Want to know the best AFI Top 100 movies? How about the worst AFI Top 100 movies? Curious about AFI Top 100 box office grosses or which AFI Top 100 movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which AFI Top 100 movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
In 1998, AFI (American Film Institure) invited more than 1,500 leaders from across the American film community – screenwriters, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, editors, executives, film historians and critics among them – to choose from a list of 400 nominated films compiled by AFI and select the 100 greatest American movies. In 2007 they released an updated list….which means next year they will be updating the list again. Recently we complete a massive project that looked at the careers of the AFI Top 50 Screen Legends. One of the comments on that page suggested doing a Ultimate Movie Rankings page on the AFI TOP 100 movies….well….Steve Lensman here you go.
AFI Top 100 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 AFI Top 100 movies by stars of the movies
- Sort AFI Top 100 movies by adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort AFI Top 100 movies by yearly domestic box offic rank
- Sort AFI Top 100 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 AFI Top 100 movie received.
- Sort AFI Top 100 movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star or director’s UMR movie page
Things we found interesting in the above AFI Top 100 Movies table
- On the actor side: James Stewart, Robert DeNiro and Harrison Ford lead the way with 5 movies on the Top 100. Dustin Hoffman, Humphrey Bogart and Robert Duvall have 4 movies.
- On the actress side: Katharine Hepburn leads the way with 3 movies in the Top 100. Meryl Streep, Vivien Leigh, Marilyn Monroe, Jodie Foster, Grace Kelly and Natalie Wood have 2 movies.
- On the director side: Steven Spielberg leads the way with 5 movies in the Top 100. Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock have 4 movies .
- The average adjusted domestic box office gross for the Top 100 AFI movies is $368.60 million.
- 73 of the AFI Top 100 movies were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar® nomination. 28 of the AFI Top Movies won the Best Picture Oscar®.
- Overall the AFI Top 100 movies earned 648 Oscar® nominations…winning 265 Oscars®.
- When looking at the lowest scoring movies according to critics and audiences there are a few surprises. Nashville was the worst reviewed AFI Top 100 movie (ok…not too surprising) but Titanic as the 2nd worst movie and Forrest Gump as the 3rd worst movie by critics and audiences really seemed surprising.
- The average critic/audience rating is 88.50%….according to RottenTomatoes.com…..60% is the gold standard for a good movie.
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.
Interesting list. I wonder what movies will leave the list and which ones will join the list when they update their rankings?
That is a great question…looking at some of the recent Best Picture Oscar winners….seems Argo and The Artist would have a chance to make the list. As for ones leaving….I think Ben-Hur, Nashville and Sophie’s Choice would be nervous….if I was them….lol. Thanks for the comment.
I tried to beat your tally count of 100 and failed Bruce, I really tried. 🙂
Whoever suggested this topic should be congratulated, it’s a miracle nobody thought of it earlier. I’d like to shake that person’s hand, not your hand Bruce, the person who suggested this, he’s the real genius. 😉
Oh alright I’ll get on with the comment. A ton of favorites on this list, good to see The Godfather topping the UMR, a big favorite of mine and I prefer it to the sequel which is also excellent.
The only film in the UMR top 40 I haven’t seen is The Best Years of Our Lives [Flora gasps] it’s on my to watch list.
There are 5 films in the AFI 100 I have yet to see, the aforementioned Best Years of Our Lives, Sunrise, Sophie’s Choice, Nashville and The Last Picture Show.
And I own 78 of them on DVD or Blu-ray. Good to see my favorite movie – Ben-Hur (1959) – made the list.
Looking at adjusted box office, whoa – Gone with the Wind and Star Wars (1977) are so far ahead it doesn’t look like any film will ever touch them.
Excellent work Bruce. Voted Up.
Here’s some more suggestions for the future, ranking the top Hollywood films by genre – westerns, musicals, comedies, war, sci-fi, horror, film noir, historical etc etc
Hey Steve.
1. Thanks for your suggestion. I agree the man is a walking and talking genius…lol.
2. As I was working on this page….I realized I wanted to include the directors as well….I told my wife I was having an issue with including all the info….so she went to work and gave me an excellent mini-upgrade….now all the director and co-stars and their UMR links are automatically going to my tables…yet another time consuming activity that is done automatically. I can’t wait until I think of a movie and it automatically jumps to the table I want it to be on…lol.
3. Tally count 100 for me, 95 for you and 74 for Flora. I knew I probably would win…as The Best Years of Our Lives is a movie that I am pretty sure you own…but have never watched. I can see why you would not want to watch one of the biggest box office hits of all-time….that was loved by critics and audiences….. and won every major movie award.
4. Of the other 4 you have not seen….Nashville was a challenge to finish….and I love Robert Altman…..The Last Picture Show is worth seeing….if only for Ben Johnson’s Oscar winning performance. Sophie’s Choice is a one and done movie for me. Sunrise is probably the one you would like the best.
