Want to know the best Judy Garland movies? How about the worst Judy Garland movies? Curious about Judy Garland’s box office grosses or which Judy Garland movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Judy Garland movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
A quick check on the American Film Institute’s Top Stars Of All-Time list….I found that the highest rated performer that I had not written a movie page on was Judy Garland. Garland is ranked as the 8th greatest actress according to their Legends poll. Even more impressive is the massive box office success her movies experienced. Of her 31 movies…23 crossed the $100 million mark when looking at adjusted box office grosses. That is the highest total for any actress that I have researched.
Judy Garland’s (1922-1969) IMDb page shows 38 acting credits from 1930-1963. This page will rank 31 Judy Garland movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, and cameos were not included in the rankings. Most of the box office figures are provided by the Eddie Marmix MGM Feature Film Ledgers and include not only North America figures but worldwide box office totals as well. I have seen 3 of her movies….so I do not really know how accurate my rankings turned out…I look forward to Judy Garland experts telling me which movies are too high or too low.
Judy Garland Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Judy Garland 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 Judy Garland movies by co-stars of her movies.
- Sort Judy Garland movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Judy Garland movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Judy Garland 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 Judy Garland movie received.
- Sort Judy Garland 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 Judy Garland Table
- Twenty-four Judy Garland movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 77.41% of his movies listed. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) was her biggest box hit.
- An average Judy Garland movie grosses $176.80 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 28 of Judy Garland’s movies are rated as good movies…or 90.32% of her movies. Wizard of Oz (1939) is her highest rated movie. Everybody Sing (1938) was her lowest rated movie.
- Twelve Judy Garland movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 38.70% of her movies.
- Four Judy Garland movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 12.90% of her movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 26 Judy Garland movies scored higher that average….or 83.87% of her movies. A Star is Born (1954) got the the highest UMR Score while I Could Go On Singing (1963) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly interesting facts about Judy Garland.
1. Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm. At the age of 6 she started performing with her two older sisters in a vaudeville act call the Gumm Sisters.
2. Judy Garland was married 5 times in her life. She had two children with Sidney Luft and one child(Liza Minnelli) with Oscar® winning director Vincente Minnelli.
3. Dorothy’s daughter was married to the Tin Man’s son for seven years….or in other word’s Judy’s daughter Liza Minnelli was married to Jack Haley’s son Jack Haley Jr. for seven years.
4. Judy Garland’s singing of Over the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz was voted the greatest song in movies according to the American Film Institute.
5. Judy Garland received 2 Oscar® nominations for acting….Best Actress in 1954’s A Star Is Born and Best Supporting Actress in 1961’s Judgement at Nuremberg. She also received a special Juvenile Oscar® for her work in The Wizard of Oz.
6. Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney appeared in 9 movies together….or roughly 33% of all Judy Garland movies also starred Mickey Rooney.
7. One of only six actresses to dance with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in a movie….the other five? Debbie Reynolds, Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse, Leslie Caron and Vera-Ellen.
8. I have over 22,000 movies in my database….before doing this hub I had not included The Wizard of Oz in the database….however after including The Wizard of Oz it has a high enough ranking to crack my Top 100 Films of All-Time movie page….as it comes in at #75.
9. To see vintage movie posters of Judy Garland’s movie career….please check out his outstanding hub by Steve Lensman….Judy Garland Movie Posters
10. Check out Judy Garland‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve Lensman’s Judy Garland You Tube Video
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.
Most of the box office totals came from the Eddie Mannix MGM Film Ledgers.
Amazing, Bruce. I read somewhere that Meet Me In St. Louis saved MGM the year it came out and put the studio in the black. Those simple-themed back yard musicals that she made are still great to watch today. You are so right — she had a great run.
Yes. I have a request for Vincent Minelli.
It is expected to be the next one done in terms of artists who are from an earlier era.
MArshall’s death altered the timing of it.
Hey Flora….Vincent is right on schedule….new page should be ready tomorrow with a Charles Bronson update for the morning.
Hey Stephen. As big as Meet Me In St.Louis was I do not find it hard to believe that it saved MGM. So many successful movies in such a short time frame…..hers was a legendary run.
The FIRST Judy album I ever got was the BOXED set of A Star is Born. NOT as a collectors item back then, just something from a friend’s “attic” that was less than 10 years old. LOL.
Hey Jodi….very cool….thanks for sharing that story…sounds like a great find.
my favorite and all time in all movies favorite : A star is born !!!!!!
Hey Gerry D if Warner Brothers had gotten behind her for an Oscar push….she won have won the Oscar for this great performance. WB dropped the ball on that one for sure.
I agree, A Star Is Born was the best I’ll give The Wizard of Oz second place and Meet Me in St. Louis third, This is enjoyment factor and not box office.
Hey Stephen R. that is a pretty good Top 3. And some of her more popular movies for sure….thanks for the feedback. FYI….those three have a $1.03 BILLION North American Box Office (adjusted gross)….sorry I am a numbers guy…lol.
Thanks Bruce. That’s a lot more box office than I would have expected ( even adjusted ). Thanks for the numbers.
