Top 1000 UMR Movies

This is the Top 1000 Movies in our database. Several years back, we came up with an idea to create a mathematical equation that would create a numerical score for each movie. The first thing we had to come up with were factors for the equation. So we thought….if we were producing a movie what would we like to see our movie accomplish. The first thing we would want, would be for the movie to be successful at the box office. Secondly, we would like the critics and movie goers to enjoy our movie. And finally we would like our movie to receive award recognition through Golden Globe® and Oscar® ceremonies. So let’s look at the breakdown of the variables in the equation.

1. Box office results. We figure that box office is the most important factor, so it received the highest percentage (31%) of the equation. The ceiling was $200 million in adjusted box office dollars. Any movie that crossed $200 million maxed out the points in the category.

2. Critics and audience reception. We felt that critical reception was the second most important factor so it received the second highest percentage 47%) of the equation. So where do I find critics/audience reception? We use at least 6 different sources: RottenTomatoes, IMDB, Yahoo Movies, Roger Ebert, Leonard Maltin and Fandango. Put them all together and I get an average with 100% being the highest score possible.

3. Award Recognition. The final part of the equation is worth 22%. A movie gets points for Golden Globe® and Oscar® nominations and wins. The Golden Globes get 5% while the Oscars® get 13% of the equation. The last 4% goes to amount of Oscar® nominations and amount of Oscar® wins.

So far we have done Ultimate Movie Ranking Scores on 36,478 movies. Granted that is only a small percentage of films that were ever made but we have done all the big blockbusters and Oscar® winners. So the following table lists the current Top 100 movies that PERFORMED the best in ALL THREE CATEGORIES.  In other words we are not saying these are the best movies just the ones that STATISTICALLY PERFORMED THE BEST.

Top 1000 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 Top 1000 Movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Top 1000 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 Top 1000 movie received.
  • Sort Top 1000 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.
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60 thoughts on “Top 1000 UMR Movies”

  1. your masterpiece. yea UMR !!!! I apologize for contributing to your difficulties. this is worth it!
    I almost had an out of body experience when I read my name amongst the last comments.
    awesome to see the top 1000 in review and note the ones below 93.8 UMR. it highlights the differences beautifully. the bottom 1000 is interesting too. thanks for sortability. great work. I loved reading every comment as I get to understand the regulars. what fun. congratulations on the ads. I hope it starts to pay you back for years of hard work. thank you cogerson and WoC.

    Reply

    1. Thanks for such high praise….it is greatly appreciated. Glad this page can create an out of body experience…which is even higher praise! The beauty of this page is it is now dynamic….so it will be constantly changing. That makes me more eager to keep adding in lots of movies. Happily the list of regular readers and commenters has grown over the years…..one of the things we have made sure is to take the comments from our first pages (back in 2011) and move them to the new website….I think it is cool to read a comment from Steve or Flora that is over six years. The inclusion of the ads might help pay the rapidly increasing web server prices. Thanks for a great comment.

      Reply

  2. I’ve seen nearly 23,000 films in my life not counting serials, made for TV movies or shorts all of which I’ve seen a number. You know I have lists connecting people and the last 24 years or so of the older films I see for the first time. Current pictures I log in notebooks and only put the highlights in monthly (like films I give 3 1/2 or 4 stars or in reverse 1/2 a star and 0’s). That’s easier to do end of the year lists but only for the past maybe 10 years. I’ve done 10 best and worst lists since 1980 but they are not on the computer. I can’t do my top 100 films say of the 40’s or my top stars of all time and though Johnny Mack Brown probably stars in more movies that I own he wouldn’t be in my top 100 if I did a list. He was bought in bulk, most B westerns are interchangeable, so congrats.

