Want to know the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movies? How about the worst Arnold Schwarzenegger movies? Curious about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s box office grosses or which Arnold Schwarzenegger movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Arnold Schwarzenegger movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which ones got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
I have already done pages on 1980s action stars Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone, so I figured a page on the last original founder of Planet Hollywood was overdue. Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947-) is a body builder, turned actor, turned politician who has returned to acting. Arnold first appearance in a movie was in 1970’s Hercules In New York. He was billed as Arnold Strong and had his voice dubbed over. The rest of the 70s saw Arnold appear in a couple of weight-lifting movies and some supporting roles in movies like Stay Hungry and The Villain. In 1982, Arnold starred in Conan the Barbarian. Conan was a box office success and showed that Arnold could carry a film.
In 1984, he made the first of three appearances as the title character in director James Cameron’s The Terminator. The success of The Terminator, turned Arnold into a Hollywood superstar. From 1984-1997 he appeared in numerous successful films. Films like The Running Man, Predator, Twins, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop and True Lies. In 1997 he appeared as Mr. Freeze in the worst Batman movie ever….Batman and Robin. After the critical failure of Batman & Robin, his film career and box office pull went into decline. His last movie before he became Governor of California was Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines. After leaving office, Arnold, returned to making movies. So far the results have been pretty disappointing. Maybe the big man has one more big movie in him.
His IMDb page shows 74 acting credits since 1970. This page will rank 35 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Arnold Schwarzenegger 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 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger 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 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie received.
- Sort Arnold Schwarzenegger movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the search and sort buttons to make this a very interactive page….for example…if you want to see the three James Cameron/Arnold movies only….then type “James Cameron” in the search box and up pop the three movies.
The Best of Arnold Schwarzenegger
#5 Predator (1987) Predator is Arnold’s third highest rated movie by critics and audiences with a 85% score, while finishing 9th on his top box office hits list. Whenever you read a article on the greatest action movies this movie is always in the conversation. Like the Terminator this movie also spawned many sequels. The movie was directed by John McTiernan, who after finishing this movie moved on to another action film called Die Hard. No wonder he became known as a great action director after those back to back movies. Did you know….that Kevin Peter Hall who played the Predator also played Bigfoot in Harry and the Hendersons? Did you know? The Predator’s mandibles came from a suggestion by James Cameron. Mandibles (jawbones) are the bones that form the skull with the cranium. I was not really sure what mandibles were so I had to look it up.
#4 The Terminator (1984) I have very fond memories of watching this movie at the theater. The audience reaction was one of the best I have ever experienced. I have forced my teenagers to watch this movie and even they like it….imagine that. The Terminator is Arnold’s highest rated movie according to critics and audiences with a 91% score but it barely cracks his Top Ten box office hit list…coming in at #10. This movie put James Cameron on the Hollywood map, turned Arnold into a superstar and started one of the most successful movie franchises ever. I can not believe it has been over 30 years since the release of this classic movie.
#3 True Lies (1994) Arnold plays Harry Tasker, a man leading a double life. For the sake of his wife and daughter he pretends to be a boring computer salesperson. For the sake of the country, he is a super agent and one of the last defenses who works for the secret government agency The Omega Sector. Since this is a James Cameron movie, True Lies was one of the most expensive films ever made, costing about $110 million in 1994. But the money was well spent as True Lies was the number three movie of the year with over $750 million dollars in adjusted worldwide box office grosses. Many highlights in this movie. For me the performance of Tom Arnold is one that I think about when I think about True Lies. I thought at the time Tom Arnold was headed for big things…..sadly nearly twenty years later and this is his career pinnacle.
#2 Total Recall (1990) Arnold’s 3rd biggest blockbuster hit with over 229 million in adjusted domestic box office dollars dollars. This great science fiction film was based on Phillip K. Dick’s story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”. Of all the Phillip K. Dicks’s stories to be turned into movies, Total Recall joins Blade Runner and Minority Report as the best of the bunch. This was one of the last big budget movies to use miniature sets versus computer effects. Before Arnold got the role, Richard Dreyfuss, Christoper Reeve and Patrick Swayze were offered the role
#1 Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) Schwarzenegger’s biggest box office hit with a box office gross of over 1 BILLION when looking at worldwide adjusted box office dollars. Terminator 2: Judgement Day(or T2) is ranked the forty-second best movie on IMDB. Arnold, Linda Hamilton and James Cameron all returned for this sequel. Even Kyle Reese shows up in a dream sequence if you ever watch the director’s cut.
The film’s visual effects included many breakthroughs in computer graphics that would change the way movies would be made. T2 won four Oscars® for makeup, sound mixing, sound editing, and visual effects. Arnold gets to play the good terminator this time out, while Robert Patrick as the bad T-1000, steals the show in my opinion.
