1938 Top Grossing Movies

Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood

This movie page looks at 1938 Top Grossing Movies.  Finding box office information for movies made in the 1930s and 1940s is extremely difficult.   For somebody looking for box office information on 1938 it is very very frustrating.  Over the years, we have researched and collected information on over 33,000 movies.  So we figured we would show all the 1938 movies in our database.

To make this list a movie had to be made in 1938.  Obviously many movies made in 1937 earned box office dollars in 1938.  On the other side many movies made in 1938 made money in 1939 and later.  This page will looks at 125 1938 Top Grossing 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.

The following massive table only includes the movies made in 1938 that are in our database.  Since we are constantly adding new movies to our database….this page will quickly become obsolete.  We will try and update this page on a regular basis.

Clark Gable & Myrna Loy in Test Pilot…a Best Picture Oscar nominee

Our UMR Top 50 of 1938

1938 Top Grossing 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 1938 Top Grossing Movies by the stars or in some cases the director of the movie.
  • Sort 1938 Top Grossing Movies by domestic actual box office grosses (in millions)
  • Sort 1938 Top Grossing Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort 1938 Top Grossing 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 1938 Top Grossing Movies received.
  • Sort 1938 Top Grossing 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.
Katharine Hepburn & Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby

My Main Sources

Source 1: Eddie Mannix MGM Ledgers

Source 2: C.J. Tevlin RKO Ledgers

Source 3: Variety Magazine – January 6th 1943

Source 4: Year In Review Variety Editions – 1941,1942,1947,1954,1961,1968,1971,1974

Source 5: Grand Design: Hollywood As A Modern Business Enterprise 1930-1942 by Tino Balio

Source 6: Twentieth Century-Fox A Corporate and Financial History by Aubrey Solomon

Source 7:  Wikipedia

Source 8:  IMDb.com

Source 9:  “Revenue sharing and the coming of sound” by H. Mark Glancy

Source 10: Hollywood Power Stats by Christopher Reynolds

My Yearly Review Pages

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

If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.

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33 thoughts on “1938 Top Grossing Movies”

  1. Hi

    I suppose by 1938, America was recovering from the depression and people starting going to the movies again in big numbers. No doubt the list of good quality movies helped.
    For me the stand outs would be Robin Hood, it still looks fantastic in color. Earl Flynn was brilliant in that type of role. Cagney’s Angels with Dirty Faces, I think it has to have one of the best movies endings ever. Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Alice Faye was lovely in it.
    But my favourite of the year was Bringing Up Baby, it hardly made any money at the time but yet is one of the great classics. Along with The Philadelphia Story and African Queen, it was one of Hepburn’s greatest roles. I still can’t figure why it didn’t do well, was it too sophisticated? Howard Hawks definitely had a knack for comedy.
    I recently watched Jezebel, Davis looked fantastic in it. Boy’s Town is another favourite. I wonder how long it took for a big movie to reach a small town, a year? If you lived in a town that only showed Warner Brothers movies and you didn’t travel much, you would have missed out of so many great films. It’s great today that you can see most movies instantly now upon release all over the country. Of course movie stars back then were like Gods and Goddesses, they really were seen as something special.
    Anyway great year and a great page, thanks.

    Reply

    1. Hey Chris.
      1. Thanks for sharing your vast movie knowledge…it is greatly appreciated.
      2. I recently re-watched Robin Hood on BluRay and it was stunning….the colors jumped off the screen. I am glad it is the highest rated UMR movie of 1938.
      3. Bringing Up Baby is why I love Cary Grant and why I started watching classic movies….I discovered on a sick day when I was in high school…the movie blew me away.
      4. I think the cost of the movie and the fact it was not a monster hit created the thought it was a disaster…it made a ton of Grant/Hepburn’s Sylvia Scarlett.
      5. My father-in-law, who helped run a theater in the 1950s said it took about a month to 6 weeks for a new movie to reach the smaller markets (Hollywood called it the “road showings”). If you missed a movie you would have to hope it would return as a second run movie…..I think we have it much easier today……we want to see a movie and we have 10 different ways to do.
      🙂

      Reply

  2. Another classic year! Seen 34 of the above listed for sure, not certain about I met my Love again, which would be no.35…but even a quick checkup on IMDB didn’t help. So 34 it is. Favorites are The Shopworn Angel and Three Comrades and then, in no special order, The Shining Hour, Holiday, Bringing up Baby, You can’t take it with you, Jezebel, The Sisters, The Citadel and Bluebeard’s Eigth Wife.
    Doesn’t look to me like Bringing up Baby was such a dud at the box as legend would have it???

    Been away over the weekend, so it seems I missed yet another B’day party…Happy belated birthday wishes then to both Cogersons 😉

    Reply

    1. Hey Lupino….thanks for checking out our 1938 movie page. Looks like you and Flora will have to share the silver…as your 34 tally is no match for Dan’s massive total. But your total easily beats Steve’s 16 and my 14.

      As for your favorites…I actually have not seen too many of them. I have both Grant/Hepburn movies, Jezebel and You Can’t Take it With You. I will have to check out Shopworn Angel.

      As for Bringing Up Baby…if you sort by box office….it finishes 55th for the year…and this is only the movies in my database….last year the 55th biggest hit of the year was My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2….a movie that made some money was in the end a disappointing financial movie. Plus Bringing Up Baby had some production issues that made the budget increase…which did not help out the legacy of that movie. Still …..it overcame those hurdles to be considered one of the greatest comedies ever.

      As always…thanks for stopping by.

