Want to know the best Doris Day movies? How about the worst Doris Day movies? Curious about Doris Day’s box office grosses or which Doris Day movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Doris Day movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place ….. because we have all of that information.
Every April 3rd, my wife and Doris Day (1922-2019) share birthdays (with Marlon Brando and Eddie Murphy as well). Doris Day will turned 91 this year and she is still going strong…..as is my wife. Doris Day began her career as a big band singer in 1939. Her popularity began to rise after her first hit recording, Sentimental Journey in 1945. Four years later, Day started her movie career with the movie Romance on the High Seas. She would become one of the biggest movies stars of all time.
Her IMDb page shows 41 acting credits from 1948-1973. This page will rank 39 Doris Day movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Her television appearances were not were not included in the rankings.
Doris Day Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Doris Day Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In The Following Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Column one – the link will take you to that movie’s trailer
- Sort by Doris Day’s co-stars of her movies.
- Sort Doris Day movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Doris Day movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Doris Day 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 Doris Day movie received.
- Sort Doris Day 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Doris Day Table
- Twenty-three Doris Day movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 58.97% of her movies listed. Pillow Talk (1959) was her biggest hit.
- An average Doris Day movie grossed $117.40 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 28 of Doris Day’s movies are rated as good movies…or 71.79% of her movies. Pillow Talk (1959) was her highest rated movie while Caprice (1967) was her lowest rated movie.
- Thirteen Doris Day movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 33.33% of her movies.
- Four Doris Day movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 10.25% of her movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 30 Doris Day movies scored higher that average…. or 76.92% of her movies. Pillow Talk (1959) got the the highest UMR Score while Where Were You When The Lights Went Out (1968) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Doris Day
1. Doris Day (1924-) was born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2. At the suggestion of orchestra leader, Barney Rapp, she adopted the stage surname Day. He got Day from the fact that he admired her rendition of the song “Day After Day”.
3. During the location filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), when she saw how camels, goats and other “animal extras” in a marketplace scene were being treated. From that day she began her lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse.
4. Doris Day was nominated for one acting Oscar® nomination…1959’s Pillow Talk.
5. Doris Day was nominated for five acting Golden Globe® nominations…1958’s The Tunnel of Love, 1959’s Pillow Talk, 1960’s Midnight Lace, 1962’s Billy Rose’s Jumbo and 1963’s Move Over Darling.
6. During the peak of her movie career (1959-1964), she was named the number one movie star…. four times.
7. Doris Day has often said Calamity Jane (1953) as her personal favorite of the 39 films she appeared in.
8. Doris Day briefly dated Ronald Reagan.
9. Doris Day was the first choice to play Mrs. Robinson in 1967’s The Graduate.
10 Doris Day She has two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One for music career and one for movie career.
For one of the best Doris Day pages out there….check out The Magic of Doris Day.
Steve Lensman’s Doris Day You Tube Video
Our Doris Day Box Office Only Page.
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.
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Is Doris Day still the biggest box office female draw of all time?
Hey Joseph B. That is a tough call. She is among the leaders…..but when looking at career adjusted gross…Day’s 4.87 Billion Total……trails many people….with Myrna Loy being at the top of that pile….as her adjusted gross is $8.68 billion. Day has a stellar $125 million average per movie….that is near the top of that rankings. Day’s 39 movies pails in comparison to Loy’s 70 movies, Crawford’s 78 movies and Davis’ 80 plus movies. Those high movie totals really help these actresses with their career totals. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
If you look at Day’s career according to the Quigley Polling of top box-office attractions of all-time – NOT in money terms but popularity, she remains, as of July 1, 2018, the number one female box-office star of all-time. She placed in the top-ten, ten times. While other females have also done that, none placed in the number one spot four of those ten times (1960, 1962-1964 inclusive), in the poll’s history. While Shirley Temple did top the list four times, she did not place on the poll ten times, only six times in total. On three other occasions, Miss Day, while not the number one box-office star of a year, was the number one female star on the poll (1952, 1959 and 1965). Betty Grable finished in the top-ten for ten consecutive years but only placed in first place, once. Doris Day’s ranking as number one female box-office star remains to this date based on the Quigley stats.
Hear! Hear!
But there are those on this site would would argue that another actress, who co-starred with Doris in Midnight Lace of 1960 is the No 1 Box Office star of all time.
Certainly it has always been a mystery to me that Doris was not included in AFI’s top 25 female Legends ;ist whilst the likes of Sophia Loren and Lauren Bacall were.
