Virus Movies

Want to know the best Virus movies?  How about the worst Virus movies?  Curious about Virus box office grosses or which Virus movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Virus movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.  This list tries to exclude Zombie movies and tries to focus on movies that really center on the virus itself.  A perfect list?  Heck no.  But an interesting list.  If you want to see a list of Zombie movies click here.

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

Virus 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 Virus movies by co-stars of movies.
  • Sort Virus movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Virus movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Virus movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Virus movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Virus movie won.
  • Sort Virus 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 search and sort button to make this page very interactive.
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20 thoughts on “Virus Movies

  1. I see UMR always stays attuned to current events! My favorites on the list are 12 Monkeys, The Seventh Seal and Panic in the Streets. I recently saw Train to Busan and I’m wondering if this type of Zombie movie could qualify as a virus movie. After all it seems zombiness is a contagious condition, albeit one that requires a good bite to pass on 🙂 The Satan Bug and Contagion are ones I would like to see. Hope every-one stays healthy!

    1. Hey PhilHoF17. Good to hear from you. I figure with the Corona Virus being everywhere on the internet and sadly in the United States, that I should put this page together. I am right there with in regards to 12 Monkeys and Panic in the Streets. As for Train To Busan…..first of all, I loved that movie….but I decided to leave it in the zombie category…but it almost made it to the page….one of the last ones to get cut from the final table….along with World War Z. Contagion is an excellent movie….and a movie I have been thinking about a lot in the last few days. I have not seen The Satan Bug….but lots of people here at UMR have high praise for it. I am right there with you again…..hope everyone stays healthy.

  2. Hello Bruce and company,
    Good point for a actuality page with movies I never heard apart the apes and resident evil
    and so far away I saw the seventh seal and two of yours photos are from that film ..?
    May be I am wrong but …I think I recognise Max Von Sydow
    Anyway this is a difficult time For the world and I am not sure it will be better next year !!
    Everything is closed in France ,Theater , movie place and the Bar and Cafe too and now we have to stay at home.
    Anyway we have Netflix or OCS
    Have a good time
    Pierre

    1. Hey Pierre. Stay safe and healthy. It looks like we are about a week behind when it comes to the impact the virus is having on your country. You are correct….two of the photos are from The Seventh Seal….the one on the left and the one on the right….Contagion is two of the other photos with Brad Pitt in the 12 Monkeys being in the middle. I agree with you 100%….it is a very difficult time in the world right now. I hope it will be better in a few months. Good to hear from you.

        1. Hey Karen. I agree with you 100%. Eerie that his passing comes during this horrible time. I thought about his chess scenes in The Seventh Seal many times in the last 10 days. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

  3. I have seen only 2 of these movies, both favourites;

    Panic in the Streets and The Seventh Seal.

    I did not see The Killer That Stalked New York from 1950 starring Evelyn Keyes in this table. It is about Smallpox.

    1. Hey Flora….I saw that one but I could not find box office information on that one. Thanks for the feedback on our latest page. Hope everyone in your area is staying safe and healthy.

  4. HI STEVE: Good post. Obviously the sort of big screen genre that you excel in. I am not a great Planet of the Apes fan and Chuck’s original is the only one in the series that I can really recall seeing and my interest was in Chuck and not in the apes. Little Asta Charles is still my fave screen non-human [when the cute little character is not sharing scenes with his Thin Mistress!] though Darwin contended that we are all descended from the apes.

    A hellfire preacher over here once took exception to the latter and reminding a Darwinian that the Bible says we are all made in God’s image demanded from the Darwinian “Are you trying to tell me that Jesus was a monkey – friend?” [Eugene was of course caught up in all that in Inherit the Wind.]

    So I can not match you on commenting on the Planet of the Apes virus story line; but I do agree with you about The Satan Bug. Indeed I liked that movie so much that I went to see it two nights in a row at the local Gloucester Odeon in summer 1965 when I was serving with the Brit Royal Air Force in that city. Here’s a bit of IMDB trivia about the film.

    “John Sturges wanted a gigantic climax on the Los Angeles freeway, with the population trying to evacuate the city before the plague begins. Sturges wanted something exciting, huge, with thousands of cars glued into a behemoth traffic jam. But the mayor and city hall of LA refused. Sturges was livid and felt great grief because of this.”

