Jump To 1974 Movie Links: 1. Box Office 2. Reviews 3. Oscar Movies 4. UMR Table
Finding box office information for movies made before 1980 is not an easy task. For somebody looking for box office information on 1974 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 1974 movies in our database.
To make this list a movie had to be made in 1974. This page will looks at 115 1974 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. This only represents about 33% of the movies made in 1974….but should cover the top box office movies.
Our UMR Top 50 of 1974
1974 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 1974 Movies by movie titles and movie trailers
- Sort 1974 Movies by the stars or in some cases the director of the movie.
- Sort 1974 Movies by domestic adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort 1974 Movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each 1974 Movies received and how many Oscar® wins each 1974 Movies received.
- Sort 1974 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 1974 for Adjusted USA Box Office:
My Main Sources
Source 1: Variety – January 8th 1975, January 6th, 1976
Source 2: Twentieth Century-Fox A Corporate and Financial History by Aubrey Solomon
Source 3: Wikipedia
Source 4: IMDb.com
Source 5: BoxOfficeMojo.com
Jump To 1974 Movie Links: 1. Box Office 2. Reviews 3. Oscar Movies 4. UMR Table
I saw 28, including 25 of top 37. 10s: godfather 2(a favourite) , Chinatown, young Frankenstein ( a favourite) .
other favorites: blazing saddles a 9 , and the longest yard an 8
hidden gems; the conversation a 9, the taking of Pelham 1,2,3 an 8
1974 the year I dropped out of high school and tried to enlist for viet nam, 4F due to asthma.
a friend of my father was a major investor in benji. which was made in dallas, tx. where I was raised. amazing it was 7th in box office. just ahead of 8th herbie rides again ,9th godfather 2. it was a really bad year for kids movies forcing those 2 into the top 8. lots of dark/sad movies.
Hey bob cox….tally count…Dan around 50ish, me at 40, Steve at 39, you at 28 and Flora at 26. Godfather 2 and Chinatown would be my favorites as well. I agree with your hidden gems as I enjoyed The Conversation and The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 a lot. Sorry that your 4F kept you from enlisting….not sorry you did not have to go to Vietnam. Very interesting about your dad being an investor in Benji……that had to be a good investment for him and your family.
My hidden gems would include The Parallax View, The Gambler (one of James Caan’s better performances) and Dark Star…..it is hard to watch that and not think about Alien….Alien borrowed heavily from this low budget sci-fi film….which was written by the same guy. Good feedback as always.
I have seen 26 movies from 1974, about the total I was expecting.
The highest rated film I have seen is Chinatown at number 2.
The highest rated film I have NOT seen is Godfather II at number 1.
The lowest rated film I have seen is Billy Two Hats at 103 starring Gregory Peck. I don’t remember too much about the film.
Viewings By Tens Up To 40:
5 of 10: Chinatown, The Towering Inferno, Young Frankenstein, The Longest Yard, and Murder on the Orient Express
13 to 20: Benji, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Earthquake, The Great Gatsby, The Conversation, The Four Musketeers, and That’s Entertainment!
18 of 30
21 of 40
26 out of 115 1974 movies overall.
Top 10 Favourite 1974 Movies:
Murder on the Orient Express
Young Frankenstein
The Towering Inferno
Chinatown
The Conversation
The Four Musketeers
Harry and Tonto
That’s Entertainment!
The Man With the Golden Gun
The Front Page
Hey Flora
1. Thanks as always for the visit.
2. Tally count….Dan around 50ish, me at 40, Steve at 39, bob cox at 28 and you at 26.
3. Interesting that you jumped from 50% seen to 65% seen when moving from the Top 10 to the Top 20.
4. I have seen 85% of the Top 20….missing That’s Entertainment, Woman Under The Influence and Lenny.
5. Of your favorites….I have 9 of them….only missing That’s Entertainment.
6. Chinatown, Towering Inferno, The Man With The Golden Gun would be in my Top 10 too.
Good information.
I did see Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein in the theater back then. That’s off the top of my head without looking at the list. Island at the Top of the World I saw in 1980 when it was reissued. I remember that because New York City had a transit strike then and I had to take the independent express bus lines home after work. These are the 97 1974 films I have seen since December 1992. Key is film, studio, date seen, stars if I listed, and source (TV channel, DVD or tape).
