Want to know the best Fred Zinnemann movies? How about the worst Fred Zinnemann movies? Curious about Fred Zinnemann box office grosses or which Fred Zinnemann movie picked up the most Oscar nominations? Need to know which Fred Zinnemann 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.
Fred Zinnemann (1907-1997) was an Oscar® winning Austro-American film director. He directed films in many genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and play adaptations. He was nominated 7 times for a Best Director Oscar®….winning two times. His 7 nominations tie him for the 4th most directing nominations ever! Only William Wyler (12 nominations), Billy Wilder (8 nominations) and Martin Scorsese (8 nominations) received more nominations.
His IMDb page shows 47 directing credits from 1930-1982. This page will rank 21 Fred Zinnemann movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Shorts, documentaries and tv shows were not included in the rankings.
Fred Zinnemann 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 Fred Zinnemann movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Fred Zinnemann movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Fred Zinnemann movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Fred Zinnemann 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 many Oscar® wins each Fred Zinnemann movie received and
- Sort Fred Zinnemann 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 Fred Zinnemann Table
- Nine Fred Zinnemann movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 42.85% of his movies listed. From Here to Eternity (1953) was his biggest box office hit when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
- An average Fred Zinnemann movie grosses $118.40 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 19 of Fred Zinnemann’ movies are rated as good movies…or 90.47% of his movies. High Noon (1952) is his highest rated movie while Five Days One Summer (1982) was his lowest rated movie.
- Fourteen Fred Zinnemann movie received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 66.66% of his movies.
- Six Fred Zinnemann movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 28.57% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 39.86. 14 Fred Zinnemann movies scored higher than that average….or 66.66% of his movies. A Man for All Seasons (1966) got the the highest UMR Score while Five Days One Summer (1982) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Fred Zinnemann
1. Fred Zinnemann was born in Rzeszów, Poland in 1907.
2. Fred Zinnemann grew up in Austria. Originally he wanted to become a musician, but went on to graduate with a law degree from the University of Vienna in 1927.
3. Fred Zinnemann moved to Paris in 1929 where he studied at Ecole Technique de Photographie et Cinématographie. In Germany he worked with another movie beginner, Billy Wilder, on the movie People on Sunday.
4. Fred Zinnemann’s first job in Hollywood was as an extra in All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).
5. Fred Zinnemann received a Best Director Oscar® nomination for 33.33% of the movies he directed. Compare that percentage to other great directors: Spielberg 24.13%, Lean 43.75%, Allen 15.21%, Scorsese 32.00%, Wyler 33.33%, Wilder 32.00% and M. Night Shyamalan 10.00%.
6. Fred Zinnemann won 4 Oscars® in his career. He won a Best Documentary Oscar® (Benjy) in 1952. He won a Best Director Oscar® in 1953 (From Here To Eternity) and 1966 (A Man For All Seasons). He also won a Best Picture Oscar® for A Man For All Seasons.
7. Fred Zinnemann directed 18 different actors in Oscar®-nominated performances: Hume Cronyn, Montgomery Clift, Gary Cooper, Julie Harris, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Anthony Franciosa, Audrey Hepburn, Glynis Johns, Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, Wendy Hiller, Jason Robards, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda and Maximilian Schell. Cooper (High Noon), Redgrave (Julia), Robards (Julia), Sinatra (From Here To Eternity), Reed (From Here To Eternity) and Scofield (A Man For All Seasons) won Oscars® for their performances in one of Zinneman’s movies.
7. Fred Zinnemann directed the film debuts of Montgomery Clift (1948’s The Search), Marlon Brando (1950’s The Men) and Meryl Streep (1977’s Julia).
8. Fred Zinnemann was married one time. He was married to Renee Bartlett from 1936 to his death in 1997. They had one child.
9. Fred Zinnemann’s favorites. His favorite movie he directed was 1952’s The Member of the Wedding His favorite individual scene is Sir Thomas More’s goodbye to his wife and daughter in 1966’s A Man for All Seasons. Many people would say their favorite Zinnemann moment is Burt Lancaster kissing Deborah Kerr on the beach in 1953’s From Here To Eternity.
10. Check out Fred Zinnemann’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.
Want more movie stats? Well here you go. Worldwide Box Office Totals on 9 Fred Zinnemann movies:
- Act of Violence (1948) $61.60 million in adjusted box office
- Day of the Jackal, The (1973) $169.40 million in adjusted box office
- Eyes in the Night (1942) $81.60 million in adjusted box office
- Kid Glove Killer (1942) $41.30)million in adjusted box office
- Little Mister Jim (1947) $48.80 million in adjusted box office
- My Brother Talks To Horses (1947) $60.10 million in adjusted box office
- The Nun’s Story (1959) $461.30 million in adjusted box office
- The Seventh Cross (1944) $302.90 million in adjusted box office
- Teresa (1951) $83.80 million in adjusted box office
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I have a question about the movie known as THE CLOCK starring Judy Garland and Robert Walker. It was always my understanding that Vincent Minnelli directed that movie from the various biographers I read about Judy Garland. What part did Zinneman play in the making of that movie? Was he a producer or scriptwriter for the film? If anyone can refresh my memory about the film, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks In Advance.
If I remember correctly, Zimmerman was the original director, but he and Garland did not get along, so he was replaced by Minnelli.
Thanks for your response. Flora. It is greatly appreciated.
BRUCE
Good Zimmerman update but I can’t understand your presentation of the WW stats – where does the $61.60 keep coming in? Fred was of course Bud’s very first ever director with The Men aka Battle Stripe. What a way for Mr Mumbles to start his career !
Fixed.