Charlie Chaplin Movies

Charlie Chaplin is AFI's Tenth Greatest Screen Legend actor

Charlie Chaplin is AFI’s Tenth Greatest Screen Legend actor

Want to know the best Charlie Chaplin movies?  How about the worst Charlie Chaplin movies?  Curious about Charlie Chaplin’s box office grosses or which Charlie Chaplin movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Charlie Chaplin 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.

One of our goals here at Ultimate Movie Rankings is do a career movie page on every member of the American Film Institute’s Top 50 Greatest Screen Legends list.  Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) is ranked as the 10th greatest actor on that list. This Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) page is the 34th completed page…..so we are now 68% done with our goal.

Charles “Charlie” Chaplin, was an English comic actor and filmmaker who rose to fame in movie shorts from Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios.  Chaplin and his screen persona “the Tramp” became a worldwide icon.   From his start in shorts, he turned his attention to full length movies.  Between 1921 and 1940, Chaplin would star, write, produce, direct and compose the music for some of the greatest movies ever made!

His IMDb page shows 86 acting credits from 1914-1967. This page will rank 12 Charlie Chaplin full length movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, his many shorts and cameos were not included in the rankings.

Charlie Chaplin in 1940's The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin in 1940’s The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin 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 Charlie Chaplin movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Charlie Chaplin movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Charlie Chaplin movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Charlie Chaplin 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 Charlie Chaplin movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Charlie Chaplin movie won.
  • Sort Charlie Chaplin 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.

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Charlie Chaplin Table

  1. Six Charlie Chaplin movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 50.00% of his movies listed. The Gold Rush (1925) was his biggest box office ht when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
  2. An average Charlie Chaplin movie grosses $194.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  11 of Charlie Chaplin’s movies are rated as good movies…or 91.66% of his movies. The Great Dictator (1940) is his highest rated movie while A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) was his lowest rated movie.
  4. Three Charlie Chaplin movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 37.50% of his movies.  4 of his movies came before Oscars® started.
  5. One Charlie Chaplin movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 12.50% of his movies.  4 of his movies came before Oscars® started.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00.  9 Charlie Chaplin movies scored higher than that average….or 75.00% of his movies. The Great Dictator (1940) got the the highest Cogerson Movie Score while A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) got the lowest Cogerson Movie Score.
Buster Keaton and Charles Chaplin in 1952's Limelight....my favorite Chaplin movie.

Buster Keaton and Charles Chaplin in 1952’s Limelight….my favorite Chaplin movie.

Check out Charlie Chaplin’s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.  A fun Charlie Chaplin website to check out is Steve Lensman’s Charlie Chaplin Movie Posters.  Lots of hard to find Chaplin posters including many of his shorts.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

AFI’s Top 25 Screen Legend Actors….with links to my movie pages on the Screen Legend

2.   Cary Grant
14. Laurence Olivier
16. Orson Welles
20. Marx Brothers
21. Buster Keaton

For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.

52 thoughts on “Charlie Chaplin Movies

  1. Let’s try this again and if it will post this time around. When I was in sixth grade, I had a teacher who would show some of Chaplin’s short films in class. These films usually had Charlie playing his “Little Tramp” character. Those movies were usually fun to watch. Just recently saw both THE GREAT DICTATOR & COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG. THE GREAT DICTATOR has stood the test of time rather well while COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG was so bad that it was rather painful to watch. Two other Chaplin films I have seen are LIMELIGHT and TILLIE’S PUNCTURED ROMANCE. Liked both of them although LIMELIGHT seems to be more of a drama than Chaplin’s other films. I have yet to see either MODERN TIMES or MONSIEUR VERDOUX but I hope to see them sometime in the near future.