11 HARROWHOUSE (U.K.) 1974 FOX CHARLES GRODIN CANDICE BERGEN 7/19 2000 FXM
99 AND 44/100 % DEAD 1974 FOX RICHARD HARRIS EDMOND O’BRIEN 5/23 2006 FXM
ALIEN THUNDER (CAN.) 1974 CRC/AIP 12/13 2013 DVD
AMARCORD (IT.) 1974 WB XXX XXX 3/25 1997 BRAVO
AMAZING GRACE 1974 UA XXX XXX 8/30 2005 ENC
BABY NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF SHOES 1974 1/5 2012 DVD
BEAST MUST DIE (U.K.) 1974 CRC PETER CUSHING 10/28 2004 AMC
BENJI 1974 MULBERRY SQUARE XXX XXX 2/13 1996 55
BIG FIGHT (TAIWAN-H.K.) 1974 CENTAUR 2/24 2012 DVD
BLACK BELT JONES 1974 WB 6/7 2015 TCM
BLACK CHRISTMAS (CAN.) 1974 WB OLIVIA HUSSEY KEIR DULLEA 12/18 2010 TCM
BLACK EYE 1974 WB 9/11 2016 TCM
BLACK FIST 1974 L-T FILM XXX XXX 11/28 2011 DVD
BLACK GODFATHER 1974 CINEMATION XXX XXX 12/1 2011 DVD
BRAVE LION (H.K. – TAI) 1974 HA-LAU XXX XXX 11/24 2011 DVD
BUSTING 1974 UA ELLIOTT GOULD ROBERT BLAKE 8/31 1995 TNT
CALIFORNIA SPLIT 1974 COL ELLIOTT GOULD GEORGE SEGAL 10/24 1995 TMC
CAPTAIN KRONOS, VAMPIRE HUNTER (U.K.) 1974 PAR XXX XXX 10/14 1995 SCI
CARRY ON DICK (U.K.) 1974 RANK SIDNEY JAMES BARBARA WINDSOR 9/1 2000 TAPE
CHASE STEP BY STEP (TAIWAN.) 1974 XXX XXX 11/16 2011 DVD
CHRISTINA (CAN.) 1974 INTL. AMUSEMENT XXX XXX 12/16 1994 55
COLD SWEAT 1974 EMERSON CHARLES BRONSON LIV ULLMANN 8/24 1994 TBS
CONFESSIONS OF A WINDOW CLEANER (U.K.) 1974 COL ROBIN ASKWITH 3/25 1993 TBS
CONRACK 1974 FOX JON VOIGHT 6/10 1995 TMC
CONVERSATION PIECE (IT-FR.) 1974 NEW LINE BURT LANCASTER 8/5 2010 DVD
CRAZE (U.K.) 1974 WB 4/2 2015 DVD
CRAZY WORLD OF JULES VROODER 1974 FOX TIMOTHY BOTTOMS BARBARA HERSHEY 1/29 2003 FXM
DEAD OF NIGHT (CAN-U.K.) 1974 ENTERTAINMENT INTL. 11/30 2014 TCM
DEADLY JAWS (GER.) 1974 XXX XXX 11/6 1995 55
DEVIL’S NIGHTMARE (BEL-IT.) 1974 HEMISPHERE 7/30 2015 DVD
DEVIL’S POSSESSED (SP-ARG.) 1974 9/26 2015 DVD
DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY 1974 FOX SUSAN GEORGE PETER FONDA 9/14 1997 FLIX
DILLMAN 6/9 2005 DVD
DRIVER’S SEAT (FOR.) 1974 AVCO ELIZABETH TAYLOR IAN BANNEN 12/12 1994 55
EMERGENCY SQUAD (IT.) 1974 XXX XXX 3/29 2011 DVD
F FOR FAKE (FR-IRAN-GER.) 1974 SPECIALTY ORSON WELLES 11/22 2005 TCM
FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL (U.K.) 1974 PAR PETER CUSHING 10/14 1995 SCI
FREEBIE AND THE BEAN 1974 WB JAMES CAAN ALAN ARKIN 2/25 1996 TNT
GODFATHER PT. 2 1974 PAR AL PACINO ROBERT DE NIRO 6/4 2003 MMAX
GOLD 1974 AA ROGER MOORE SUSANNAH YORK 1/24 2002 MYST
GONE IN 60 SECONDS 1974 H.B. HALICKI XXX XXX 12/5 1997 TAPE
GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE 1974 ENTERTAINMENT PYRAMID XXX XXX 2/3 2010 DVD
HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON (IT.) 1974 G.G.P. REL STEPHEN FORSYTHE DAGMAR LASSANDER 11/17 2013 TCM
HEARTS AND MINDS (DOC.) 1974 WB 11/8 2016 TCM
HORROR EXPRESS (U.K.-SP.) 1974 SCOTIA INTL. PETER CUSHING CHRISTOPHER LEE 3/24 2012 TCM
HORROR HIGH 1974 CROWN INTL 10/7 2012 DVD
HOT ON THE TRAIL 1974 SCA XXX XXX 7/5 1993 TAPE
HOUSE OF SEVEN CORPSES 1974 INTL. AMUSEMENTS FAITH DOMERGUE JOHN IRELAND 1/26 2013 TCM
