This is the Top 100 Movies in our database. Several years back, we came up with an idea to create a mathematical equation that would create a numerical score for each movie. The first thing we had to come up with were factors for the equation. So we thought….if we were producing a movie what would we like to see our movie accomplish. The first thing we would want, would be for the movie to be successful at the box office. Secondly, we would like the critics and movie goers to enjoy our movie. And finally we would like our movie to receive award recognition through Golden Globe® and Oscar® ceremonies. So let’s look at the breakdown of the variables in the equation.
1. Box office results. We figure that box office is the most important factor, so it received the highest percentage (30%) of the equation. The ceiling was $200 million in adjusted box office dollars. Any movie that crossed $200 million maxed out the points in the category.
2. Critics and audience reception. We felt that critical reception was the second most important factor so it received the second highest percentage 45%) of the equation. So where do I find critics/audience reception? We use at least 6 different sources: RottenTomatoes, IMDB, Yahoo Movies, Roger Ebert, Leonard Maltin and Fandango. Put them all together and I get an average with 100% being the highest score possible.
3. Award Recognition. The final part of the equation is worth 25%. A movie gets points for Golden Globe® and Oscar® nominations and wins. The Golden Globes get 5% while the Oscars® get 13% of the equation. The last 7% goes to amount of Oscar® nominations and amount of Oscar® wins.
So far we have done Ultimate Movie Ranking Scores on 26,478 movies. Granted that is only a small percentage of films that were ever made but we have done all the big blockbusters and Oscar® winners. So the following table lists the current Top 100 movies that PERFORMED the best in ALL THREE CATEGORIES. In other words we are not saying these are the best movies just the ones that STATISTICALLY PERFORMED THE BEST.
Top 100 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 Top 100 Movies by co-stars of the movies
- Sort Top 100 Movies by director or directors of the movies
- Sort Top 100 Movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Top 100 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 Top 100 movie received.
- Sort Top 100 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 buttons to make this table very interactive. For example if you want to see the 4 Marlon Brando movies to make the list…just type in Brando in the search box and up they pop.
| Rank | Movie (Year) | Star of Movie | Director of Movie | Domestic B.O. Adjusted (mils.) | Critic Audience Rating | Oscar Nom / Win | UMR Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Godfather (1972) | Marlon Brando & Al Pacino & James Caan | Francis Ford Coppola | $686.30 | 94.5% | 11 / 03 | 96.22 | |
| One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) | Jack Nicholson | Milos Forman | $448.20 | 92.5% | 09 / 05 | 96.07 | |
| Lawrence of Arabia (1962) | Peter O''Toole & Anthony Quinn | David Lean | $482.00 | 91.5% | 10 / 07 | 96.00 | |
| Schindler's List (1993) | Liam Neeson & Steven Spielberg | Steven Spielberg | $195.60 | 94.3% | 12 / 07 | 95.85 | |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) | Orlando Bloom | Peter Jackson | $527.10 | 91.0% | 11 / 11 | 95.77 | |