Hey Bob…that co-star’s name was Myrna Loy…..better known…as “The Greatest Box Office Actress of All-Time”. Even though we disagree on Loy…..we agree 110% on the AFI screwing up by not including Day in their Top 25. Good stuff.
Hey anonymous….not sure if you are happy Day is the Top actress or Wayne is the Top Actor….either way….I am glad our stats give you some happiness.
HI BRUCE
Thanks for those kind word about my Doris.
I’ll return the compliment by saying that maybe she had the last laugh – the No 5 spot in the Cogerson 25 greatest actresses 1950-2010, above the likes of Sophia Loren[your 16th] Reality finally broke through!
You got things spot on there in my view and [even allowing for my own preferences and prejudices] it does truly mystify me the criteria that AFI operated under.
A bonus for me was your placing my Julia 3rd in your 25 and Babs a high 10th – again “Hear! Hear!” My other two great female idols Crawford and Durbin did not of course qualify within your time frame criterion for inclusion so within your criteria it was a full house for me regarding the ladies!
Take care.
Hey Bob….good to see we agree on this part of the “top box office actress” stars of all-time. She was indeed one of the greats…and AFI screwed up not including her. Good stuff.
Hey Paul
1. When looking at Quigley’s yearly surveys…Doris has some of the best rankings on the survey.
2. That survey is a wonderful one to look at….and I am sad that they no longer do that poll.
3. That being said…that survey had some issues….as stars sometimes made the list even though they did not have a stellar year….kind of like the Gold Glove winners in baseball…once you won the award/or in this case made the list…it was a good chance to win the award again/or in this case get back on the list.
4. This might sound like I am arguing that Day was not the biggest star in the world during her 4 year run…I agree she was…..and her four year run on top is in the league with some of the greats…Burt Reynolds 5 year run in the late 1970s, Shirley Temple’s 1930s run and Bing Crosby’s 1940s run.
5. When you look at the actual numbers….Day is among the greats….just not the top one.
6. We have a page that looks at the stars in the 1950s….it runs from 1950 to 1959….during that time frame she is ranked 5th of actresses…..falling behind Deborah Kerr, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe and Susan Hayward. When looking at actors and actresses…she has the 17th spot overall….which is pretty good.
7. When we look at our 1960s star page….it runs from 1960 to 1969, Day does even better…finishing 3rd in actresses…only trailing Natalie Wood and Julie Andrews. When looking at both actors and actresses she sits in 14th place overall.
8. I think when looking at both decades….she is probably the top actress…..I can run a report in the database….that will answer that. But because….she only had 3 more movies…and her career ended before the 1970s….other actresses….pass her in career earnings….if only because they made so many more movies and their careers were so long….looking at Loy, Crawford, Davis and others.
In the end…99 percent of all statistics only tell 49 percent of the story…good feedback.
Hey Paul…..just ran a report that looked at the top box office stars for the years of 1950 to 1969….here were the results”
#1 John Wayne $6.13 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#2 Dean Martin $5.57 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#3 James Stewart $5.42 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#4 Charlton Heston $5.38 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#5 Tony Curtis $5.23 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#6 Frank Sinatra $5.01 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#7 Rock Hudson $4.77 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#8 Jerry Lewis $4.62 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#9 William Holden $4.53 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#10 Burt Lancaster $4.51 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#11 Doris Day $4.50 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#12 Elizabeth Taylor $4.44 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#13 Gregory Peck $4.21 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#14 Deborah Kerr $3.96 billion in adjusted domestic box office
#15 Paul Newman $3.95 billion in adjusted domestic box office
So for that time frame Doris was indeed number 1…..and that time is an impressive 20 years.
Good to see my favorite actor in the top spot
Doris Day has long been one of my 3 favourite Classic Era movie stars along with Joan Crawford and Deanna Durbin. [Having been brainwashed by the Work Horse and Joel I have been considering adding Myrna to the list!]
It has always surprised me that AFI did not include Doris in its 50 greatest legends lists for objectively I consider her to be among that select group of entertainers who were tremendously successful in dual singing and acting careers such as Sinatra, Garland and Crosby, though of course only Judy is among those three made it to the AFI lists.
However “everything comes to him who waits” because Bruce ranks Doris 5th in his Top 25 actresses 1950-2010 – Viva la Work Horse!
Best POSTERS in Doris Day EP video entries 39-21 Where were you when the Lights Went Out? [I am sure they had fun getting that one onto marquees!] Tunnel of Love with my Richard in a part originally meant for my Glenn, foreign language ones for Do Not Disturb and West Point Story, Julie [really classy] a leggy Doris in April in Paris. Tea for Two, Lullaby of Broadway Romance on the High Seas [aka It’s Magic] and The Winning Team co-starring Mr President.
