cagney! We want Cagney! We want… sorry where was I? Katharine Hepburn, not the prettiest but one of the Hollywood Greats. I have 5 favourite Hepburn films – Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story, Adams Rib, The African Queen and The Lion in Winter.

    So I’ll go with… the Critic Audience Score which has those 5 films in the top 7. 🙂

    Voted up and useful. And you’ve got mail Cogerson.

    Reply

    1. Steve….when I first saw Philadelphia Story and Bringing Up Baby….I loved Baby and thought Philadelphia was ok….over the years Philadelphia Story seems to have gotten much better in my mind. I just watched African Queen on blu-ray…it was very impressive. As for Mr. Cagney I have about 8 movies from the 1930s I am still researching and then he will be in the hub page universe…mail? I do not see any mail? ….thanks for stopping by.

      Reply

      1. Cagney! Cagney! just joshing… I sent you an email a few hours ago using that Contact Cogerson thingy they have on your page. It must have got lost, I’ve made another attempt. 🙂

        Reply

  5. Ah, Katherine Hepburn…one of my all-time favorites. If you ask me, that’s when actors were really “stars”.

    I looked at the Greatest Movie Actor/Actresses Table and could not believe I could not find Sir Laurence Olivier. I guess I’m just an old fuddy-duddy because Orson Welles, Edward G. and Cagney would have been on my list. 🙂 I guess I like bad boys.

    Reply

    1. Hey Fay….well the reason they are not on the list…is only because of randomness….I pretty much pick an actor on requests…Rock Hudson was for my mom….Katharine Hepburn was for my mother in law….the good news is Cagney is coming soon…Robwrite suggested Cagney about a month ago…and I am close to finding all the info for him……Olivier, Robinson and Welles are now on the list to be done…as always thanks for stopping by

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.