(Photo by Universal / Everett Collection)
The 40 Lowest-Rated Best Picture Nominees Of All Time
A Certified Fresh movie winning the Best Picture Oscar? That’s expected. The last time that didn’t happen was in 1995 when the “just” Fresh Forrest Gump took home the big gold. And you’d have to go back to 1985 for the last Rotten winner of Best Picture: Out of Africa, the creaky and nearly three-hour romantic epic starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.
Out of Africa may not be looked back upon with much fondness among critics, but the movie’s got plenty of company in our guide of the 40 Lowest-Rated Best Picture Nominees. Across 92 Academy Awards ceremonies, we’ve collected every Best Picture nominee with less than 70% on the Tomatometer. From recent times, this includes popular favorites that may have divided critics but hit big-time with audiences, like Joker and Bohemian Rhapsody – both Fresh at 68% and 60% respectively, and both with astronomical Audience Scores – and already almost-forgotten curiosities such Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, the most recent Rotten film to be nominated for Best Picture. (If you want to see only the winners, check out All 92 Best Pictures Ranked.)
Rotten movies to actually take home the Best Picture statue, besides Out of Africa, include Cimarron, The Greatest Show on Earth, and The Broadway Melody. The latter won in the second Academy Awards ceremony, and is part the most Rotten crop of Best Picture nominees ever, with The Hollywood Revue of 1929 and In Old Arizona. This was the year sound film became the new standard in filmmaking, so it’s easy imagining the Academy being dazzled by these on a technical level.
Other famous movies to nearly win despite not being that great – according to the Tomatometer, at least – include The Big Chill, Babel, and The Godfather: Part III. We guess Francis Ford Coppola will just have to take solace in the fact that he’s directed one of only two series where every movie was nominated for Best Picture (the other being Lord of the Rings). See more of the movies that got less than 70% in our guide to the Lowest-Rated Best Picture Nominees!
#40
Adjusted Score: 76962%
Critics Consensus: In Babel, there are no villains, only victims of fate and circumstance. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu weaves four of their woeful stories into this mature and multidimensional film.
Synopsis: An accident connects four groups of people on three different continents: two young Moroccan goatherds, a vacationing American couple (Brad...
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#39
Adjusted Score: 80058%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: After 19 years as a prisoner, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is freed by Javert (Russell Crowe), the officer in charge...
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#38
Adjusted Score: 105147%
Critics Consensus: Joker gives its infamous central character a chillingly plausible origin story that serves as a brilliant showcase for its star -- and a dark evolution for comics-inspired cinema.
Synopsis: Forever alone in a crowd, failed comedian Arthur Fleck seeks connection as he walks the streets of Gotham City. Arthur...
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#37
Adjusted Score: 70891%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A New York psychiatrist treating an emotionally scarred woman finds it helpful to discuss her South Carolina family's troubled history...
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#36
Adjusted Score: 72380%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: As Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) ages, he finds that being the head of the Corleone crime family isn't getting any...
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#35
Adjusted Score: 72079%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A once close-knit gang of friends -- including an actor (JoBeth Williams), a doctor (Glenn Close) and her husband (Kevin...
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#34
Adjusted Score: 71608%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: On a sea voyage to transport breadfruit to Jamaica, English Captain Bligh (Trevor Howard) abuses his crew and officers enough...
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#33
Adjusted Score: 69379%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When wealthy Harvard University law student Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal) meets Jenny Cavilleri (Ali MacGraw), a middle-class girl who...
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#32
Adjusted Score: 66087%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In a small English coal town, aspiring artist Paul Morel (Dean Stockwell) sets out to break free of the difficult...
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#31
Adjusted Score: 87247%
Critics Consensus: Vice takes scattershot aim at its targets, but writer-director Adam McKay hits some satisfying bullseyes -- and Christian Bale's transformation is a sight to behold.
Synopsis: Gov. George W. Bush of Texas picks Dick Cheney, the CEO of Halliburton Co., to be his Republican running mate...
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#30
Adjusted Score: 68599%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This lively biopic depicts the rise of Florenz Ziegfeld (William Powell), a theater producer who became renowned during the 1920s...
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#29
Adjusted Score: 65361%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this adaptation of Grace Metalious' popular novel, steamy goings-on abound in the small, prim New England community of Peyton...
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#28
Adjusted Score: 66882%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Jesuit priest Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons) enters the Guarani lands in South America with the purpose of converting the natives...
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#27
Adjusted Score: 66042%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Stavros Topouzoglou (Stathis Giallelis) is a young Greek man living in an area under Turkish oppression, who wants nothing more...
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#26
Adjusted Score: 61319%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: After an overseer beats his peon father to death, a young Pancho Villa spills his first blood when he enacts...
