Want to know the best Cecil B. DeMille movies? How about the worst Cecil B. DeMille movies? Curious about Cecil B. DeMille box office grosses or which Cecil B. DeMille movie picked up the most Oscar nominations? Need to know which Cecil B. DeMille 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 much more.
“I make my pictures for people, not for critics.” – Cecil B. DeMille.
Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959) was one of the most successful directors in the history of Hollywood. The best way to realize just how successful DeMille was, is to say that Steven Spielberg is the modern day Cecil B. DeMille. They both made many blockbuster movies, they both directed movies for almost 50 years, they both ran studios, they both remained relevant even as they got older and they both changed how movies were made. Since we had already written a movie page on Spielberg we figured it was time to do a page on Mr. DeMille.
Drivel part: Gotta give my wife kudos. Currently she is getting her masters degree from the College of William and Mary. Recently, my wife came home from college and gave me a book that she had checked out from the William and Mary library (which is one awesome library). She said, “I think you will find this book interesting.” The book she handed me was Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood by Robert S. Birchard. This book turned out to have box office information and production costs on almost every single DeMille movie ever made. For someone who spends a lot of time searching for long lost box office information, I can tell you that this was an awesome find by my wife. There is no way I would have even thought about doing this page without that book. So if you find this page interesting…then you have to thank my awesome wife…because without her there is no way I would have done this page. Kudos to Robert S. Birchard too…as he wrote a book that is educational and interesting.
Cecil B. DeMille’s IMDb page shows 80 directing credits from 1914-1956. This page will rank 67 Cecil B. DeMille movies from Best to Worst in seven different sortable columns of information. The remaining 13 credits were short films…..and were not included in the rankings.
Cecil B. DeMille 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 Cecil B. DeMille movies by the stars of his movies.
- Sort Cecil B. DeMille movies by the actual box office grosse (in millions)
- Sort Cecil B. DeMille movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Cecil B. DeMille 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 Cecil B. DeMille movie received and
- Sort Cecil B. DeMille 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Cecil B. DeMille Table
- Thirty-two Cecil B. DeMille movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 47.76% of his movies listed. The Ten Commandments (1956) was his biggest box office ht when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
- An average Cecil B. DeMille movie grossed $145.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 35 of Cecil B. DeMille’ movies are rated as good movies…or 52.23% of their movies. Something To Think About (1920) is his highest rated movie while Chimmie Fadden Out West (1915) was his lowest rated movie.
- Thirteen Cecil B. DeMille movie received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or *68.42% of his movies. *48 of his movies were made before the birth of the Academy Awards®
- Six Cecil B. DeMille movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or *31.57% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00. 40 Cecil B. DeMille movies scored higher than that average….or 59.70% of his movies. The Ten Commandments (1923) got the the highest UMR Score while Chimmie Fadden Out West (1915) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Cecil B. DeMille
1. Cecil B. DeMille was born in born in Ashfield, Massachusetts in 1881.
2. Cecil B. DeMille was one of the 36 co-founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
3. Cecil B. DeMille was nominated for 3 Oscars®. He picked up a Best Director Oscar® nomination for The Greatest Show On Earth (1952). He earned 2 Best Producer Oscar nominations for 1952’s The Greatest Show on Earth (he won) and 1956’s The Ten Commandments. He would have had many more nominations, but most of his movies pre-date the Oscars®.
4. Cecil B. DeMille did receive two Honorary Oscars®. In 1953 he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. In 1950 he was given a Honorary Oscar® for “Distinguished motion picture pioneer for 37 years of brilliant showmanship.”
5. In 1952, Cecil B. DeMille was the first person to receive the Golden Globe® Cecil B. DeMille Award. The award is a lifetime achievement award….the list of Cecil B. DeMille Award Winners is truly impressive.
6. Many people know that Cecil B. DeMille made The Ten Commandments (1923 & 1956) two times in his career. How many people realize he made The Squaw Man THREE TIMES? He made the first Squaw Man in 1914, the second in 1918 and the third in 1931.
7. The movie line from Sunset Blvd (1950)… “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up” was voted as the #7 movie quote by the American Film Institute. The line is spoken by Gloria Swanson. Swanson starred in two DeMille movies. Cecil B. DeMille agreed to do a cameo in the movie for a $10,000 fee and a brand-new Cadillac.
8. Cecil B. DeMille was married one time. He was married to Constance Adams from 1902 to his death in 1959. They had four children. Two time Oscar winner, Anthony Quinn, was DeMille’s son-in-law.
9. Cecil B. DeMille turned Charlton Heston into a star. DeMille signed the relatively unknown Heston to a 3 picture deal. Their first movie together, The Greatest Show On Earth (1952), was a massive hit and won the Best Picture Oscar®. Their second movie together, The Ten Commandments (1956), is one of the biggest box office hits ever! It is a shame that they never made the third film.
10. According to Cecil B. DeMille only 6 of his movies did not turn a profit. That is very impressive when you realize he made so many movies.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globe® is a registered trademarks.
Is it true that the grand total of Cecil B. DeMille’s box-office grosses, when adjusted for inflation, comes to $30 billion?
Hey Gabriel….that sounds a little high. The combined adjusted “domestic gross” of these movies listed here is $9.77 billion…..even if you doubled the total for adjusted “worldwide gross” it would be in the 20 billion neighborhood versus the 30 billion neighborhood. Sadly….worldwide grosses for his movies are even harder to find. Hope that answers your question.
Hello Bruce. I like your Cecil B. Demille page. But I was wondering if 1936’s “The Plainsman” box office gross of $5,010,000 is a worldwide gross or domestic gross. I only ask this because your Gary Cooper page has the domestic gross at $3,130,000. But it looks like you got some new information from a book source on Mr. Demille, what with all the film budget information. Thanks for another great page.
Hey Lyle…good catch. As great as that book was….they did not mention whether the numbers given in that book were domestic or worldwide rentals. That was the main reason I did not identify that in that column. That being said…..I feel confident all of the movies from 1914-1930 are domestic totals. Those numbers came from his trusted secretary. I think when he left his film company….those record keeping ways stopped. So for his remaining movies….I had to guess if the movie gross was domestic or worldwide….in The Plainsman case….I think the 5.00 million total was worldwide…..so to avoid confusion I just switched the number back to the found on my Cooper page. That number fits better when looking at all of the 1936 movies….if the movie had earned 5 million back then it would have been the number one movie of the year…..and none of my resources even suggest it was in the Top 10…..much less the Top Dog. Hope that clears things up. FYI….the book also gives box office numbers for another 40 to 50 movies from 1928 to 1930. As always thanks for checking out one of my latest movies.