| The Godfather: Part II (1974) | Al Pacino & Robert DeNiro & Robert Duvall | Francis Ford Coppola | $214.30 | 94.0% | 11 / 06 | 95.31 | |
| Casablanca (1942) | Humphrey Bogart & Ingrid Bergman | Michael Curtiz | $344.30 | 94.3% | 08 / 03 | 95.30 | |
| Gone with the Wind (1939) | Vivien Leigh & Clark Gable | Victor Fleming | $1758.30 | 90.0% | 13 / 08 | 95.30 | |
| The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) | Myrna Loy & William Wyler | William Wyler | $569.60 | 86.0% | 08 / 07 | 95.28 | |
| Ben-Hur (1959) | Charlton Heston | William Wyler | $852.00 | 88.7% | 12 / 11 | 94.67 | |
| On the Waterfront (1954) | Marlon Brando | Elia Kazan | $219.90 | 88.0% | 12 / 08 | 94.36 | |
| Rebecca (1940) | Laurence Olivier & Joan Fontaine | Alfred Hitchcock | $258.10 | 87.0% | 11 / 02 | 94.13 | |
| The Apartment (1960) | Jack Lemmon & Shirley MacLaine | Billy Wilder | $232.10 | 87.5% | 10 / 05 | 94.12 | |
| The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) | William Holden | David Lean | $473.40 | 88.0% | 08 / 07 | 93.56 | |
| It Happened One Night (1934) | Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert | Frank Capra | $190.70 | 91.0% | 05 / 05 | 92.33 | |
| Unforgiven (1992) | Clint Eastwood & Gene Hackman | Clint Eastwood | $205.50 | 89.5% | 09 / 04 | 92.19 | |
| My Fair Lady (1964) | Audrey Hepburn | George Cukor | $521.20 | 83.0% | 12 / 08 | 92.01 | |
| Patton (1970) | George C. Scottt | Francis Ford Coppola | $335.80 | 86.5% | 10 / 07 | 91.79 | |
| The Silence of the Lambs (1991) | Anthony Hopkins & Jodie Foster | Jonathan Demme | $261.80 | 89.0% | 07 / 05 | 91.76 | |
| Gladiator (2000) | Russell Crowe | Ridley Scott | $293.60 | 82.0% | 12 / 05 | 91.70 | |
| The Sound of Music (1965) | Julie Andrews | Robert Wise | $1235.60 | 82.3% | 10 / 05 | 91.70 | |
| The French Connection (1971) | Gene Hackman & Roy Scheider | William Friedkin | $264.10 | 84.0% | 08 / 05 | 91.68 | |
| Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) | Harrison Ford | George Lucas | $1549.90 | 91.7% | 10 / 06 | 91.58 | |
| American Beauty (1999) | Kevin Spacey | Sam Mendes | $216.70 | 85.0% | 08 / 05 | 91.48 | |
| The Lost Weekend (1945) | Ray Milland | Billy Wilder | $234.60 | 85.5% | 07 / 04 | 91.38 | |
| How Green Was My Valley (1941) | Maureen O'Hara | John Ford | $291.40 | 81.5% | 10 / 05 | 91.30 | |
| Platoon (1986) | Charlie Sheen | Oliver Stone | $314.80 | 84.0% | 08 / 04 | 91.08 | |
| Mrs. Miniver (1942) | William Wyler | William Wyler | $344.70 | 81.0% | 12 / 06 | 91.07 | |
| Terms of Endearment (1983) | Jack Nicholson & Shirley MacLaine | James L. Brooks | $290.20 | 81.7% | 11 / 05 | 90.88 | |
| Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) | Dustin Hoffman & Meryl Streep | Robert Benton | $356.90 | 81.0% | 09 / 05 | 90.67 | |
| West Side Story (1961) | Natalie Wood | Robert Wise | $486.30 | 80.0% | 11 / 10 | 90.60 | |
| Rain Man (1988) | Dustin Hoffman & Tom Cruise | Barry Levinson | $354.50 | 84.0% | 08 / 04 | 90.58 | |
| A Man for All Seasons (1966) | Orson Welles | Fred Zinnemann | $244.30 | 81.5% | 08 / 06 | 90.50 | |
| Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) | Charles Laughton & Clark Gable | Frank Lloyd | $286.50 | 86.0% | 08 / 01 | 90.22 | |
| A Beautiful Mind (2001) | Russell Crowe & Ron Howard | Ron Howard | $254.80 | 82.7% | 08 / 04 | 89.95 | |
| Dances with Wolves (1990) | Kevin Costner | Kevin Costner | $367.10 | 80.0% | 12 / 07 | 89.93 | |
