Want to know the best Marilyn Monroe movies? How about the worst Marilyn Monroe movies? Curious about Marilyn Monroe’s box office grosses or which Marilyn Monroe movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Marilyn Monroe movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), started showing in movies in 1947. Most of her early films were either uncredited or very small parts. Her first major role was in the B feature Ladies of the Chorus in 1948. After Ladies of the Chorus performed weakly at the box office, she started appearing in supporting parts in bigger budget movies like The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve. In early 1952, she admitted to posing for nude photos. In an interview, she said she did the photos because she was unable to pay her rent, the resulting publicity made the public curious about the struggling actress.
The rest of 1952 was a coming out party for Marilyn Monroe. Three of her movies, Monkey Business, Clash By Night and Don’t Bother To Knock were successful at the box office. All the parts were supporting parts but they were marketed as Marilyn Monroe films. By the time 1953 came around, she was a much in demand actress. During the next seven years she made classic films like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How To Marry A Millionaire, The Seven Year Itch and her best film Some Like It Hot. In 1962 she started working on Something’s Got to Give, she however only showed up for work 12 out of 35 days and was dismissed from the movie. Unfortunately in August of that year she was found dead at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 36.
Her IMDb page shows 33 acting credits from 1947-1962. Ther page will rank 24 Marilyn Monroe 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.
Marilyn Monroe Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Marilyn Monroe Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In Ther Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort by Marilyn Monroe’s co-stars of her movies.
- Sort Marilyn Monroe movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Marilyn Monroe movies by box office rank by year of release
- Sort Marilyn Monroe 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 Marilyn Monroe movie received.
- Sort Marilyn Monroe 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.
Possibly interesting facts about Marilyn Monroe.
1. She was never nominated for an Oscar® in her career.
2. She received 2 Golden Globe® nominations….winning for Some Like It Hot ….and receiving a nomination for Bus Stop.
3. The American Film Institute considers her one of the Top 10 movie stars of all time.
4. She was married to legendary baseball player Joe DiMaggio and later married to legendary writer Arthur Miller.
5. She was born Norma Jeane Mortenson and baptized as Norma Jeane Baker.
6. Fox talent scout Ben Lyon has gotten the credit for the name Marilyn Monroe….Marilyn was from stage actress Marilyn Miller. The last name Monroe was Marilyn’s mother’s maiden name.
7. Her crypt is located at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California.
8. Marilyn Monroes has two movies that I was unable to find any box office information….so it they were not included in th3e page….1952’s As Young as You Feel and 1951’s HomeTown Story.
9. And finally …her social security number was….563-32-0764
10. Check out Marilyn Monroe’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.
Cogerson’s Marilyn Monroe You Tube Video
Steve’s Marilyn Monroe You Tube Video
America Film Institutes’ Top 25 Screen Legend Actress and UMR’s Links That Rank All Of Their Movies.
Love this woman. “Put your lipstick on, hair up and deal with what is coming at you” kind of woman. Even when her life was a mess. True lady.
hanks for stopping by Draigcoch…..I think I have seen five more of her movies since writting this page…and I agree 100% she was a true lady.
re: The Misfits: The reason why I love it-can’t speak for others-is that it is the final film for both MM and CG. And I can’t help but be in awe of the fact that when this was being filmed, they had no way of knowing this. Gable died days after completing the film. Monroe was fired from her next film and then died suddenly. Interesting note about the kind of man Gable was. Monroe and writer Aurther Miller were married at the time. He wrote the screenplay for her, but their relationship deteriorated over the course of the film. as a result, Miller started rewriting the script and making her part less meaty and actually ruining thescript. When Gable read the rewritten pages he declared that unless the original script remained, he would walk off the film.
Hey Flora, that was very cool on Gable’s part to make them stick to the original script. I remember it took me awhile to finally see the movie…and maybe my expectations were too high….I mean a John Huston directed film starring Gable, Monroe, Clift and Eli Wallach…..is should have been a great classic…..thanks for the update.
Okay. Here is a problem-do I list films where Marilyn was a star or include all her films including those with small parts which-because of their genres are favourites of mine. I will list my top ten of Monroe’s films in terms of my favourites in alphabetical order. These I watch multiple times regardless of the mood I’m in:
All About Eve
The Ashphalt Jungle
Bus Stop
Don’t Bother to Knock
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
How to Marry a Millionaire
The Misfits
Niagara
The Seven Year Itch
Some like It Hot
near runners up Monkey Business and Clash By Night
Hey Flora….I think you have chosen wisely, first of all your choices are limited as her career was so short….and secondly…you have picked really good movies. I like your list except for The Misfits….I have tried watching that movie twice now…and but times I could not figure why so many people think the movie is a classic. As always thanks for reading and commenting.
If Sir laurence oliver had either co-starred or directed, not done both, the film might have been successful. Marilyn Monroe was a much better actress than hollywood allowed her to be. She had a tragic life.
Hey ruffridyer….I agree with you….I think if Olivier has only done one job the movie would have turned out much better, I have read that his personal life was in terrible turmoil during this time frame. Without a doubt Marilyn Monroe’s life was the definition of tragic. I wonder where here career who have gone if she had lived until she was 80? thanks for reading.
A woman with tales to tell but it’s too late for that. I’m a fan! I still consider standing over a steam exhaust and capturing her pose
Hey Sunshine…..that was indeed a very memorable part of movie history….another case of a person that left this earth way too soon….thanks for the comment.