    Reply

    1. Hey Dan.
      1. 23,000 movies is pretty darn impressive.
      2. I would guess my total is approaching 20,000…..but I only recently started keeping better track of my viewing habits.
      3. I have reallly enjoyed Letterboxd.com….as it is an excellent way to store the movies I have watched…since 2014 I have seen…2,599 movies (plus I am about 20 movies behind when it comes to updated my account). https://letterboxd.com/Cogerson/
      4. In 2013 I watched 1,418 movies….so that is 4,000 movies since then.
      5. I bet it is fun to go back and see all the Best and Worst movies……how many notebooks do you have now?
      6. Johnny Mack Brown….a name I see all the time when I am researching a classic page.
      7. Thanks for the congrats…and thanks for the excellent feedback.

      Reply

      1. I was going to brag that I’d seen maybe 10,000 films until I saw your posts! I’m flabbergasted. 23,000 films? Thats more than Leonard Maltin has listed in those fat review books of his. What other hobbies do you have? 😉

        Ben-Hur no.1, wahey finally! Oh wait it’s tied with 12 other films, oh well. 🙂

        I’m sure I’ve gone thru this whole list recently, how old is this page?

        Reply

        1. STEVE

          1 I’ve lost count of the number of movies I’ve seen but let me assure you that anything WORTH seeing I’ve watched. It stands to sense though that I probably couldn’t compete with Dan even if I could perfect my recollections as I still wouldn’t be able to make all those comprehensive link-ups that he does.

          2 They are great fun for any movie buff and when I’m working my way through them I have to take copious notes or I lose track of his many connections . It’s a bit like trying to immediately get your head round the line in the song
          “I’m the man who danced with the girl who danced with the man who danced with the girl who danced with the Prince of Wales.”

          3 I certainly hope that the Work Horse doesn’t mind me copying my original Ann Sheridan comments to her new Cogerson page as duplicating our OWN comments if we feel it appropriate is the only little bit of power he allows us to have on this site!

          Reply

          1. So Bob, if we notice mistakes in our comments we could duplicate the entire thing again with corrections and post it ahead of the previous one with the word EDITED in the header, and if the corrected one has more mistakes we can post again with the words EDITED AGAIN PLEASE IGNORE THE TWO POSTS BELOW and if that one still has mistakes we can post again with[STOP IT STEVE!]

        2. Hey Steve….the last one was a Top 500 UMR page….so this one is twice as big as that page. I figured you would like Ben-Hur on top of the mountain. That is 23,000 movies for Dan….and me closing in on 20,000. Are there other hobbies besides watching movies? I did not think so….lol.

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          1. Hey Lens Steveman….you are right….granted it sounds like Bob does not do need that suggestion….but if you do the Edited Comment….I could easily delete the comment with the error…..and your comment would be the way you want it to read.

        3. A few years back there was a film about film fanatics, maybe 7 people who saw up to 7 a day in NYC. The Post reviewed it and I wrote their film critic Jamie Bernard at the time that I had seen whatever at the moment maybe 18,000 or so and she wrote like “That’s a lot’. Some theater in New Jersey saluted 2 brothers who had seen 1000 movies in their local theater and it made all the papers. I’ve seen over 1000 in my neighborhood theater and the only people that know are my wife, my database and you now. Theater personnel changes all the time, nobody recognizes any customers or in reverse staff.

          Reply

          1. Hey Dan…..good information on those film fanatics….the year I watched 1,418 movies….I watched almost 4 movies a day for the entire year…..I look back on that list and barely remember many of the movies….I look back at that year and wonder (1) What was I thinking? and (2) How did WoC survive that year?….lol. I know what you mean about the constantly changing personnel at theaters. It is cool that the theater in New Jersey celebrated the 1000 movies watched….that is spending lots of money and time at a movie theater.

      2. Actually further away from 23000 then I thought. Current total is 22,342 with a Chinese picture Never Say Die the last one seen. Don’t laugh it’s been #1 in China the last 3 weeks and has made over 200 million in China (from Boxoffice Mojo). Saw it at the College Point Multiplex in Queens near Chinatown, Flushing. They will have sometimes 3 Chinese language pictures playing there at a time with the rest of the regular movies. Ever hear of Wolf Warrior 2, over 800 million in China this year, the most money made in 1 territory outside the 2015 Star Wars pic in the U.S. I saw that there. In Queens some theaters play to certain Ethic Areas, that theater plays Chinese language films. In Bayside where I live we get Korean films (The Fortress opens at our this week). In a section called Douglaston they get Filipino films and in Jamaica they play Indian and Hindi films.