| Saving Private Ryan (1998) | Tom Hanks & Matt Damon & Steven Spielberg | Steven Spielberg | $389.20 | 88.0% | 11 / 05 | 89.86 | |
| Forrest Gump (1994) | Tom Hanks | Robert Zemeckis | $681.20 | 78.0% | 13 / 06 | 89.66 | |
| Going My Way (1944) | Bing Crosby | Leo McCarey | $552.40 | 77.0% | 10 / 07 | 89.19 | |
| Titanic (1997) | Kate Winslet & Leonardo DiCaprio & Ja | James Cameron & Steven Spielberg | $1103.40 | 77.0% | 14 / 11 | 89.19 | |
| The Sting (1973) | Robert Redford & Paul Newman & George Ro | George Roy Hill | $776.40 | 87.5% | 10 / 03 | 89.17 | |
| Rocky (1976) | Sylvester Stallone | John G. Avildsen | $478.20 | 79.3% | 10 / 03 | 89.09 | |
| Amadeus (1984) | F. Murray Abraham | Milos Forman | $173.50 | 86.5% | 11 / 08 | 88.85 | |
| Oliver! (1968) | Oliver Reed | Carol Reed | $308.90 | 76.0% | 11 / 05 | 88.72 | |
| Slumdog Millionaire (2008) | Dev Patel | Danny Boyle | $165.90 | 88.5% | 10 / 08 | 88.68 | |
| An American in Paris (1951) | Gene Kelly | Vincente Minnelli | $202.90 | 77.5% | 08 / 06 | 88.62 | |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) | Orlando Bloom | Peter Jackson | $467.60 | 90.0% | 13 / 04 | 88.33 | |
| Driving Miss Daisy (1989) | Morgan Freeman | Bruce Beresford | $226.30 | 76.5% | 09 / 04 | 87.96 | |
| Chicago (2002) | Richard Gere | Rob Marshall | $248.10 | 76.0% | 13 / 06 | 87.84 | |
| All About Eve (1950) | Bette Davis & Marilyn Monroe | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | $155.60 | 92.7% | 14 / 06 | 87.80 | |
| Toy Story 3 (2010) | Tom Hanks | Lee Unkrich | $443.40 | 91.7% | 05 / 02 | 87.78 | |
| All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) | Lew Ayres | Lewis Milestone | $194.50 | 84.5% | 04 / 02 | 87.66 | |
| From Here to Eternity (1953) | Burt Lancaster & Montgomery Clift | Fred Zinnemann | $519.40 | 81.5% | 13 / 08 | 87.55 | |
| Midnight Cowboy (1969) | Dustin Hoffman | John Schlesinger | $347.70 | 82.5% | 07 / 03 | 87.51 | |
| Apocalypse Now (1979) | Martin Sheen & Marlon Brando | Francis Ford Coppola | $335.50 | 92.3% | 08 / 02 | 87.43 | |
| Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) | James Stewart | Frank Capra | $289.00 | 91.0% | 11 / 01 | 87.37 | |
| Doctor Zhivago (1965) | Omar Sharif | David Lean | $1079.00 | 82.5% | 10 / 05 | 87.28 | |
| The Deer Hunter (1978) | Robert DeNiro & Christopher Walken & | Michael Cimino | $176.50 | 85.5% | 09 / 05 | 87.27 | |
| To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) | Gregory Peck & Robert Duvall | Robert Mulligan | $256.90 | 90.3% | 08 / 03 | 87.09 | |
| Inception (2010) | Leonardo DiCaprio & Michael Caine | Christopher Nolan | $312.60 | 88.5% | 08 / 04 | 86.83 | |
| Pulp Fiction (1994) | Bruce Willis & Samuel L. Jackson | Quentin Tarantino | $223.00 | 93.0% | 07 / 01 | 86.74 | |
| The Departed (2006) | Jack Nicholson & Leonardo DiCaprio | Martin Scorsese | $169.60 | 87.0% | 05 / 04 | 86.73 | |
| Annie Hall (1977) | Woody Allen & Christopher Walken | Woody Allen | $184.90 | 86.0% | 05 / 04 | 86.61 | |
| The Philadelphia Story (1940) | James Stewart & Katharine Hepburn | George Cukor | $215.10 | 91.0% | 06 / 02 | 86.37 | |
| E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) | Drew Barrymore | Steven Spielberg | $1220.60 | 82.7% | 09 / 04 | 86.35 | |
| Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) | Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor | Mike Nichols | $214.60 | 84.5% | 13 / 05 | 86.34 | |
| Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) | Harrison Ford | Steven Spielberg | $770.70 | 91.3% | 08 / 04 | 86.28 | |