HOUSE ON SKULL MOUNTAIN 1974 FOX XXX XXX 6/4 1998 STZ
HUCKLEBERRY FINN 1974 UA 7/6 2017 STZ
IN CELEBRATION (U.K.-CAN) 1974 AMERICAN FILM THEATER ALAN BATES 5/13 1998 ENC
JANIS (DOC.) 1974 UNI XXX XXX 9/7 2005 SUND
LENNY 1974 UA DUSTIN HOFFMAN VALERIE PERRINE 8/10 1995 TNT
LOVE AND CHANCE (FR.) 1974 3/14 1996 55
LUCKY LUCIANO 1974 EMB 3/14 2017 MOVIES
MADHOUSE 1974 AIP 9/14 2014 TCM
MAHLER (U.K.) 1974 SPECIALITY ROBERT POWELL 11/27 1999 IFC
MIDNIGHT MAN 1974 UNI BURT LANCASTER SUSAN CLARK 4/13 1998 BRAVO
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (U.K.) 1974 PAR 12/28 2017 MOVIES
MY NAME IS NOBODY (IT-FR-W.GER) 1974 TITANUS TERENCE HILL HENRY FONDA 4/14 1998 55
NEGRO ES UN BELLA COLOR (MEX.) 1974 CINEFILMS 9/7 2013 DVD
NIGHT PORTER (IT.) 1974 AVCO EMBASSY DIRK BOGARDE CHARLOTTE RAMPLING 6/23 1994 IFC
NINE LIVES OF FRITZ THE CAT 1974 AIP XXX XXX 10/23 1999 MAX
ODESSA FILE (U.K.-GER.) 1974 COL JON VOIGHT MAXIMILLIAN SCHELL 5/8 1996 TMC
PARALLAX VIEW 1974 PAR WARREN BEATTY PAULA PRENTISS 12/27 1993 AMC
PERSECUTION (U.K.) 1974 FANFARE LANA TURNER 6/5 1995 TMC
QBVII (MTV-MS) 1974 BEN GAZZARA ANTHONY HOPKINS 5/26 2013 DVD
S.P.Y.S. 1974 FOX DONALD SUTHERLAND ELLIOTT GOULD 6/21 2008 FXM
SAVAGE IS LOOSE 1974 BOASBERG – GOLDSTEIN GEORGE C. SCOTT 6/24 1995 TBS
SEVEN ALONE 1974 DOTY DAYTON DEWEY MARTIN ALDO RAY 12/14 2013 DVD
SHANKS 1974 PAR XXX XXX 10/1 1995 SCI
SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT 1974 CANNON O 5/23 2013 DVD
SISTER STREETFIGHTER (FOR.) 1974 NL XXX XXX 11/28 1992 TAPE
SISTER-IN-LAW 1974 CROWN INTL JOHN SAVAGE 4/12 2009 DVD
SNAKE FIST DYNAMO (H.K.) 1974 IFD FILM AND ARTS 5/13 2012 DVD
SPIKES GANG 1974 UA LEE MARVIN 2/6 1995 TNT
STREET LAW (IT.) 1974 HALLMARK FRANCO NERO 1/14 2010 DVD
STREET SISTERS 1974 MOVIE COMPANY 1/20 2015 DVD
SUGAR HILL 1974 AIP XXX XXX 5/26 2008 TCM
SUGARLAND EXPRESS 1974 UNI GOLDIE HAWN 2/25 1998 TBS
TEACHER, THE 1974 CROWN INTL XXX XXX 1/3 2009 DVD
TERMINAL MAN 1974 WB GEORGE SEGAL JOAN HACKETT 3/27 1993 TBS
THE ABDICATION 1974 WB LIV ULLMANN PETER FINCH 7/21 1995 BRAVO
THE BODY 1974 UNITED PICTURES CARROLL BAKER 2/13 1995 TAPE
THIEVES LIKE US 1974 UA KEITH CARRADINE SHELLEY DUVALL 8/9 1995 TNT
THIRSTY DEAD 1974 INTL. AMUSEMENTS 7/22 2015 DVD
THOMASINE & BLOODSHED 1974 COL XXX XXX 3/2 2004 WEST
THREE THE HARD WAY 1974 AA 9/21 2015 TCM
THROW OUT THE ANCHOR 1974 ELLMAN FILM ENT. 5/18 2015 DVD
TOGETHER BROTHERS 1974 FOX XXX XXX 2/4 2009 FXM
TONGFIGHTER, THE (TAIWAN-H.K.) 1974 AQUARIUS REL. 2/11 2012 DVD
TRAP ON COUGAR MOUNTAIN 1974 SUN INTL. 9/7 2015 DVD
TREASURE OF TAYOPA 1974 6/29 2015 DVD
TRIAL OF BILLY JACK 1974 TAYLOR-LAUGHLIN 1/10 2017 GET TV
TURKISH DELIGHT (DUTCH) 1974 CINEMATION RUTGER HAUER 4/7 1994 TAPE
VANISHING WILDERNESS (DOC.) 1974 PIE 10/30 2013 EFAM
WHITE DAWN 1974 PAR WARREN OATES TIMOTHY BOTTOMS 3/21 2004 MAX
WILLIE DYNAMITE 1974 UNI XXX XXX 10/1 2003 ACTN
WONDER OF IT ALL (DOC) 1974 1/5 2017 STZ