Hey Stephen R…..Some of the biggest hits of those years. My records show she has the % of $100 million movies of any other performer…31 movies….with 24 of them crossing at least $100 million. What a run she had!
BRUCE:
1 I am pleased with the Judy Garland update as she was one of the greatest female stars of all time and the update is therefore an important document, particularly with the adjusted worldwide grosses.
2 I always thought she was wasted playing second fiddle to Andy Hardy in three films but she made up for that by appearing in some of the greatest musical classics of all time.
3 Indeed I cross-checked the Judy page with your general greatest all-time musicals page and I see that Judy had a massive 16 or 17 entries on your overall chart in the latter page. That’s some going!
4 She created far less than half the number of movies that other great stars like Crawford and Davis generated but she made her 31 movies count with a great average gross of around 176 million according to your ready reckoner. WOW !
5 I’m always in two minds about whether ensemble pics like Ziegfeld Follies or Till the Clouds Roll By should be included in a star’s totals as those movies have so many stars in them that it seems like overkill to credit them to any one performers box office achievements. I tend to exclude them from my own database.
6 However maybe its swings and roundabouts because according to Wikipedia high production costs meant that one of those two films made just a tiny profit for MGM whereas the other lost money. Accordingly if you don’t credit them to a star.s overall totals you can’t put them in his/her flops column either and vice versa
7 I think I told you that because he considered that Sandra Bullock was not the main star of Extremely Loud/Incredibly Close her agent publicly objected to that film being regarded as a Bullock flop.
8 Anyway thanks for a great “he’s back!” effort with the Judy page. I have the DVD of Meet Me in St Louis and every Xmas my daughter and I dust it and Bing’s White Christmas off the shelf and watch them. It’s our annual homage!
Hey Bob…..a few of her box office numbers changed….but the ones that did, did not have any “collateral damage”….as she was the only star in the ones that changed. The exceptions would be Wizard of Oz….which the new number takes into account the 1939 release and the 1949 re-release. And Ziegfeld Girl….which went from a yearly ranking of 12th to 17th…..and I did get the Jimmy Stewart page in line. Seems I have added in lots of movies from 1939…..which means I am about to update that already updated page very soon.
Her average gross per movie and her career gross is among the best ever. 24 of her 31 crossing $100 million might be a record…..that’s 77.41% of all her movies….I will have to check that one out.
She had to start somewhere….and those Andy Hardy movies helped put her on the map.
All star movies are hard to figure out if you should include or not…..my basic….though not written in stone rule is…..if they were used to promote the film….though the trailer or the movie poster they get included. Most recently The Youngest Profession was included for Pidgeon and Garson….because they were featured on the movie poster.
Till The Clouds Roll By…is one of the those big budget big grosses low profit movies you talk about….the Cleopatra of the 1940s?
Hey Bullock was in the trailer…on the poster….on the DVD cover……she has to shoulder some of the blame for IL/IC…..I am sure the agent mentions that she starred in that Best Picture Oscar nominated film….when it benefits her…..lol
Wow….I have not seen either of your holiday traditions…..I should probably take care of that in the near future.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Judy Garland…it is greatly appreciated.
BRUCE
1 I think your yardstick about an actor’s part in promoting the film is a good one
2 Brando was heavily criticised for only appearing in the first 15 minutes of Superman 1978 and yet collecting what at that time got into the Guinness Book of Records as a record fee.
3 However when the producer Alexander Salkind was challenged on the matter he explained that at that time the concept of a man flying around in tights carried commercial risks and initially they could not attract respected actors for the various parts nor could they get the advance foreign bookings necessary for the potential box office success of what was a very costly film for those days.
4 So they needed to lineup someone of stature. I read that they tried to get Redford and I’m sure others were sounded out; but Salkind explained that when they finally settled terms with Brando they were immediately able to get the required foreign market bookings and prestige actors like Hackman, Trevor Howard and Glenn Ford were willing to come on board.
5. You make an excellent point about Bullock. Also I’m sure that she got a generous fee and film producers do not give money away so that if they hand over a fee they expect a return on their money from the recipient’s participation in the project.
6 Actually I thought it was bad form on the part of Bullock and/or her agent to seek to distance themselves from Hanks by in effect pointing the finger at him as THE STAR of the film.
7 As always I have enjoyed sparring talking points with you.
BOB
Hey Bob.
2. Brando was only in Superman briefly but his appearance brought a huge amount of publicity to the movie….as well as better actors to the movie…..so I
give him a good portion of the success of that movie.
4. Seems every Hollywood star turned down the Superman role. I had hoped James Caan would have taken the role…then you would have had a Godfather father son reunion. Caan liked so many others told them no.
5 & 6. I think Hanks role was actually smaller than Bullock’s….plus she got the dramatic scenes….while Hanks got the happy flashback scenes…..so I blame her….lol.
I also enjoy this movie sparing….:)
Let’s just accept that Judy was a phenomenal talent…Gene,Fred and Judy will never be forgotten… I think that’s enough?!
I agree with you 100%….thanks for stopping by.