| Gentleman's Agreement (1947) | Gregory Peck & John Garfield | Elia Kazan | $240.20 | 75.0% | 08 / 03 | 86.25 | |
| In the Heat of the Night (1967) | Sidney Poitier & Warren Oates | Norman Jewison | $167.20 | 84.0% | 07 / 05 | 86.20 | |
| Ordinary People (1980) | Robert Redford | Robert Redford | $177.60 | 82.5% | 06 / 04 | 86.11 | |
| Wings (1928) | Gary Cooper | William A. Weldman | $314.10 | 81.0% | 02 / 02 | 86.07 | |
| Jaws (1975) | Roy Scheider | Steven Spielberg | $1114.40 | 91.5% | 04 / 03 | 86.03 | |
| A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) | Marlon Brando & Vivien Leigh | Elia Kazan | $231.20 | 85.0% | 12 / 04 | 85.98 | |
| Avatar (2009) | Zoe Saldana | James Cameron & Steven Spielberg | $842.70 | 82.3% | 09 / 03 | 85.60 | |
| Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) | Paul Newman & Robert Redford | George Roy Hill | $613.50 | 86.5% | 07 / 04 | 85.49 | |
| The Exorcist (1973) | Linda Blair | William Friedkin | $919.20 | 82.5% | 10 / 02 | 85.48 | |
| The Martian (2015) | Matt Damon & Jessica Chastain | Ridley Scott | $228.30 | 87.5% | 07 / 00 | 85.42 | |
| Cabaret (1972) | Liza Minnelli | Bob Fosse | $304.30 | 82.5% | 10 / 08 | 85.41 | |
| Around the World in 80 Days (1956) | Shirley MacLaine & David Niven | Michael Anderson | $561.90 | 70.5% | 08 / 05 | 85.34 | |
| Gravity (2013) | George Clooney & Sandra Bullock | Alfonso Cuarón | $284.20 | 82.0% | 10 / 07 | 85.17 | |
| The Last Picture Show (1971) | Jeff Bridges | Peter Bogdanovich | $203.00 | 87.5% | 08 / 02 | 85.15 | |
| The Grapes of Wrath (1940) | Henry Fonda & John Ford | John Ford | $215.10 | 87.5% | 07 / 02 | 85.12 | |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) | Orlando Bloom | Peter Jackson | $493.90 | 89.0% | 06 / 02 | 85.06 | |
| Tom Jones (1963) | Albert Finney | Tony Richardson | $478.10 | 69.5% | 10 / 04 | 85.06 | |
| The Lion in Winter (1968) | Peter O''Toole & Katharine Hepburn | Anthony Harvey | $184.00 | 88.0% | 07 / 03 | 84.98 | |
| Shakespeare in Lovie (1998) | Gwyneth Paltrow & Ben Affleck | John Madden | $180.30 | 76.0% | 13 / 07 | 84.88 | |
| Fiddler on the Roof (1971) | Topol | Norman Jewison | $414.90 | 81.5% | 08 / 03 | 84.80 | |
| Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) | James Cagney | Michael Curtiz | $392.00 | 84.5% | 08 / 03 | 84.71 | |
| Mary Poppins (1964) | Julie Andrews | Robert Stevenson | $887.80 | 81.0% | 13 / 05 | 84.70 | |
| On Golden Pond (1981) | Henry Fonda & Katharine Hepburn | Mark Rydell | $361.70 | 79.5% | 10 / 03 | 84.66 | |
| Giant (1956) | James Dean & Rock Hudson & Elizabeth Taylo | George Stevens | $481.70 | 86.0% | 10 / 01 | 84.65 | |
| Beauty and the Beast (1991) | Robbie Benson | Kirk Wise | $396.20 | 85.5% | 06 / 02 | 84.61 | |
| The Graduate (1967) | Dustin Hoffman | Mike Nichols | $767.90 | 84.5% | 07 / 01 | 84.61 | |
| The Great Dictator (1940) | Charles Chaplin | Charles Chaplin | $301.10 | 90.7% | 05 / 00 | 84.61 | |
| Gigi (1958) | Leslie Caron | Vincente Minnelli | $293.90 | 68.0% | 09 / 09 | 84.56 | |
| Apollo 13 (1995) | Tom Hanks | Ron Howard | $333.50 | 85.3% | 09 / 02 | 84.54 | |
| Bonnie and Clyde (1967) | Gene Hackman | Arthur Penn | $397.10 | 84.5% | 10 / 02 | 84.54 | |
| All the President's Men (1976) | Dustin Hoffman & Robert Redford | Alan J. Pakula | $359.80 | 83.5% | 08 / 04 | 84.47 | |
| The Wizard of Oz (1939) | Judy Garland | Victor Fleming | $225.40 | 86.5% | 06 / 02 | 84.26 | |