        I think the most I saw in a year was 890 in1992 the first year I had cable. Since 2003 the most I saw was last year 764. Totals jump a lot when one adds different cable services or gets bargains on cheap DVD’s though one doesn’t see DVD’s being sold much anywhere anymore. Most are bought online. There’s basically nothing now in Target or Walmart. I have tons of music too and it’s a shock seeing no CD’s in Best Buy. We used to have Tower and HMV and Virgin superstores (some 4 floors) and RKO Video and Blockbusters all over the place and now all are gone.

        Reply

        1. HI DAN 1 As a film buff I always like the wealth of detail that you provide in your posts and have no trouble complimenting you on it. I have a reasonable memory myself and can remember things like both halves of many double bills throughout the 1950s [for example Holden’s 1953 Stalag 17 was on the same one as Ronnie Reagan’s Tropic Zone and Joan Crawford’s 1955 Female on the Beach was twinned with a sci-fi flick This Island Earth starring Howard Hughes’ one time mistress Faith Domergue who ended up trying to run him in her sports car.

          2 I can also recall who got top billing in most of the major 1950s features. For example in the 1960 The Grass is Greener the order of billing was Cary Grant/Deborah Kerr/Robert Mitchum/Jean Simmons. But how on earth do you keep track of these masses of wonderful stats and link-ups that you entertain us with? Do you have some super dynamic data base which you have been feeding for years? Well done anyway whatever your secret is.

          3 Incidentally when convalescing from illness I may have watched 7 movies on TV in the one day but my record in movie houses is actually 3 on a Christmas Day in 1954 or 1955 [I can’t be precise because we always got movies here in Northern Ireland AFTER their US releases which made slower progress to foreign shores in those days before the current saturation arrangements kicked in].

          4 Anyway I don’t think the cinemas over here open on Xmas Day anymore but they did back then and I went to a matinee that Xmas Day to watch the British comedy Genevieve double billed with a western Dawn at Socorro starring B actor Rory Calhoun. After that I went home for my Christmas dinner and then went to the early evening show in another cinema to watch Martin & Lewis in Living it Up***. after which I walked across town to catch the late showing of Jubilee Trail, a western starring Forrest Tucker and Vera Ralston who was married at the time to the founder of Republican Pictures Herbert J Yates 40 years her senior. Naturally Jubilee Trail was a Republican picture and in her heyday Vera also got to act with the great Duke who was also under contract to Yates for a time. Anyway nice comparing notes with you and have a good weekend.

          ***I loved Martin and Lewis back then in my early teens and gather Steve Lensman still likes watching them but “When I became a man I put away childish things!” Conversely I’m sure that in his youth Steve wouldn’t have liked his parents to see him with some of those “mature” posters that that adorn his site nowadays!

          Reply

          1. Hey Bob…..lots of interesting things in this comment. (1) Theaters are still open here on Xmas….and they are very busy….even if the movie is not too stellar. (2) Love the Martin and Lewis quote. (3) You can recall top billing…..really?…..is that something you keep track off?…..lol. (4) Knowing the double bills is pretty impressive…sometimes I have a hard time keeping track of the movies I watch this week….when I am putting them into Letterboxd….much less trying to remember movies I saw together years and years ago. Impressive skills you have. Good stuff.

        2. Hey Dan….I need to include Wolf Warrior 2 into my 2017 movie page…..it has made about 3 million here and as you say over 800 million in China. There seems to be some debate on the accuracy of their box office reporting….but apparently Wolf Warrior 2 has struck a chord over there. That is pretty cool that you have access to those movies at the College Point Multiplex…those movies do not play in theaters in my area….I generally watch them when they work their way to my local library.

          Hearing your movie watching details…makes me wish I would have kept better track….I have a 3 year record in the late 1980s….and a 5 year record from 2013 to 2017….that only leaves 40 some years with no record….lol. Yep buying movies is a sign of being old…but I still do it…..can’t teach an old dog new tricks….lol. Thanks again for sharing this information.