      Reply

  3. 1938 was not one of my favorite years but it does contain one big favorite – The Adventures of Robin Hood – and a few smaller favorites – Angels With Dirty Faces, Bringing Up Baby, The Dawn Patrol and of course Too Hot to Handle starring box office queen Myrna Loy [cue loud clapping, cheers and whistles] and co-starring Clark Gable [polite smattering of applause]. 🙂

    Looking at the chart I’ve seen just 16 of the 126 films presented here, not a good tally, Flora has more than doubled mine.

    According to movie database I have 40 films from the year 1938 in my collection so why am I only counting 16 seen? Unless not all of these are in the chart above –

    Adventures of Robin Hood (2-disc sp.ed)
    Adventures of Tom Sawyer ,The
    Alexander’s Ragtime Band
    Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse ,The
    Angels With Dirty Faces
    Big Broadcast of 1938
    Blockade
    Blockheads
    Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife
    Boys Town
    Bringing Up Baby (2-disc sp.ed)
    Carefree
    Charlie Chan in Honolulu
    Cowboy and the Lady ,The
    Crime School
    Dawn Patrol ,The
    Divorce of Lady X ,The
    Drum ,The
    Four’s a Crowd
    Gold Diggers in Paris
    If I Were King
    In Old Chicago
    Lady Vanishes ,The (2-disc sp.ed)
    Love Finds Andy Hardy
    Mr. Moto Takes a Chance
    Mr. Moto’s Gamble
    Mr. Wong Detective
    Mysterious Mr. Moto ,The
    Pygmalion
    Room Service (Marx Bros Coll)
    Saint in New York ,The
    Slight Case of Murder ,A
    Suez
    Swiss Miss
    Test Pilot
    Texans ,The
    Three Comrades
    Too Hot to Handle
    Topper Takes a Trip
    You Can’t take it with you

    Hmm I can see straight off that one of my favorite Hitchcock movies The Lady Vanishes was not included in your list Bruce. I think the stats you needed weren’t available for that one. A few others weren’t included either e.g. Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto

    Another fascinating movie page. Vote Up!

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve
      1. Tally counts: Flora and Lupino tied at 34. You at 16 me at 14.
      2. Yes this list is not all the movies ever made in 1938 just the ones in my database.
      3. Gotta admit I was lazy on this one….as I am sure I could have easily found another 50 movies to include if I would have searched all of my sources, Which would. have helped your tally.
      4. Still this list is the biggest on the internet for 1938 movies.
      5. This was indeed a good year for. Loy.
      6. Yep Hitch’s British films are a weak spot for us….:so The Lady Vanishes is not listed.
      7. We do have Mr. Moto movies on the list,
      As always thanks for stopping by.

      Reply

      1. Hey Steve….had to look up the statson Myrna Loy…..they were of course impressive (Hey Bob are you listening?..lol)….3 movies….all grossed over $100 million…..while they collective grossed over $600 million…which of course is a $200 plus million averag per film. Joan Crawford was only trailing Loy by about half a billion in 1938 when looking at adjusted box office.

        Reply

        1. Hey Bruce, Myrna reigns supreme! [Bob winces]

          I should have scanned your 1938 chart more carefully, I must have missed a few films but you can let that tally stand. Looking at the 40 films from 1938 in my previous post I count 27 that I know for sure I’ve watched, there are some like Gold Diggers in Paris, Divorce of Lady X and Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, I don’t think I’ve seen yet.

          Boys Town gets a lot more love from your sources than from mine, it barely made the top 10 on my Mickey Rooney video. Looking at your box office chart it was a bigger hit in the US than Flynn’s Robin Hood.

          Reply

          1. TO STEVE about Myrna reigns supreme.

            “Those whose delusions the Gods intend to destroy first they drive mad!”

            PS: Fay claims that the 1st choice for the 1933 King Kong was Jean Harlow but MGM would not release her to RKO so Fay got the part and had to wear a blonde Harlow-type wig. Presumably someone who counted felt that Kongs like gentlemen Prefer Blondes!

          2. But… but… Bob… the grosses don’t lie… do they?

            The new Kong falls for a blonde too, Oscar winning actress Brie Larson. Most of the lead characters end up trying to save Kong in the movie which makes a nice change.

          3. Hey Steve…well in fairness there are a lot of movies on this page. So we will forgive you.

            Boys Town was one of the biggest hits of the decade…got great reviews and was also an Oscar winning movie ….a hit in all three categories we use in our ranking.

            Thanks for the return visit.

  4. I think I follow your method. This now gives you 5 straight years of stats. 1938-1942. I think you should keep expanding these pages. As I find these pages to be a great source of information. Job well done!

    Reply

    1. Hey In The Shadows….I wish I could admit to a master plan…but that 5 year span was by accident….but now that you mention it I could do 1943, 1944 and 1945 and then I would have nine straight years done….1938 through 1946.

      Thanks for the suggestion, the kind words and for briefly coming out of the shadows….it is appreciated.

      Reply

  5. Slight error at the top of the page. You refer to 1939 stats difficult to find, a page you have already done. That should read 1938.

    I have seen 34 of these movies.

    My favourite is Adventures of Robin Hood.

    Other favourites of mine include:

    Bringing Up Baby
    Angels with Dirty Faces
    The Dawn Patrol
    Three Loves Has Nancy
    You Can’t Take it With You
    Jezebel
    The Mad Miss Manton
    Big Broadcast of 1938
    The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse
    Algiers

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora…thanks for the heads up on our error….WoC was able to fix the error…even though we are far from home.

      Tally count: Flora 34, Steve 16, Cogerson 14….so your tally tops our combined total.

      I have only seen four of your Top 10….but Robin Hood and Bringing Up Baby are two great movies.
      Thanks for the visit, the comment and the tally count….all are greatly appreciated.

      Reply

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