5. Speaking of Ben-Hur….the AFI barely…and I mean barely included it….100th…..BUT …UMR Score gives it much more respect…..a spot in the Top 10….that’s gotta get you to like the UMR Score a little bit more.
6. Six of the AFI Top 100….crossed the billion mark in adjusted gross….some of the greatest hits of all-time.
7. Thanks for the suggestions…for future pages.
Thanks for the visit and the comment.
Thanks for giving Ben-Hur more respect than the AFI did Bruce, much appreciated. $850m adjusted domestic is pretty astounding.
How much did De Mille’s The Ten Commandments make in adjusted dollars? Come to think of it why isn’t that epic on the AFI’s chart? Surely De Mille’s magnum opus was better than the likes of Swing Time and Do the Right Thing. No love for the great showman.
I will get to The Best Years of Our Lives eventually, I’m sure I’ll be blown away by it. 🙂
Hey Steve….The Ten Commandments is sitting in 6th place on that list at $1.13 BILLION. About a quarter of a billion more than Ben-Hur. Commandments was epic…..but many of the serious critics out there pretty much dismiss the movie. I read that DeMille knew that this was probably his last movie….and he did not want to stop filming….that is kind of sad…..but that is the way life works. Thanks for the return visit.
I’ve posted a link to this on the TCM forum.
Thank you Flora. That is greatly appreciated.
Hi, Bruce!
Great idea Steve had. So you have seen 100 of the top 100 movies. Good for you.
The highest ranking movie I have seen is number 3: Lawrence of Arabia.
The lowest ranking movie I have seen is number 100: The General.
I have seen 74 of these movies.
Most of the movies I am missing are due to their subject matter- either the movie is too brutal or disturbing or from a movie franchise that does not interest me. I have seen some movies that fit the category I just mentioned, because they are famous titles or star a favourite of mine where I want to see all of that person’s movies. That is why I’ve seen Apocalypse Now (Redux) twice on the big screen. Dear beloved Martin Sheen. I see he is missing again from the star column in Apocalypse Now with Harrison Ford again. Blink and you miss Martin, huh? Again, Steve and I tease you.. What does Ramon Estevez need to do get some respect, huh? Near fatal heart attack and the main role…. 😉
Movies that I love include but are not limited to Rear Window, Casablanca, Wizard of Oz, The General, Dr. Strangelove, Bringing Up Baby, 12 Angry Men, and a great many more.
Movies I can’t stand watching a second time include A Streetcar Named Desire, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Wild Bunch -due to subject matter.
The only movie I have seen on this list which I hate and think is a very bad movie -does not deserve to be on this list – is Forrest Gump. I agree about Richard Widmark about this movie.
Other films haven’t aged well, such as Easy Rider.
I don’t think I’ll ever the Godfather films or One Flew Over The Cookoo’s Nest. You know why.
Cheers,
Flora
Hey Flora.
1. Yep Steve…had a good idea. Even better was the fact that I already had 98 of these movies in the database. I only had to research Shane and Sullivan’s Travels.
2. I fixed Martin Sheen….he is now listed first on Apocalypse Now. One of the upgrades the wife recently did was make it so the co-stars automatically show up on the table with their links…the most stars that can be listed is 3…so she created a power ranking…that would list the stars if more than three are in one movie together…in this case Martin was ranked 4th behind…Ford, Brando and Duvall. I manually put Martin in his rightful first stop for this movie…and bumped Marlon (strictly based on the fact that he is not one of my favorites). Sorry about that again….one of these days I will fix that right away….when Apocalypse Now makes one of my pages.
3. Tally count….me 100…you 74….Steve’s tally coming.
4. I know you did not like The Wild Bunch….but it is good that you have now seen it…and can share you thoughts on it.
5. You have Forrest Gump…and I have A Streetcar Named Desire…as movies many people love that we do not like at all. I have watched Streetcar three times…and each time it got worse in my eyes…not thinking I will ever give a 4th spin.
6. I agree with you 100% about Easy Rider….back then it was very very hip….now it seems like a dinosaur. For some reason it is moving up the list….when the AFI first put out the list…Easy Rider was 88th…on the 10 year update…it moved up to 83rd. I wonder where it will go next year when the next list comes out.
7. One day you will make up and think….”I am going to watch The Godfather today”….ok I know that will probably never happen.
Thanks for sharing your movie thoughts on the AFI Top 100.
My tally count can not be beat. I have seen all 100 of these movies. I own 48 of them in my movie collection. The only movie I really dislike is A Streetcar Named Desire…I have watched in three times….and can never understand why so many people love this movie.
Steve may tie you. I certainly won’t.
Hey Flora….I am thinking Steve will be in the 90s….but he will not equal my total….for some reason he has avoided seeing The Best Years of Our Lives.