          Reply

  3. Ben-Hur in first? Did Steve travel across the big pond and take control of our database? Though it might seem that way….actually….there is a 15 way tie for 1st place….and in alphabetical Ben-Hur is the first one listed.

    Reply

      1. Hey Bob….good to know we have finally found that perfect person….and to think you have been here all along….lol.

        Reply

  4. Cogerson

    I have seen quite a few top 100 lists (not so many top 500) and I think your UMR list is the best, at least the one which most agrees with me, although I wouldn’t put The Godfather #1, but am not certain what film I would put first. All in all though I find myself mostly happy with your choices all the way to the #500, and am especially happy to see The Best Years of Our Lives, normally dissed by modern critics for some reason, do so well. Am also happy to see Gigi do well. I think Gigi grand, although it is also dumped on by some modern critics.
    One thought–your system does penalize silent movies as there were for the most part no Oscars nor Golden Globes to win. Possibly a separate list for silent films would be fair.

    Reply

    1. Hey John…glad you liked our Top 500 page. As for The Godfather being number one…that is one of the greatest statistical movies ever…..but in our new approach……which looks at percentiles…..the first 125 movies would be get a 100 score. I like that new way if doing the scores….but right now our database is a mess..,and getting WoC to change it is far down her list of priorities to do.

      Silent movies actually use a formula that only looks at box office grosses and reviews. So in some ways it has an advantage because it does not have to be an Oscar winning movie to get lots of points. But I am sure when I get more silent movies in the database I will have to look deeper at those movies. Right now I only have a few hundred silent movies in the database.

      Good feedback.

      Reply

      1. Cogerson

        Thanks for the reply and explanation. Sounds fair. I am a bit surprised, though, that The Big Parade and the silent Ben-Hur did not make the 500 list. There were gigantic box office hits and generally get good reviews. Or did I somehow miss them when I went down the list?

        Reply

        1. Hey John…..both Ben-Hur and The Big Parade were massive hits….crossing over $500 million…or half a billion in domestic adjusted gross…as well as getting some good reviews…so yes those two would easily make the Top 500. I have the box office grosses….but not a review score…so they were not included. Ultimately after getting this latest massive update finished….I would like to return to the silent movies…and come up with an UMR score that is fair to silent movies and current movies. That time will come…just not sure when it will be.

          Reply

  5. Wow, I thought this list would never end! Interesting list to go through. I think that with your criteria, you capture most Hollywood classics, though sometimes in surprising order. Bob tells me to focus on what is on a page or video, not on what is not there. Yet, I can’t help my desire to do justice to some great films that did not make the list, mainly because of insufficient box office, and yet have become extremely successful over the years: 12 Angry Men, Touch of Evil, The Great Escape, Cool Hand Luke, Paths of Glory and Taxi Driver. There are others of course, but these are the ones that come most immediately to my mind. I don’t contest your criteria, but sometimes, I think good films are like good wine: they need time to for their real value to be fully appreciated. It’s not that films mature like wine, but maybe the world around them does. So It’s often the case that a film’s immediate box office and critical success will be very different from its long-term significance and popularity. Still, a great list and I thank you for putting it together. By the way, i note that for Cleopatra, you have listed the stars of the 1963 version, but the film that made the list is the one from 1934 with Claudette Colbert.

    Reply

    1. Hey Phil.
      1. Yes it is a very very long list.
      2. This is a statistically speaking Top 500…..obviously lots of movies are not huge box office draws….but work their way to greatness status.
      3. To movies that really show that now are…..Fight Club and Shawshank Redemption.
      4. Looking at the movies you would like to see on the table….
      12 Angry Men is in 1,597th place, Touch of Evil 3,248th…..Cool Hank Luke 928th place, Taxi Driver 598th place (almost made it) and The Great Escape in 726th place.
      5. Thanks for the headsup on Cleopatra.
      Good feedback as always.

      Reply

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