| Tootsie (1982) | Dustin Hoffman & Bill Murray | Sydney Pollack | $496.60 | 81.0% | 10 / 01 | 84.17 |
Our Top 100 Movie Snubs?
To make our Top 100 Movies list….a movie had to do well in three categories…box office glory, critical acclaim and award recognition. Let’s look at some movies that did do well in all three categories.1941’s Citizen Kane is considered one of the greatest films of all time. Citizen Kane got great reviews and picked up some major Oscar® nominations but was a flop at the box office. It’s poor showing at the box office puts Citizen Kane as the 898th best movie in our database.
1958’s Vertigo has great reviews….did below average for a Hitchcock movie at the box office and only picked up 2 minor Oscar® nominations…winning none…..that puts Vertigo in 877th place in our database. That is better than 20,000 movies in our database which is pretty good….just not good enough to crack the Top 250. If you want to see a movie page that gives these movies some love…check out our Top 100 Best Reviewed Movies.
Just making a boat load of money at the box office does not give you a spot in the Top 100. Let’s look at the biggest worldwide hit of 2014. Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) made almost a quarter of a billion in North America and crossed the billion dollar mark in worldwide gross. Yet critics destroyed the movie and nobody older than 12 liked the movie. It’s critical rating is so low that it keeps Transformers: Age of Extinction from even cracking the Top 1000.
And finally let’s quickly look at the other end of our database. 26,478 movies ranked….some movie has to be at the bottom of the rankings. For awhile Nicolas Cage and his Deadfall (1993) movie held that honor. Well 2014 gave us a new worst ranked movie. Coming in with less 3 million in box office gross, some of the worst reviews of all time and the winner of the 2014 Razzie® Award as worst movie of the year….Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas. With a UMR Score of 5.56 Kirk’s movie is ranked as the 26,478th movie in my database.
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
On this list, some of my favorites. To Kill a Mockingbird, American Graffiti, Jaws, Mary Poppins and many more. What a compilation and great effort you put into this project!
Hey AEvans….To Kill a Mockingbird, American Graffiti, and Jaws are some of my favorites from this list as well….I am glad you have enjoyed this list….I pretty started filling out my database over a year ago….so this list is actually the results of over a years worth of research. Thanks for checking out both lists.
Interesting about the Godfather films. The director himself doesn’t think the second film is as good as the first. I will likely see the first film eventually as the title character is played by a French American, not an Italian American. Of course, some people won’t be able to decipher that comment, but you know what I mean. I will point out to your readers who may not know this that Brando changed the spelling of his name to look good on the marque. He is zero percent Italian (was…died of course). Beyond that, if anyone doesn’t get my drift, too bad.
Hey Flora…I read the same thing about Coppola and Godfather 2, and I know what you mean about Brando. I look forward to the day when you say you have watched that classic movie….so I can read about what you thought about it….thanks for the input.