I didn’t know until I read Bruce’s Doris page that Ronniie dated my Doris. As The Work Horse says about Brando in the 1950s Reagan eventually “had it all.”!
According to Piper Laurie she too was seduced by her ultimate Commander in Chief.
The song It’s Magic from the film, sung by Doris, is one of the most beautiful that I have heard and her recording of it is a regularly played one in my own musical collection
Only a couple of STILLS in Part One so my Part Two post will cover ALL stills in the video.
Growing up in the 1950s when I could catch up on them at all I had to watch via television showings and cheap movie house reruns the 1930s/1940s films of two of my 3 favourite actresses, Durbin and Crawford
New kid on the block Doris was therefore my 1950s Queen. I will admit that many of her early movies had the same look about them and often repetitive plots but they were still harmless fun and easy to watch.
Best POSTERS in your EP video entries 1-20 in my view are the two for Storm Warning [which I used to confuse with Bette Davis’ Storm Centre] Young at Heart, By the Light of the Silvery Moon [the film that introduce me to Doris] foreign language one for Midnight Lace [Doris had a once famous female co-star in that one but I couldn’t catch the latter’s name as it was in such small print] Pajama Game, foreign language one with Gable in Teacher’s Pet, the first one for Lover Come Back, foreign language one for Man who Knew Too Much [probably ties with Pajama Game as my least favourite Doris Day film] and Calamity Jane.
I have to specially highlight the 3 exceptional ones for Love Me or Leave Me. Absolutely great!
STILLS that I really liked-
Carried over from Part 1- Opening one of Calamity Jane, and also Lucky Me [possibly my fave Doris film along with Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back and By the Light of Silvery Moon]
Part 2 stills (1) two from Glass Bottom Boat [aka The Spy in Lace Panties – a very “un-Doris” like title! (2) with Grant [her own 2nd fave actor after Cagney] (3) with Kirk (4) Pajama Game solo (5) Move over Darling (6) and (7) the two with Rock and (8) a fine one with my Jimmy – two Greats together working for a great director.
The bright and breezy assembly of pictorials in your EP video are worth a 98% rating to me especially given their subject is my greatest 50s amd 60s female idol.
You and my idol of the current decade agree on just 3 of Doris’ Top 6 best reviewed films.
STEVE TOP 6
1/Pillow Talk
2/Calamity Jane
3/Man who Knew Too Much [Boo !}
4/Love Me or Leave Me
5/Lover Come Back
6/Send Me No Flowers
WORK HORSE TOP 6
1/Pillow Talk
2/Man Who Knew Too Much [Boo !]
3/Lover Come Back
4/On Moonlight Bay
5/Young at Heart
6/Pajama Game [Boo !]
Boo ! Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, info, trivia and comparison, always appreciated. Happy you enjoyed my Doris Day picture gallery.
The Man Who Knew Too Much not one of your favorites? Are you certain you’re a Hitchcock fan? 😉
Pajama Game, not a favorite either? It’s another ‘Doris Day romantic musical comedy’. I mean how can you tell them apart? [snicker]
Only one Doris Day film scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – Calamity Jane.
Four more scored 9 out of 10 – Pillow Talk, Love Me or Leave Me, Lover Come Back and The Pajama Game. One scored 8 out of 10 – The Man Who Knew Too Much.
Tops at IMDB is Pillow Talk and Man Who Knew Too Much, both scored 7.5. Tops at Rotten Tomatoes is Pillow Talk, Move Over Darling & Man Who Knew Too Much.
Good to see Bruce and I have the same no.1, sad to see Calamity Jane didn’t make his top 6 it’s my favorite of the few musicals and comedies I’ve seen of hers.
Doris on Rock Hudson – “If there is a Heaven, I’m sure Rock Hudson is there because he was such a kind person.”
Doris on Liz Tayor – “When I see Liz Taylor with those Harry Winston boulders hanging from her neck, I get nauseated. Not figuratively, but nauseated! All I can think of are how many dog shelters those diamonds could buy.”
Doris on Calamity Jane – “When I first heard ‘Secret Love’, I almost fainted; it was so beautiful.”
Doris on singing ‘Que Sera Sera’ in The Man Who Knew Too Much – “The first time somebody told me it was going to be in that movie, I thought, “Why?” I didn’t think there was a place to put that song. I thought, “I’m not crazy about that. Where are they going to put it? For what?” I didn’t think it was a good song. Then I realized, maybe it isn’t a favorite song of mine, but people loved it. And kids loved it. And it was perfect for the film. So I can’t say that it’s a favorite song of mine, but, boy, it sure did something.”