There were two more sequels in this franchise but they have not been in the class as the first two. I am thinking that might have something to do with James Cameron or more like the lack of James Cameron.
Check out Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve Lensman’s Arnold Schwarzenegger You Tube Video
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences
For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
He thought it was a tumor but she knew she was pregnant!
Good work!
Hey Radioguy….funny comment about Arnold….thanks for the compliment.
Crom! Your avatar is perfectly appropriate for this page Conanson.
I’m a huge fan of some of Arnie’s best films, Terminator 1 & 2, Predator, Total Recall and True Lies.
And I still enjoy watching Commando, Conan, Red Heat and Eraser.
It’s interesting to see the first Terminator topping it’s far more popular sequel on the audience chart. T2 is sometimes listed as the greatest action movie of all time.
But to be honest if I had to pick one of Arnolds films as favourite it won’t be any of the Terminators but it will be Paul Verhoeven’s eyepopping sci-fi epic Total Recall, which according to some sources was briefly the most expensive film ever made until T2 eclipsed it the following year.
Voted up and awesome.
Hey Steve….yeah I figured I better do Arnold before I changed my avatar….I would say my Movie Score system did an outstanding job picking out his Top 5….T2, Total Recall, True Lies, T1 and Predator…..a pretty good list of some fine movies. Sorry I had to stop typing for a second so I could pat myself on the back…..do you have Total Recall on blu-ray and if you do how is the quality of the transfer?…It is at my local Wal-Mart(do you have Wal-Mart in London?) in a combo blu-ray pack with Eraser for 9.99…..I have not purchased it because I read the quality was pretty weak. As always thanks for reading and commenting.
Cogerson, my nephew bought the US blu-ray of Total Recall and wasn’t happy with the quality. I bought the UK blu-ray and the sound was slightly out of sync plus I wasn’t impressed with the PQ, so back it went.
I’m hanging on to my DVD until they do a proper job on it. It looks good upscaled. Plus there are plenty of extras on the DVD which they don’t carry over to the blu-ray, the UK blu-ray had nothing not even a trailer.
There is no wal-mart in London that I’m aware of, but we do have HMV stores. 🙂
Thanks for the information….I suprised Wal-Mart is not there yet, since their company goal is rule the world…lol. Thanks for the advice, I will keep walking right by that blu-ray. Hey….I just updated Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins hubs…..and your favorite 2011 movie Thor has moved up very nicely…..7th for Hopkins and top 5 for Portman….not bad after only three weeks of US release.
WELL, ARNOLD HAS CERTAINLY TURNED A LOT OF FANS AWAY FROM HIS MOVIE CAREER LIKE A FEW BEFORE HIM. I AM SURE THERE ARE MANY OTHER MEN WITH HIS PROBLEM BUT SINCE THEY ARE NOT CELEBRATIES THEY ARE NOT NOTICED. I ENJOYED TRUE LIES, ERASER, KINDGERGARTEN COP AND OTHERS. I WOULD PERSONALLY SEE MORE OF ANY NEW MOVIES – HIS ACTING CAREER IS SEPARATE FROM HIS PERSONAL LIFE. BUT THE SUGGESTION THAT HE MAKE A MOVIE WITH TIGER WOODS AND MEL GIBSON IS A FUNNY IDEA. I DO WISH HIM AND HIS FAMILY A GOOD SOLUTION TO THEIR PERSONAL LIFE IN THE FUTURE. IT IS EASY TO MAKE COMMENTS BUT ONE HAS TO WALK IN THEIR SHOES TO UNDERSTAND…GOOD LUCK ARNOLD AND MARIA AND FAMILY. GOOD JOB COGERSON…
Thanks for the comments Bern1960…..and I am sure Arnold thanks you as well….I am not sure he has had many positive comments in the last two weeks. I was surprised how successful Eraser was…close to 200 million in 2011 dollars….my memory must be failing me….I had thought it was just ok at the box office….thanks for stopping and wishing the Shriver family luck.
Hey nice list of Arnold here, seems like you’re a big fan!
Anyways, my list would’ve started with Predators first followed by the other two Terminator movies then Total Recall. Those were the first few movies of his that I remember watching when I was a kid and I was in awe of him ever since. Great job again!
Thanks for the compliment Yassop….I remember back in the day…..half my friends like Arnold the other half like Stallone…..but we all went to both of their movies….it is same watching them both get older and slower…thanks for stopping by
I love Arnold, he may not be a nice guy away from the screen , but when he is on the screen, he provides great popcorn entertainment. My favorite Arnold movie is Last Action Hero I thought it was a great story, not sure why so many people hate that movie.
Hey Tammy I agree on Last Action Hero, I thought the script was very inventive….maybe it was too much of an inside look into Hollywood….and most movies about movies do not do very well at the box office…thanks for stopping by my page.