    1. Hi Bob, appreciate the info. I have a copy of The Satan Bug, might watch it during the week or maybe the weekend.

      Stephen King wrote about a deadly flu-like virus in his magnum opus – The Stand, which was adapted as a TV mini-series in 1994.

      From Wikipedia – “On June 13, at a top-secret government laboratory in rural California, a weaponized version of influenza, called Project Blue, is accidentally released. A U.S. Army soldier on guard duty named Charlie Campion escapes the lab and begins traveling across the country to his family home in East Texas, unintentionally spreading the virus along the way. On June 17, Campion crashes his car into a gas station in the town of Arnette, Texas where Stu Redman (Gary Sinise) and some friends have gathered. As the man lies dying, he warns Redman that he had been pursued by a “Dark Man.” The next day, the U.S. military arrives to quarantine the town. “

      1. Hey Steve…. I loved King’s The Stand book….and I loved the television mini-series too. I wanted to include it on the table…but me and television bias…maybe one day I will get over that…lol.

    2. Hey Bob….lots of favorite actors are on this table….Sir Michael, Bruce, Chuck…..thought about adding Gregory….but On The Beach is not about a virus. I have since added The Satan Bug to the table…so you saw that one two nights in a row….I have not done that too many times in my movie watching career. I will have to check this one out in the near future. As for the Planet of the Ape movies…I have enjoyed them….maybe not as much as Steve does…but I like them. I have a Blu-Ray of the original Planet of the Apes…with a dvd commentary…..maybe I will check that one out in the near future too. Good stuff as always.

      1. HI BRUCE: Thanks for the feedback which as you know I always welcome.

        You certainly displayed excellent analytical skills in desiating such a diverse array of films as falling within the virus genre; and you are to be complimented on hitting the ground running with this new page.

        I see that you have taken Steve’s advice implicidly supported by me of including 1965’s The Hirschhorn Bug.

        As Richard Nixon said when an aide of his was the first to adrress him as “Mr President” following his election in 1968 “Somebody should be writing that down. Such things are important for posterity.”

        A big shock to me on first seeing The Joel Bug was how quickly my fifties hero Dana Andrews had aged.

        As Steve suggests you are nothing if not topical and when I told Daughter o Bob about your Virus page shequickly demanded that I copy it to her which I did; so if you have any way of doing so you could add her in as a ‘proxy’ viewer of this new page! Keep safe.

        1. Hey Bob. Thanks for the return visit to this page. Every time I turn on the news it seems to get worse, so maybe watching movies will help me relieve people stress. I agree, that Dana Andrews age pretty quickly.Glad to know that daughter of Bob was interested in this page. Thanks for sharing the news of it, and for sharing them with her. Good stuff as always.

          1. “Every morning I wake up I calm myself for the battles ahead by assuring myself that I will live forever.” General Douglas MacArthur

  5. A topical subject Bruce, well done. This should cheer everyone up during the pandemic. 😉

    I hope we’re fully prepared for a possibly more lethal virus in the future. Forget nukes a virus might ultimately be the cause of mankind’s extinction.

    I’ve seen 30 of the 40 films on the chart, favorites are – The Omega Man, The Andromeda Strain, Outbreak, I am Legend, Last Man on Earth, the Resident Evil series, the Maze Runner trilogy, 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, 28 Months Later, 28 Years Later, Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, 12 Monkeys, Children of Men, Doomsday and the Masque of the Red Death.

    You left out War for the Planet of the Apes, the virus was still around and it wiped out the main bad guy at the end.

    For consideration – The Satan Bug (1965) featured a terrible virus that could wipe out all life on earth “in a matter of months”. Based on an Alistair Maclean novel.

    Good work Bruce. Vote Up.

    1. Hey Steve…..thanks for checking out our Virus movie page. I figure with the CoronaVirus everywhere….people might be interested in seeing a page on virus movies. Tally count…31 for me. I have added the two you mentioned…so I am sure your tally is now 32. So 32 for you 31 for me. You might be right…it looks like mother Earth might beat the nuclear bombs and global warning in taking us out first. I have seen all of your favorites with the exception of Masque of Red Death. I would put Children on Men, Outbreak, Contagion, 12 Monkeys and The Omega Man in my Top 5. Thanks for the suggestions…as our movies went from 40 to 42. Good stuff.

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