  2. 1 Probably the 3 most prestigious performers of the silent era were Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Senior who along with D W Griffith founded United Artists in 1919. Indeed Doug and Mary were not only regarded as Hollywood royalty but their lavish parties at Pickfair mansion were actually attended by real royalty and others of the upper classes. In the early days Charlie seemed welcome enough at those parties but it is said that because he made a nuisance of himself with the young girls Mary stopped inviting him and tried to freeze him out socially.

    2 However he outwitted her by renting apartments opposite Pickfair and kept watch from them during the social season and then gate crashed. Relations between him and Mary became so acrimonious that with a play on her pet nickname of America’s Sweetheart he publicly referred to her acidly as Bank of America’s Sweetheart. Given that ‘Stage Door Johnny’ types wouldn’t have been completely unusual at such parties in those days I’ve often wondered whether Mary’s desire to ostracise him was solely to do with his eye for the ladies or whether he had become an all-round embarrassment to her in view of the class of people she sought to attract to Pickfair.

    3 Doug was Mary’s second husband and when they divorced after 16 years she married a B movie actor called Buddy Rogers who among other things supported Lupe Valez in The Mexican Spitfire film series ,and who was wildly handsome and was nicknamed America’s Boyfriend, the ideal companion for America’s Sweetheart! However Doug Fairbanks never stopped being Mary’s real ‘boyfriend’ in her heart and according to Buddy Rogers in later life Mary’s last years were spent tragically bedridden and she would often lie alone in her room calling out “Doug! Doug!” She was apparently always delighted when Douglas Fairbanks Jr [by Doug Senior’s 1st marriage] visited her in her declinging years and her nickname for him was Jaymar.

    4 I’m certain she never pined for Chaplin in her dying days but I don’t care because for me as a movie buff Charlie’s great screen legend will always be in cement and I welcome this update which we are lucky to have considering the date of some of the films.

    1. Hey Bob.
      1. I agree with your assessment on the three biggies of he silent era….it is a shame that Pickfair no longer exists…as it was torn down many years ago. The things that place saw.
      2. Interesting behind the scenes stories on Chaplin and Pickford…I read they butted heads when it came time to sell their shares of United Artists….I think it is widely considered that she was one of the best business people of that era.
      3. The Pickford/Fairbanks is one of the great love stories of all-time…not just in the movie world. Good to know that Jr. stayed in touch with his step mother.
      4. Good point about Chapin’s work surviving….I have actually been watching many of his classics for the first time….Limelight really impressed me.
      Thanks for your thoughts on Mr. Chaplin.

      1. 1 Interesting story of yours about the shares which probably supports my own theory that there was more to the acrimony of their relationship than Charlie’s flirting though that obviously wouldn’t have helped if Doug and Mary were courting Royalty for their social circle. Indeed long before Tracy anointed Gable Doug was known as the King of Hollywood.

        2 Doug Senior died at 56 and according to Jaymar it was refusing to accept old age that killed his father as he insisted upon continuing to swim rivers, jog and practice javelin throwing.Some years a ago a season of his great silent swashbuckler movies was shown in London and critics said they were stunning for their day and he looked very dynamic and athletic in them. When United Artists was launched one of the publicity photos released was of Chaplin, Mary, Doug and Griffith standing in a group with Doug holding up little Charlie with one arm!

        3 Mary’s bitter feud with Chaplin and her killer business instinct showed she was not the sweet little Mary of public esteem but then Charlie was not exactly the lovable little tramp in private either. Brando was a silent comedy buff who collected all Chaplin’s work but Bud came to detest him as a person when they made Countess together saying that Charlie could be a very vindictive and cruel at times. Of course it wouldn’t have helped matters that according to supporting actress Tippi Hendren Charlie insisted in directing the Oscar winning Bud as if he was a novice!

        1. Hey Bob…..I agree with your #1 comment. Comment #2….well…I respect that Sr. was still so active and willing to do things like swim rivers, jog and practice javelin throwing….I guess he went out well the going was still good….lol. Yep Mary Pickford was one smart executive….too bad she did not have any kids. As always…thanks for the visit and the comment.

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