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#25
Adjusted Score: 57940%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Joe (Gene Kelly) and Clarence (Frank Sinatra) are two young Navy sailors on leave in glitzy Los Angeles. The two...
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#24
Adjusted Score: 66165%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: When mysterious Vianne and her child arrive in a tranquil French town in the winter of 1959, no one could...
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#23
Adjusted Score: 65808%
Critics Consensus: Cleopatra is a lush, ostentatious, endlessly eye-popping epic that sags collapses from a (and how could it not?) four-hour runtime.
Synopsis: "Cleopatra" is a lengthy, sprawling, spectacular love story, helmed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, depicting Cleopatra's manipulation of Julius Caesar and...
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#22
Adjusted Score: 64512%
Critics Consensus: The Turning Point is a handsomely-made resuscitation of Old Hollywood melodramas with a compelling duo at its center, but the formulaic script keeps this story from realizing its symphonic potential.
Synopsis: Forced to give up ballet after becoming pregnant, Deedee (Shirley MacLaine) moved from New York to Oklahoma to raise a...
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#21
Adjusted Score: 85097%
Critics Consensus: Bohemian Rhapsody hits a handful of high notes, but as an in-depth look at a beloved band, it offers more of a medley than a true greatest hits collection.
Synopsis: Freddie Mercury -- the lead singer of Queen -- defies stereotypes and convention to become one of history's most beloved...
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#20
Adjusted Score: 60408%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Three hopeful American secretaries visiting Italy -- newcomer Maria (Maggie McNamara), romance-seeking Anita (Jean Peters) and the more mature Frances...
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#19
Adjusted Score: 69583%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Initially set on being a dairy farmer, the aristocratic Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) travels to Africa to join her husband,...
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#18
Adjusted Score: 50490%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Charming Hal Carter (William Holden) turned to wandering after a failed acting career left him loose in the wind. Interested...
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#17
Adjusted Score: 55511%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this early Western, notorious bandit the Cisco Kid (Warner Baxter) is so feared that he rarely has to fire...
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#16
Adjusted Score: 54266%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In 1889, adventurous lawyer and newspaper editor Yancey Cravat (Richard Dix) convinces his genteel wife, Sabra (Irene Dunne), to join...
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#15
Adjusted Score: 54201%
Critics Consensus: John Wayne proves to be less compelling behind the camera than he is before it in The Alamo, a blustery dramatization of the fort's last stand that feels more like a first draft.
Synopsis: In 1836, the Mexican army, led by General Santa Anna, is invading Texas. Hoping to create a diversion for Santa...
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#14
Adjusted Score: 50393%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Shortly after mobster Chick Williams (Chester Morris) rejoins his gang once released from jail, a policeman is murdered during a...
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#13
Adjusted Score: 53763%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In Hong Kong in 1949, Mark Elliott (William Holden) is an American reporter covering the Chinese civil war. Undergoing a...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 55714%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Desperate to avoid an arranged marriage, Princess Marie (Jeanette MacDonald) trades identities with her maid, Marietta, and sets sail from...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 57623%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A nurse (Loretta Young) and her comrades face difficulties while training at a Midwest nursing hospital....
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#10
Adjusted Score: 52915%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Oskar (Thomas Horn), who lost his father (Tom Hanks) in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, is convinced...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 53582%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: "The Greatest Show on Earth" is a dazzling spectacle of life behind the scenes with Ringling Bros.-Barnum and Bailey Circus,...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 47008%
Critics Consensus: Though Streisand charms, she's miscast as the titular middle-aged widow in Gene Kelly's sluggish and over-produced final directorial effort.
Synopsis: In 1890s New York City, the bold and enchanting widow Dolly Levi (Barbra Streisand) is a socialite-turned-matchmaker. Her latest clients...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 42219%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: The top performers of the 1920s strut their stuff in this star-studded variety show. Actress Joan Crawford displays her singing...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 39144%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This film adaption of a Broadway play is based on the historical events surrounding the founding of the Church of...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 36195%
Critics Consensus: The Broadway Melody is interesting as an example of an early Hollywood musical, but otherwise, it's essentially bereft of appeal for modern audiences.
Synopsis: Vaudeville sisters "Hank" (Bessie Love) and Queenie Mahoney (Anita Page) take their act to the Broadway stage in New York...
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#4
Adjusted Score: 32349%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this biblical epic, a drunk and disillusioned Roman, Marcellus Gallio (Richard Burton), wins Jesus' robe in a dice game...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 33650%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Edna Gladney lost her son when he was very young. By chance she discovered the injustice within the law towards...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 29212%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Dr. John Dolittle (Rex Harrison) lives in a small English village where he specializes in caring for and verbally communicating...
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#1
Adjusted Score: 21100%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Based on the novel by Hervey Allen, this expansive drama follows the many adventures of the eponymous hero (Fredric March)....
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