Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies

Want to know the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movies?  How about the worst Arnold Schwarzenegger movies?  Curious about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s box office grosses or which Arnold Schwarzenegger movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Arnold Schwarzenegger movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which ones got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

I have already done pages on 1980s action stars Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone, so I figured a page on the last original founder of Planet Hollywood was overdue. Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947-) is a body builder, turned actor, turned politician who has returned to acting.   Arnold first appearance in a movie was in 1970’s Hercules In New York. He was billed as Arnold Strong and had his voice dubbed over. The rest of the 70s saw Arnold appear in a couple of weight-lifting movies and some supporting roles in movies like Stay Hungry and The Villain. In 1982, Arnold starred in Conan the Barbarian. Conan was a box office success and showed that Arnold could carry a film.

In 1984, he made the first of three appearances as the title character in director James Cameron’s The Terminator. The success of The Terminator, turned Arnold into a Hollywood superstar. From 1984-1997 he appeared in numerous successful films. Films like The Running Man, Predator, Twins, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop and True Lies. In 1997 he appeared as Mr. Freeze in the worst Batman movie ever….Batman and Robin. After the critical failure of Batman & Robin, his film career and box office pull went into decline. His last movie before he became Governor of California was Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines.  After leaving office, Arnold, returned to making movies.  So far the results have been pretty disappointing.  Maybe the big man has one more big movie in him.

His IMDb page shows 74 acting credits since 1970. This page will rank 35 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.

Danny DeVito and Arnold in 1988's Twins

Danny DeVito and Arnold in 1988’s Twins

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

Arnold Schwarzenegger 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 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
  • Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
  • Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger 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 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie received.
  • Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger 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 buttons to make this a very interactive page….for example…if you want to see the three James Cameron/Arnold movies only….then type “James Cameron” in the search box and up pop the three movies.
Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987's The Running Man

Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987’s The Running Man

The Best of Arnold Schwarzenegger

#5 Predator (1987)  Predator is Arnold’s third highest rated movie by critics and audiences with a 85% score, while finishing 9th on his top box office hits list. Whenever you read a article on the greatest action movies this movie is always in the conversation. Like the Terminator this movie also spawned many sequels.  The movie was directed by John McTiernan, who after finishing this movie moved on to another action film called Die Hard. No wonder he became known as a great action director after those back to back movies. Did you know….that Kevin Peter Hall who played the Predator also played Bigfoot in Harry and the Hendersons?  Did you know?  The Predator’s mandibles came from a suggestion by James Cameron.  Mandibles (jawbones) are the bones that form the skull with the cranium.  I was not really sure what mandibles were so I had to look it up.

#4 The Terminator (1984)  I have very fond memories of watching this movie at the theater. The audience reaction was one of the best I have ever experienced. I have forced my teenagers to watch this movie and even they like it….imagine that. The Terminator is Arnold’s highest rated movie according to critics and audiences with a 91% score but it barely cracks his Top Ten box office hit list…coming in at #10. This movie put James Cameron on the Hollywood map, turned Arnold into a superstar and started one of the most successful movie franchises ever.   I can not believe it has been over 30 years since the release of this classic movie.

#3 True Lies (1994)  Arnold plays Harry Tasker, a man leading a double life. For the sake of his wife and daughter he pretends to be a boring computer salesperson. For the sake of the country, he is a super agent and one of the last defenses who works for the secret government agency The Omega Sector. Since this is a James Cameron movie, True Lies was one of the most expensive films ever made, costing about $110 million in 1994. But the money was well spent as True Lies was the number three movie of the year with over $750 million dollars in adjusted worldwide box office grosses.  Many highlights in this movie.  For me the performance of Tom Arnold is one that I think about when I think about True Lies.  I thought at the time Tom Arnold was headed for big things…..sadly nearly twenty years later and this is his career pinnacle.