Hey Rob….in my formula, Disney hand drawn animations do great in two of the three categories…but their failure to earn award recognition knocks them out of the Top 100…Snow White is one of the biggest box office hits ever….but only managed 1 Oscar nomination…so it ends up ranked 243rd…which is pretty high….but not very close to the top 100.
As for Mary Poppins and Inception…they have it all….box office glory….critics and audience love and many Oscar nominations and Oscar wins……which greatly helped the score…..I loved Mary Poppins as a kid…but was very disappointed with Inception..I think it was the worst Christopher Nolan yet. Thanks for stopping by and for your comments, they are greatly appreciated.
Hey Greensleeves Hubs…your comment about Raiders made me laugh….but luckily you mentioned it so I will not have to delete your comment…lol. I was talking with my computer programmer about adding in a “staying power” section as I think it is a good idea. Now trying to decide how much it would worth point wise….and what the criteria would be to get the points.
I am glad you like the proportions in the formula….the box office part has gotten smaller and smaller as I have tweaked the formula…and I sure it will lose some more points when “staying power” points arrive. Thanks for a great comment that was enjoyable to read.
Thanks Cogerson for replying to my comment.
Glad you like the idea of including a film’s enduring appeal or staying power as a criterion of its success. I appreciate it would be difficult to factor in without unduly disadvantaging modern films which clearly haven’t been around long enough to stand the test of time – but if you can come up with a method it’d be interesting to see great films (like Citizen Kane or Shawshank Redemption) rewarded, which perhaps weren’t so appreciated when they first screened, but which are now revered.
I wonder if there’s any magic formula which is common to all perennially popular movies – I guess the obvious one would be to have a storyline which is ageless and true to people of all cultures and backgrounds?
Hey Greensleeves PAges…now we(me and the wife who is an awesome programmer) are trying to figure out how to get the extra column in the database…..part of me is thinking I should eliminate all the box office information and see how the movies would rank…..just based on critics/audience and awards…..then a movie like Citizen Kane and Shawshank would move to the top of the charts.
I would say the current magical formula is (a) make a sequel to a previous popular movie (b) add in 3D effects (c) spend millions on special effects (d) have lots of blue screen acting and (e) make it a computer animated film with either talking animals or talking toys…use any 4 of this options and you will have a box office hit.
Hi Bruce; I know you’ve been planning your top 100 list for a long time so its good to finally see it. There are a lot of great movies here. I’ve seen all of them except for “Coal Miners Daughter”.
I’m a little surprised by “Mary Poppins” which I never considered an especially good film. “Inception” is a surprise, too. And only one hand-drwan animated film? (No ‘snow white’ or Fantasia’?)I’d have thought “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Jaws” would have been higher.
Hey Rob….in my formula, Disney hand drawn animations do great in two of the three categories…but their failure to earn award recognition knocks them out of the Top 100…Snow White is one of the biggest box office hits ever….but only managed 1 Oscar nomination…so it ends up ranked 243rd…which is pretty high….but not very close to the top 100.
As for Mary Poppins and Inception…they have it all….box office glory….critics and audience love and many Oscar nominations and Oscar wins……which greatly helped the score…..I loved Mary Poppins as a kid…but was very disappointed with Inception..I think it was the worst Christopher Nolan yet. Thanks for stopping by and for your comments, they are greatly appreciated.
The Great Show on earth is a long film that I simply have not had time to watch. I do intend on seeing it. As for the Godfather films that I know will be in the top ten.. not a chance that I will see them before you publish the second half;)
Ok Flora…we will forgive you for not watching The Greatest Show on Earth yet…it is pretty much an average film….but it was a major event film when it got released….my dad always talked about the train wreck scene when I was growing up….probably the way my kids will talk about Avatar when they get older. As for The Godfather movies…they did indeed rank pretty high…with parts 1 and 2 making the Top 12….one day you will have to see at least the first one. Thanks for the comments.