It's comforting to believe that the Academy Awards single out the best film every year, but it's a little more complicated than that. The Oscars have been known to shower awards on movies that are good but not great, along with some clear misses that have aged particularly poorly. In advance of the long-awaited 2021 Academy Awards on April 25, we wanted to track down the worst Best Picture winners of all time.
We turned to Rotten Tomatoes' ranking of every Best Picture winner, then headed straight to the bottom of the list. It's true that many of the lowest-scoring movies still got relatively strong reviews, but these 10 films represent the most poorly reviewed Best Picture winners in Oscar history. Read on to see if any of your favorite Academy Award-winning movies made the cut. And for the worst offerings from stars who picked up acting awards, check out The 20 Worst Movies Starring Oscar-Winning Actors.
Universal Pictures
Lionsgate Films8 | Forrest Gump (1994)
Paramount PicturesRotten Tomatoes score: 71 percent
And for a Tom Hanks film that got way worse reviews, discover The Worst Tom Hanks Movie of All Time, According to Critics.
United Artists6 | The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Film Publicity Archive / United Archives / Getty ImagesRotten Tomatoes score: 64 percent
And for more recent clunkers, find out The Worst Movies of 2020, According to Critics.
5 | Cavalcade (1933)
John Springer Collection / Corbis / Getty ImagesRotten Tomatoes score: 64 percent
4 | Out of Africa (1985)
Universal PicturesRotten Tomatoes score: 62 percent
And for an even more disappointing Meryl movie, check out The Worst Meryl Streep Movie of All Time, According to Critics.
3 | Cimarron (1931)
John Springer Collection / Corbis / Getty ImagesRotten Tomatoes score: 52 percent
2 | The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Paramount PicturesRotten Tomatoes score: 47 percent
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1 | The Broadway Melody (1929)
John Springer Collection / Corbis / Getty ImagesRotten Tomatoes score: 33 percent
And for another walk down worst-movie memory lane, revisit The Worst Movie That Came Out the Year You Graduated.