#2 Total Recall (1990)  Arnold’s 3rd biggest blockbuster hit with over 229 million in adjusted domestic box office dollars dollars. This great science fiction film was based on Phillip K. Dick’s story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”. Of all the Phillip K. Dicks’s stories to be turned into movies, Total Recall joins Blade Runner and Minority Report as the best of the bunch. This was one of the last big budget movies to use miniature sets versus computer effects. Before Arnold got the role, Richard Dreyfuss, Christoper Reeve and Patrick Swayze were offered the role

#1 Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)  Schwarzenegger’s biggest box office hit with a box office gross of over 1 BILLION when looking at worldwide adjusted box office dollars. Terminator 2: Judgement Day(or T2) is ranked the forty-second best movie on IMDB.  Arnold, Linda Hamilton and James Cameron all returned for this sequel. Even Kyle Reese shows up in a dream sequence if you ever watch the director’s cut.

The film’s visual effects included many breakthroughs in computer graphics that would change the way movies would be made. T2 won four Oscars® for makeup, sound mixing, sound editing, and visual effects. Arnold gets to play the good terminator this time out, while Robert Patrick as the bad T-1000, steals the show in my opinion.

There were two more sequels in this franchise but they have not been in the class as the first two.  I am thinking that might have something to do with James Cameron or more like the lack of James Cameron.

Check out Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Steve Lensman’s Arnold Schwarzenegger You Tube Video

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79 thoughts on “Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies

  1. HI STEVE As always, I value your excellent feedback which as usual is packed with additional information and fine quotes, one of which I copy back to you-

    “Arnold on Stallone – “It is a great inspiration for people to see someone at his age still at the top of his game — acting, writing, directing, doing his own stunts and fight scenes — I mean, what an amazing talent. And for him to still be so athletic and be able to rip off his shirt and have a six-pack is just unbelievable.”

    In the great Jean-Paul Sartre’s highly-acclaimed philosophical trilogy The Roads to Freedom [the first book of which was published in 1945] the central character is a teacher called Mathieu, whose observations on life are narrated by him as the stories unfold. In one part of his narration he comments on a very aged character in a gathering who has gone to great lengths to keep his body in good physical shape. Mathieu reflects on the fact that although the aged one’s actions have been commendable the end-result is to make him look ridiculous – an old head on a seemingly young body. Then Mathieu further morbidly thinks “And in the end it will all be for nothing: the worms will get it.”

    My London cousin is no intellectual or philosopher like Sartre, but she is very plain spoken – like The Donald claims that he does, she “tells it as it is”. My late father kept himself in good shape and at 75 for example he looked a good bit younger than he actually was. He was conscious of that fact and often fished for compliments on the basis of it. On one occasion he appeared in a new suit of which he was proud, and he said to my cousin and me “I don’t look too bad for a man of 75, do I?” to which she quickly retorted “It doesn’t matter what you look like Harry. There’s an auld clock in you that says 75!”

    Stallone has a head which if it isn’t face-lifted looks as if it has been mummified or borrowed from Frankenstein’s monster and inside him is a “auld clock” that says 73. Worse: he still cant act and directs and produces nothing that is of any philosophical content whatsoever and which will not even be of BASIC lasting value.

    1. Ouch! Not one of your best posts Bob. All that’s missing are the words “And I hope he drops dead real soon” at the end of your post.

      To paraphrase Steve Martin “what did he ever do to you?”.

      1. HI STEVE

        Just trying to bring a bit of balance to affairs. But of course it is always possible that Arnie was just using Sly to praise himself.

        1. I meant to say that you mentioned Arnie is doing more Terminator, Sly is giving us more Rambo and Harrison hopes to wheel Indie out again.

          You suggested to me a month or so that I could improve myself by moving out of my comfort zone in movie preferences. Is there nothing ELSE that even you would like those guys to try, or do you feel a proper role is now beyond them?

          One hears that in nature some animals eat their young but it seems to me that the trio you have just mentioned are eating themselves by continually ripping off their own movies

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