Hey Dan. Another epic movie watched list. Interesting how the strike is connected to a movie. I have vague memories of seeing The Island at the Top of the World…might have seen that in theaters….but not 100% sure. I imagine Mel Brooks got a lot of people to theaters in 1973/1974. 97 1974 movies seen is mighty impressive…..more than doubles my total of 40. Looking at the ones on your list that are on the massive table….your tally looks like it is in the 50s….which is still enough to be the winner. As always….thanks for the lists and the feedback.
I remember seeing Herbie Rides Again back in 74, then went I visited London in 1983 they were showing a re-issue of it so I went again. It was one of the first VHS tapes I bought, previously viewed when they were $29.99!
Hey Dan Wow…..going all the way to London to see Herbie Rides Again….you made Disney so happy….lol. The glory days of VHS….when I started working at a video store….VHS ran about $70 to $100 dollars…..which is how the video store business started…because it was too expensive to buy for home collections. I remember when Beverly Hills Cop was released new for $19.99….we sold about 1,000 copies of that movie….who knew we were cutting our own throats….because the cheaper it became….the less people wanted to rent movies.
Wow…..going all the way to London to see Herbie Rides Again….you made Disney so happy….lol.
I’ve seen 39 of the 115 films on the chart, less than I thought. Looking at my files I have 69 films from 1974 in my movie collection. I haven’t watched them all.
Favorites are –
Airport 75
Beast Must Die ,The
Blazing Saddles
Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter
Chinatown
Dark Star
Death Wish
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
Earthquake
Flesh Gordon
Four Musketeers ,The
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
Freebie and the Bean
Godfather II
Golden Voyage of Sinbad ,The
Island at the Top of the World
It’s Alive!
Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
Longest Yard ,The (The Mean Machine)
Madhouse
Man With The Golden Gun ,The
Mr. Majestyk
Taking of Pelham 123
Texas Chainsaw Massacre ,The
That’s Entertainment!
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Towering Inferno ,The
Young Frankenstein
Zardoz
zz-Italy – My Name is Nobody
zz-Japan – Godzilla vs The Cosmic Monster
zz-Japan – Lady Snowblood 2
zz-Japan – Street Fighter ,The
Mel Brooks biggest ever year – Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein – their combined box office gross nearly a billion adjusted dollars and thats just USA & Canada.
If it wasn’t for those two films the top three that year would be disaster films – ‘The Towering Inferno’, ‘Earthquake’ and ‘Airport 75’. Now we have the superhero genre topping charts but back in the 70s disaster flicks were all the rage kicking off with the mega success of ‘Airport’ in 1970, followed by the super success of ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ in 1972. By 1979 audiences were bored of disaster and ‘Meteor’ crashed and burned at the box office.
