This movie page looks at 1928 Movies. Finding box office information for movies made in the 1920s and 1930s is extremely difficult. For somebody looking for box office information on 1928 it is very very frustrating. Over the years, we have researched and collected information on over 36,000 movies. So we figured we would show all the 1928 movies in our database.
To make this list a movie had to be made in 1928. Obviously many movies made in 1927 earned box office dollars in 1928. On the other side many movies made in 1928 made money in 1929 and later. This page looks at over 80 1928 Top Box Office Movies. The movies are listed in a massive table that lets you rank the movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. We will update this page on a regular basis.
Our UMR Top 50 of 1928
1928 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 1928 Movies by the stars or in some cases the director of the movie.
- Sort 1928 Movies by domestic actual box office grosses
- Sort 1928 Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort 1928 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 1928 Movies received.
- Sort 1928 Movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking Score (UMR). Our UMR score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Since December 1992 I have only seen 30 1928 films, most from Turner Classic Movies.
ACROSS TO SINGAPORE 1928 MGM 8/8 2013 TCM
BATTLE OF THE SEXES 1928 UA 10/1 2012 TCM
CHAMPAGNE (U.K.) 1928 WARDOUR 6/6 2013 DVD
CIRCUS, THE 1928 UA 12/9 1997 AMC
COSSACKS, THE 1928 MGM 7/29 2014 TCM
CROWD, THE 1928 MGM 12/10 2012 TCM
GARDEN OF EDEN 1928 UA 5/16 2011 TCM
GAUCHO, THE 1928 UA 4/28 1997 AMC
LADY OF CHANCE 1928 MGM 5/7 2012 TCM
LAUGH, CLOWN, LAUGH 1928 MGM 8/16 2011 TCM
LIGHTS OF NEW YORK 1928 WB 3/21 2004 TCM
LODGER, THE (U.K.) 1928 AMER ANGLO 4/25 2013 DVD
MATING CALL 1928 PAR 7/26 2012 TCM
MYSTERIOUS LADY 1928 MGM 9/30 2013 TCM
NOAH’S ARK 1928 WB 4/5 1999 TCM
PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (FR.) 1928 12/24 2012 TCM
PATSY, THE 1928 MGM 8/29 2017 TCM
RACKET, THE 1928 PAR 7/9 2012 TCM
SHOW PEOPLE 1928 MGM 11/18 2013 TCM
SINGING FOOL 1928 WB 11/18 2014 TCM
SMART SET 1928 MGM 9/21 2011 TCM
SPEEDY 1928 PAR 4/7 2003 TCM
STREET ANGEL 1928 FOX 9/13 2012 FXM
TRAIL OF ’98 1928 MGM 12/31 2002 TCM
VIKING, THE 1928 MGM 4/28 2014 TCM
WEDDING MARCH 1928 PAR 8/5 2016 TCM
WEST OF ZANZIBAR 1928 MGM 8/16 2011 TCM
WEST POINT 1928 MGM 5/28 2012 TCM
WIND, THE 1928 MGM 8/16 2012 DVD
WOMAN OF AFFAIRS 1928 MGM 9/18 2012 TCM
FXM is Fox Movie Channel, AMC was American Movie Classics
I saw Steamboat Bill years ago at a Buster Keaton series at a revival theater.
I have seen 8 movies from 1928. I though my total would be higher.
The HIGHEST rated film I have seen is In Old Arizona.
The highest rated film I have NOT seen is The Circus.
The LOWEST rated film I have seen is Our Dancing Daughters.
Favourite 1928 Movies:
In Old Arizona
The Last Command
Speedy
Steamboat Bill Jr.
The Cameraman
Other Films I Have Seen:
The Crowd
Noah’s Ark
Our Dancing Daughters
Hey Flora
1. Tally count…. your 8 ties the combined total of 8 for me and Steve
2. I have seen The Circus, Steamboat, and In Old Arizona.
3. The Circus is ok….but one of Chaplin’s weaker vehicles.
4. I enjoyed In Old Arizona, though Baxter’s performance seems really over the top….it has not aged well at all.
5. My favorite would be Keaton’s Steamboat Willie…..the stunts are amazing to watch.
6. I would like to track Speedy….it looks promising.
Good stuff as always.
Burlington – North Carolina
I’m amazed you found box office stats on all these ancient movies Bruce, well done.
Out of the 84 films on the chart I’ve seen just 5 – The Circus, The Cameraman, Speedy, Steamboat Bill Jr and Noah’s Ark.
I have 12 films from 1928 in my movie collection, I haven’t watched them all –
Cameraman ,The
Circus ,The
Man Who Laughs ,The
Mysterious Lady
Noah’s Ark
Speedy
Steamboat Bill Jr
Viking ,The
West of Zanzibar
Wind ,The
zz-France – Fall of the House of Usher
zz-Germany – Spies
Looking at the box office chart – Al Jolson was a bonafide superstar back then and Chaplin was the king of the silent movie comedians.
Nice work amigo. Vote Up!
Hey Steve…well the ledgers helped locate lots of these box office grosses, I have only seen 3 of these movies to your 5. Combined we tie Flora. I only have Steamboat in my collection. I actually had a hard time getting reviews for some of these movies. Apparently many of the people that saw these movies 80 years ago are not hanging out st IMDb and Rotten ?…..lol. I think 1927 will be the last one on this end….the stats are simply not out there, good stuff as always.
HI BRUCE Just as you are going deep forward into the modern era you are now going deep in the other direction into the silent era of movies. That’s a bonus for any movie stats buff as the buff will not be able to get comprehensive stats on individual years of the silent era [if he/she can get ANY stats at all for that era] other than on your site.
Of course I think we have now got to the stage going backward in the classic/silent eras where you and Steve will not be able to “get ***” by boasting to us about the great number of movies you have seen!
Of particular assistance to me is your practice of giving us actual as well as adjusted grosses as that enables me to again indulge my passion of comparing ticket price inflation with purchasing power of producers/distributors’ actual grosses. That comparison is as follows in relation to 1928 movies
Cogerson total adjusted gross Top 10 in 1928 – $1.7 billion
Total Actual gross of Top 10 – $64.4 million
Purchasing power of $64.4 million in 2018 money – $920 million.
In short according to the Consumer Price Index of the US Bureau of Labour Stats purchasing power today of 1928 actual grosses is just 54% of what the movies would rake in if released at today’s prices. That equation naturally applies throughout the entries in the table.
By the way you have given us actual grosses so far for every year but 1942 and 1946. Any reason for that? Anyway this new page gives us a compelling, almost uncanny and comprehensive insight of the movies marketplace of 1928. Fascinating – and “Voted Up!” plus, plus.
Hey Bob…..I think 1927 will be the last yearly review on this side of the timeline. 1927 was the first year of the Oscars….so the UMR formula will not work in 1926 and earlier.
Thanks for the kind words about these yearly reviews. Not sure why those years do not have the actual grosses…I will try and remember to include those when I get back home.
Appreciate the stats using the CPI…very interesting. Good feedback as always.
Greensboro North Carolina
This now gives us 58 straight years of yearly reviews…from 1928 to 1985. Well we are proud of ourselves….lol.