1929 Movies

This movie page looks at 1929 Top Box Office Movies.  Finding box office information for movies made in the 1920s and 1930s is extremely difficult.   For somebody looking for box office information on 1930 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 1929 movies in our database.

To make this list a movie had to be made in 1929.  Obviously many movies made in 1928 earned box office dollars in 1929.  On the other side many movies made in 1929 made money in 1930 and later.  This page looks at 1929 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.

1929’s In Old Arizona

Our UMR Top 50 of 1929

1929 Top Box Office 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 1929 Top Box Office Movies by the stars or in some cases the director of the movie.
  • Sort 1929 Top Box Office Movies by domestic actual box office grosses
  • Sort 1929 Top Box Office Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
  • Sort 1929 Top Box Office 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 1929 Top Box Office Movies received.
  • Sort 1929Top Box Office 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.

Top earners in 1929 for Adjusted USA Box Office:

Want to see our 1929 Worldwide Box Office Grosses? Then follow this link.

Mike’s 1929 Box Office Grosses….actual totals from Variety

1929 Box Office Grosses – Source Variety | Ultimate Movie Rankings

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31 thoughts on “1929 Movies”

  1. Hello Everybody,
    I love that page, very amazing , and because i follow the work of Laurent on his French site , i am very interrested, some name are completely forgotten like Joe Ed Brown who was very famous in those days, and if my memory is good, Ramon Novarro was Ben Hur in 1927 a very great box office but no big hit in 1929 for him.
    So many big names who deasapear because it the last big year for silent movie;
    Funny to see Maurice Chevalier in N 2 at BO, i know for Cooper the Virginian was one his best succes at the beginning of his career
    A little surprise, where is the IT Girl, Clara Bow, no one films even if it is just 89 films for the moment;if my memory is good she was at Paramount,,,,,,,,may be that the reason
    Lol……
    And Pola Negri, the German star before the came of Dietrich.
    Bravo, Bravissimo
    Pierre

    Reply

    1. Hello again,

      If my memory is good, Pola Negri and Gloria Swanson were the best friend for ever…..
      And Swanson is in the BO of 1929
      So long
      Pierre

      Reply

      2. Hey Pierre…good trivia on Negri and Swanson…..thanks for adding that to your other outstanding comment on 1929 movies.

        Reply

    2. Hey Pierre
      1. Good to hear from you.
      2. I checked out Laurent’s 1929 page while putting this one together.
      3. You are so right…the names listed here are indeed a blast from the past.
      4. Ramón Novarro had a nice long career…but I doubt few even know he was Ben Hur decade s before Heston was.
      5. Your comment, which is filled with knowledge….just tells me…my movie knowledge is very lacking….but you and others are helping me improve.
      Good feedback as always.

      Reply

  2. An interesting movie year page Bruce, by 1929 silent movie production was falling fast and the talkies were on the rise. Sound effects and music were added to some older movies and rereleased in theaters.

    Wikipedia has a good breakdown on “1929 in film” with plenty of trivia it’s worth a look. But it doesn’t have the stats presented here at UMR.

    I’ve seen just three of the 89 films on the chart – The Cocoanuts, The Virginian and The Mysterious Island. Looking at my files I have 11 films from 1929 in my collection, they are –

    Blackmail
    Broadway Melody ,The
    Cocoanuts ,The
    Flight
    Four Feathers ,The
    In Old Arizona
    Iron Mask ,The
    Mysterious Island ,The
    Spite Marriage
    Virginian ,The
    zz-Germany – Woman in the Moon

    I’ve watched 5 from that lot – The Cocoanuts, The Virginian, The Mysterious Island, Woman in the Moon and Blackmail (Hitchcock’s first film with sound).

    Looking at the domestic box office chart Sunnyside Up was the biggest hit of the year, and The Virginian the best rated.

    Wikipedia lists Broadway Melody as the biggest hit in worldwide rentals with Sunnyside Up at no.3. Broadway Melody was the second film to win the Best Picture Oscar, Wings was the first (1927/28)

    Good stuff as always Bruce. Vote Up!

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve…thanks for stopping by and checking out our latest page. Tally count….bob cox 6, you 3 and me at a lowly 2. You are so right, by describing this year as interesting. Probably the craziest year in Hollywood history…silent movies…sound movies…the Great Depression….silent movies turned into sound movies. I am sure the studios did not know how things would work out. I agree the 1929 wiki page has lots of good trivia….but not a whole lot of box office information. I have not seen Hitchcock’s Blackmail, but I want to. My dvd collection has zero of these or any other 1929 movies. Kudos to your collection for having double digit 1929 movies. Good feedback as always.

      Reply

  3. Great ultimate page. great year for ladies with 9 of top 15 including top 4. wwboxoffice dominated by myMyrna. virtual 3 way tie for top spot domboxoffice: shearer, Crawford, loy also a great year for louise brooks who had the top 2 movies of her career( pandoras box, diary of a lost girl (very dark), 2 OF top 5 rated for 1929 by letterboxd,) in Europe. PHANTOM OF OPERA a silent film from 1925 was rereleased as a talkie 1929, lon chaney. I saw 6, no 10s, no favorites. no hidden gems except historical interest of phantom making a talkie from a silent movie. yea Myrna loy, yea shearer, yea Crawford, yea cogerson, yea WoC, Yea commenters on UMR.

    Reply

    1. Hey bob cox…great comment. You know a lot more about this year in movies than I do. I have only seen 2 of these movies……Broadway Melody and Disraeli. I agree there are some major Hollywood legends in the Top Stars of the year. I did get a kick out of seeing Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Greta Grabo appearing on the table. Your tally of 6, triples my tally count. Good feedback.

      Reply

  4. Do not know many if any of these movies. I do however, appreciate you providing this info. I hope you do some 1990s movies. I was a teenager in the late 1990s and have fond memories of many movies from that time.

    Reply

    2. Hey Layla….I am sure we will eventually get some 1990s pages done. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

      Reply

  5. Thought we had more 1929 movies…but it turns out we do not! But I think having the stats of 89 1929 movies is the most anywhere on the internet…..but can it still be an “ultimate” page?

    Reply

    1. UMR might add other 1929( Oscar nominees or more) movies without box office numbers. you can ask commenters for help with resources for box office. Oscar first given for 1929 in 1930.

      Reply

      1. Hey bob cox….obviously I will be happy to get any box office information on 1929 movies. Almost all of these movies are from the ledgers from MGM, RKO and Warner Brothers. These movies are almost 90 years old…so I am glad to have almost 100 movies listed here.

        Reply

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