This movie page looks at 1940 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 1940 it is very very frustrating. Over the years, we have researched and collected information on over 26,000 movies. So we figured we would show all the 1940 movies in our database.
So we are currently working on a massive movie western page that is taking lots of our time. So while we are working on that page that is looking at 100s and 100s of movies…we felt we should get some new material out on our website. So if you consider information on movies that are over 75 years new….then here you go. The following table is very very basic. We pretty much copied and pasted right out of our database.
Our UMR Top 50 of 1940
1940 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 1940 Top Grossing Movies by stars of the movies
- Sort 1940 Top Grossing Movies by domestic actual box office grosses (in millions)
- Sort 1940 Top Grossing Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort 1940 Top Grossing Movies by 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 1940 Top Grossing Movies received.
- Sort 1940 Movies movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Hi Bruce, a shiny new movie page to peruse. 1940 eh… one of the greatest of the golden age.
Lots of favorites here – Rebecca, Pinocchio, Boom Town, Philadelphia Story, His Girl Friday, Go West, Ghost Breakers, Foreign Correspondent, The Thief of Baghdad and Fantasia – by the way the last two are missing from your charts.
I’ve seen 41 of the films you’ve listed and I have 60 movies from 1940 in my collection, what does this mean? I’ve seen 19 more films from that year that are not listed here (cue gasps) the missing films include the aforementioned Fantasia and Thief of Baghdad, plus Abe Lincoln in Illinois, A Chump at Oxford, Night Train to Munich, One Million BC, Dr. Cyclops and Young Tom Edison which starred Mickey Rooney and was a prequel to Edison the Man released the same year. Other missing movies are sci-fi, horror, Charlie Chan and The Saint B-movies.
Good to see Rebecca was more popular than The Grapes of Wrath on the box office chart, John Ford fans must have been furious the latter didn’t win Best Picture at the Oscars but I prefer Rebecca and I’m glad it won. Ford won Best Director for Wrath and won Best Director again the following year for How Green Was My Valley, which also won Best Picture. Hitch sadly never won a Best Director Oscar and he was nominated 5 times.
Voted Up!
Hey Steve.
1. Not my best work….but it is now out there…it is screaming to be fixed…and fixed soon.
2. Not sure why Fantasia and Thief of Baghdad did not make the list….thinking I have them listed as 1941 movies….I will have to check that out.
3. Tally count…..65 for Flora and 65 for us….we managed a tie….if only you would have seen 42 …..lol.
4. I am sure I am missing lots of movies….I think I could get close to 200 if I actually worked on the page….lol. But I am taking note of the ones you know are missing.
5. Rebecca and Grapes of Wrath are both great movies….I think Rebecca has aged better…..Grapes was depressing…is depressing and will always be depressing.
6. Hitch not winning an Oscar remains one of the Academy’s biggest mistakes.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hi
Missed your co-star bit, but its a great list for a great year. Pinocchio, to me, was Disney’s finest animation. I didn’t realise it done so well in 1940. I’ve seen most of the top 30 movies, I really love Waterloo Bridge, The Philadelphia Story, The Grapes of Wrath.
Davis had a great year with The Letter. I would say, next to All About Eve, her best movie. I couldn’t praise His Girl Friday enough, if there was ever an actress born to play a particular part, it was Rosalind Russell. I watched it recently and it’s still so funny, especially the mayor and the sheriff. Ralph Bellamy and his mother were a scream. It was a great year with great movies, thanks for the page.
Hey Chris….One day I will get the co-star column on this page….the western page I am working on is from your request. The Letter seems to be a forgotten Bette Davis movie…..then again when you have as many Oscar nominated performances as she does….some would have to end up that way. Cary Grant has the best combo movie on the page….as His Girl Friday and The Philadelphia Story…..were hits and loved by critics.
The totals for Pinocchio are for all of it’s releases…if you just looked at 1940….Pinocchio would have earned about $145.00 milion (adjusted USA) and $258.00 million (adjusted worldwide) for the first release….still pretty stout numbers. Glad you like our abbreviated look at the movies of 1940.
The Letter airs on TCM quite often.
Thanks Flora. I have seen The Letter….but it has been awhile.
Interesting but got admit I like seeing all the stats together.
Hey Stein….one day I will add the other stats into this page. Thanks for stopping by.
you should do this with all of your movies in film file
Eventually I will be doing that Thom. I will have to go back and finish this page with co-stars, reviews and awards…..I appreciate the visit and the comment.
Hi, Bruce!
1940 had a lot of great movies.
Note: You have Andy Hardy Meets Debutante listed twice as 12 and 13 -everything is the same except for the word “the”…
I have seen: I’ll pretend it is listed only once and not count it as two movies in my tally 😉
10 of the top 10
19 of the top 20
26 of the top 30
32 of the top 40 (I’ve not seen New Moon which is listed twice)
39 of the top 50 (They Drive By Night, by the way, is the original version)
44 of the top 60
50 of the top 70
55 of the top 80
60 of the top 90
64 of the top 100
65 movies overall.
I have a few movies on your list waiting to be watched.
Hey Flora. I literally woke up this morning….realized that I was still days away from finishing my western movies page…and thought I need to do something quick….so in 15 minutes I came up with this idea…put the kids on the bus…..got ready for work…..put the page together and published. I was at school when I read your comment and saw the double movies. Thanks for the catch. Those items have been fixed.
65 is pretty impressive….I am at 24…..which is not so impressive. As always….thanks for stopping by and commenting.