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.
A really interesting page – what a great idea! Some surprising movies on this list (Great Ziegfeld), but many of these movies I have seen and love.
Thatmovieguy- Great Ziegfeld was the largest epic that studio had done and Ziegfeld had just died a few years ago, so movie audiences knew who he was and were fascinated to see his bio. Plus, William Powell was a huge star. Thus timing has a lot to do with it.
Hey Thatmovieguy….I appreciate the compliment. I am glad you like the idea and list like this always get people to notice a movie or two that they were not aware….like The Great Ziegfeld which Flora provided some excellent background on….thanks for stopping by.
And thanks Flora for the Great Ziegfeld information…it is always appreciated.
There will be many comments from me. Likely I will have to do this in several trips here over time. I think going in 10s will break the page up best for me, so that I actually get things done at home too. 🙂
Interesting that Citizen Kane didn’t make the list in retrospect. There is a huge number of films whose reputations grew over time and should have done better at the box office, and there are plenty of films that have aged badly but at the time did extremely well both with critics and audience. Both extremes.
100-90:
well, my favourite actor made the list in his best known film 🙂
I have seen 9 of these. I am only missing Sgt. York.
Re: The Music man: You shouldn’t be surprised too much when a musical based on a hit broadway play was made into a movie compared to, say, a musical that was made for the screen. The story line is solid and the music is great.
Most of these I have seen multiple times. 99,94, and 91 I have seen only once and that is fine by me.
The only film here that I have to work hard to remember the plot is Goodbye Girl.
Hey Flora…thanks for the one year kudos.
For movies 100-91….I included the To Kill A Mockingbird photo just for you. I was hoping that Mockingbird would be higher ranked but it did make the list at least. Not surprised that you have not seen Sergeant York yet….as I am sure you are not surprised that I have not seen The Music Man yet….but I did watch Scrooge today while doing this hub….and that one was indeed pretty good. As for The Goodbye Girl it is pretty good but not a movie that I watch when I am in a Richard Dreyfuss mood….well behind Close Encounters, Jaws, Stand By Me and Stakeout. Thanks for the first two comments.
I have seen 74 of the films you have listed. My Favorite, The Green Mile didn’t make your list, but thats ok… my Mom’s 2 favorite did: Casablanca and Ben Hur, both of which I have seen numerous times. Thanks for a great and interesting movie page
Hey Linda….Green Mile got a good score but not high enough to make this list. It is currently sitting in 160th place. Glad you mom’s favorites were ranked so high….thanks for the visit
Sadly, I am not up to snuff with my movies… but I bet my husband would know and probably have watched, everyone on this list. In fact, it wasn’t until I got to about the 50 area that I started even recognizing them. I guess I need to watch more movies. I was however surprised that Moulin Rouge wasn’t on there. Personally, I think that was a great movie! But I am big on musicals as well.
Sadly, I am not up to snuff with my movies… but I bet my husband would know and probably have watched, everyone on this list. In fact, it wasn’t until I got to about the 50 area that I started even recognizing them. I guess I need to watch more movies. I was however surprised that Moulin Rouge wasn’t on there. Personally, I think that was a great movie! But I am big on musicals as well.
Where’s the Shawshank redemption and the green mile?? I can’t belive they’re not in the top 100? And Mary poppins? Or did I just miss them? I cannot believe you made a mathmatical equation and proper excel and everything, that is dedication, lol. But a really fun idea. do you think there is a way to do a reverse and find the worst movie of all time?
Hey daisydayz…..let’s see Mary Poppins made the list as it came in 70th place….The Green Mile came a lot closer to the list than Shawshank…as The Green Mile is currently number 160…..while Shawshank sits at number 989 out of 6,643…..box office killed Shawshank’s score as it did not really become popular until it got on VHS. If I were to make a list only based on critic and audience reviews…Shawshank would a very nice Top 20 spot on that list.
As for the worst ones….yep I can do that as well….so far the classic bad movie Deadfall with Charlie Sheen and Nicolas Cage is the lowest rated movie in my database. Thanks for the visit and the comment.