Another epic movie page Bruce. Vote Up!
Hey Steve….I just edge you on the tally list for the movies on the table…as I am at 40 movies. So Zardoz made your favorites list….now that is one weird movie….but I know it is considered a cult classic. Mel Brooks had the greatest year of his career….granted Young Frankenstein came out in the middle of December 74…..so like Gone With The Wind….it made most of it’s money in the years after it’s IMDb creation date. Yep….we have superhero movies…our dads had disaster movies…..The Swarm, Meteor, Beyond the Posideon Adventure and When Time Ran Out signaled the end of those movies….for awhile at least. Thanks for the visit, the tally, the comment and the nice words.
Bruce, the first time I saw John Boorman’s Zardoz was on video in the 80s, I thought it was truly awful but I have warmed to it over subsequent viewings. It must have a large cult following. I don’t think Boorman’s Exorcist II The Heretic has fared as well though. 🙂
I see I’ve listed My Name is Nobody as a 1974 film in my files, while you included it in your 1973 chart. Looking at wikipedia and IMDB it premiered in Dec 1973 in a few select countries in Europe and was out 1974 in the UK and USA. I’ve always seen it as a 1974 film and I think I’ll leave it as such in my files. [cue gasps and cries of ‘ban him!’]
Hey Steve….I have only seen Zardoz once….so I have not joined your Zardoz cult following yet. I read about that movie for years (it is one of Danny Peary’s Cult Movie books), but only recently saw it. Yes, The Exorcist II: The Search For More Cash has not fared as well.
As for the dates….when putting movies in the database….we always go with what IMDb lists….and yes for movies like My Name Is Nobody……it puts movies in different UMR year pages.
The good news….we did a super secret “UMR Hall of Fame commentors” vote about whether to ban you or not…..and the committee has allowed you to stay……but you are now on “double secret probation”. Only two voted for you to be banned….I am not allowed to see who voted that way…..but their names rhyme with Job and Dora….lol.
ANNUAL REVIEWS of 1973 and 1974 Some movie historians have argued that whilst cinema audiences have declined steeply since the 1940s the very top movies in the modern era have been as profitable as ever.
However Bruce’s stats for 1943 for example compare as follows with his 1973 Top 20 highest grossing movies
Total Top 20 adjusted domestic grosses 1943 – $6.45 billion
Total Top 20 adjusted domestic grosses 1973 – $5.5 billion.
Where the historians might have a point though is when the purchasing power in 2018 dollars [as per the Consumer Price Index of The US Bureau of Labor Statistics] is examined using the ACTUAL film grosses in their day that Bruce has helpfully provided for us-
Total ACTUAL grosses for Top Twenty 1943 movies $0.215 million
Total purchasing power today of 1943’s Top Twenty films $3.14 billion
Total ACTUAL grosses for 1973’s Top Twenty movies $1.09 billion
Total purchasing power today of 1973’s Top 20 movies $6.31 billion.
Also of course foreign revenues are much more buoyant today than they were in the Classic Era and back then they didn’t have the lucrative DVD, Video and Blue-ray markets that modern films enjoy.
For example Bruce Willis’ 6th Sense and Armageddon have, astonishingly, adjusted worldwide grosses of $1.2 and $1.1 billion respectively in the Cogerson tables and 1994’s The Lion King apparently had domestic Home Entertainment sales of around $366 million in 2018 dollars on top of naturally massive theatrical grosses.
As I have previously emphasized the beauty of this site is that it enables us to test different comparisons of the kind that I have just done. Nowhere else would you get for pre-1980 movies particularly the volume, consistency and quality of information that enables us to conduct such exercises and I for one am always very grateful for being provided with the opportunities to do so.
Hey Bob Roy……good breakdown of stats. Glad you found a use for all of these actual grosses….which generally do not get listed much here at UMR. With each passing year…the international markets get bigger and bigger. China will soon pass the United States as the biggest movie audience in the world. Interesting stats using the CPI. I think like box office numbers…..the streaming revenue will become more known as time passes. What greater publicity than saying….Movie A…brought in 7.5 million in revenue for NetFlix. Only 3 more 1970s to go…1975, 1977 and 1978. Good feedback as always.