Bob, I think the next video subject is another big favorite of yours but not 100% sure. Clue: Actress, Singer, Director, Producer, Writer.
HI STEVE
Thanks for your feedback on my Doris posts.
I AM a big fan of all 3 participants, Hitch, Jimmy and Doris but for some reason I simply didn’t like The Man Who Knew Too Much [or Hitch’s Trouble with Harry]
Who knows why audiences often love one film and yet dislike another of probably equally good quality from the same person? You know what they say though “one man’s meat is another man’s poison.”
However because as usual I hope you have an enjoyable weekend may I suggest that you go out and buy a copy of All that Heaven Allows and watch it several times over the next few days? Certainly you would gain even increased respect from Lupino!
I am working on my next “review” of a video of yours that requires even more effort on my part than usual as the subject was a massive part of my growing up. I’ll be in touch again soon and meanwhile look forward to the subject to which you refer in your final paragraph in today’s post to me.
Steve’s Doris Day updated You Tube video is attached to our UMR page…..my thoughts on his video.
“America’s Sweetheart…..seen a lot more of her movies since I started writing about movies on the internet. Overall, I have seen 19 of her movies. I have seen 13 of the Top 15 movies. Only Lover Come Back and Midnight Lace have escaped me…..and I want to see both of those movies. Favorites would include #1 Pillow Talk…..both Garner movies (#8 and #11), #12 Young Man With A Horn….Douglas is excellent in that one….and #4 Love Me Or Leave Me…..which is probably her best work as an actress. Never liked That Touch Of Mink…..even with one of my all-time favorites in that one. Voted up and shared…nice update.”
Hi Bruce, 19 out of 39 is pretty good, I only managed a paltry 7, maybe 8, they’re all interchangable, can you tell them apart? 😉
Flora’s tally was impressive, 30. Sad to see Calamity Jane knocked to second place by um… hang on… which one was it? Lover Come Back or Move Over Darling? No wait it was Pillow Talk. Thanks for commenting, appreciate the vote and share!
There are no ‘Worst’ Doris Day movies! They are all simply wonderful!
Hey Danette……thanks for stopping by and checking out our Doris Day movie page……I agree….sorry that we had to put a movie at the bottom of the rankings. Happy Birthday Doris Day.
I grew up in Doris Day’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio back in the 1960s and , in those days, it was considered something of a major event in town anytime a new Doris Day movie was shown at the local movie theaters and/or broadcast on the local television stations thus I have seen twenty six of the thirty nine movies listed on this page. CALAMITY JANE is my favorite of all of Miss Day’s musicals for which she should have received an Oscar nomination but didn’t!!! Doris also did some TRULY INCREDIBLE SINGING in both LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME and THE PAJAMA GAME but LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME has a truly terrible ending that all but ruins the film as far as i’m concerned. Furthermore, Doris got a well deserved Oscar nomination for her performance in 1959’s PILLOW TALK but I have always felt TEACHER’S PET from 1958 was her best comedy and she should of not only gotten an Oscar nomination but I think she should of ACTUALLY WON THE ACADEMY AWARD for her performance in that film!!!! Doris also deserved Oscar nominations in 1960 for MIDNIGHT LACE and in 1956 for THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH as well in my opinion. Other Doris Day I have enjoyed over the years include YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN, I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS, THE WINNING TEAM, YOUNG AT HEART, TUNNEL OF LOVE, MOVE OVER DARLING, ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS, PLEASE DON’T EAT THE DAISIES, WITH SIX YOU GET EGG ROLL, and STORM WARNING.
Hey Greg. Very cool that you grew up in her hometown. I can imagine how excited people were back then. I imagine her image only made the locals even more proud and excited when a new movie came out. Tally counts. You top everybody with 26. Flora is at 19….I am at 16 and Steve is at 7. Calamity Jane is a fun movie….and that comes from a person that is not a huge musical fan.
Interesting viewpoint on Teacher’s Pet. I liked that movie…but I have to admit….the thought of that being an Oscar winning performance had never crossed my mind before. Your comment, got me to pull out my Danny Peary book called Alternate Oscar. In that one he lists who should have gotten a nomination and who should have won. He listed Day one time in that book. He thought she should have gotten a nomination for Calamity Jane. But in 1959…he did not think she should get a nomination for Pillow Talk.
Of the Day movies you list at the end…I have seen 6 of them….with Move Over Darling and Winning Team would be my favorites. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Doris Day. Good stuff.