image from Singin’ in the Rain

Top 25 Musicals

This is a list of the best musicals ever put on film. The list was compiled by aggregating multiple best-of lists (see resources at bottom of page) along with films’ overall status in Dave’s Movie Database.

1. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
2. West Side Story (1961)
3. The Sound of Music (1965)
4. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
5. Grease (1978)

6. Cabaret (1972)
7. Chicago (2002)
8. Mary Poppins (1964)
9. My Fair Lady (1964)
10. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

11. La La Land (2016)
12. Moulin Rouge! (2001)
13. A Star Is Born (1954)
14. An American in Paris (1951)
15. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg) (1964)

16. Top Hat (1935)
17. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
18. Guys and Dolls (1955)
19. Dreamgirls (2006)
20. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

21. All That Jazz (1979)
22. Funny Girl (1968)
23. The Band Wagon (1953)
24. 42nd Street (1933)
25. On the Town (1949)

Resources:

Dave’s Movie Database: Genre Lists
ABC News/People Magazine (3/22/2011). “Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time” (includes top 5 musicals)
American Film Institute (2006). “25 Greatest Movie Musicals of All TIme”
Ambient-Mixer.com “20 of the Best Musical Movies of All Time”
Glamour magazine (7/29/2019). “Incredible movie musicals that will spark joy in your life”
TheGuardian.com (12/3/2013). “Top 10 musicals”
Guinness Book of Film (1999). “The Top 100 Films by Genre Type” (includes top 5 musicals)
Independent.co.uk (4/6/2019). “The 20 greatest movie musicals of all time”
IndieWire.com (12/15/2017). “Ranking the 20 Best Movie Musicals of All Time…”
Internet Movie Database (1/25/2016). “The 57 best musical films of all time”
LiveAbout.com (10/3/2017). “8 Classic Musicals You Have to See”
MarieClaire.com (8/27/2019). “The 40 Best Musical Movies to Get You Singing”
Newsweek (8/8/2018). “The Best Movie Musicals of All Time, According to Critics”
NYTimes.com “Classic Musicals”
Norman, Barry (1993). “100 Greatest Films of All Time” (includes top 10 musicals)
ThePlaylist.net (1/10/2017). “The 50 Best Movie Musicals of All Time”
Ranker.com “The Best Musical Movies of All Time”
Reader’s Digest “The 10 Best-Ever Movie Musicals You Need to Watch Again”
RottenTomatoes.com “100 Best Musical Movies of All Time”
TeenVogue.com (2/15/2018). “The 30 Best Movie Musicals for Teens”
TheTopTens.com “Best Musical Movies of All Time”
Time Out (3/30/2016). “The 30 best musical movies of all time”
Vulture.com (4/2/2018). “The 25 Best Golden-Age Movie Musicals”
WhatCulture.com (7/22/2018). “10 Greatest Ever Musical Movies”

Originally posted 9/2/2019; last updated 5/25/2023.

My Fair Lady

Released: December 25, 1964

Studio: Warner Bros.

Genre: musical/romance/comedy

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 72.00 Worldwide: ?

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: 589.27 Worldwide: 1015.95

Directing: George Cukor

Screenwriting: Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe

Starring: Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper, Theodore Bikel

Review:

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe crafted one of Broadway’s most successful musicals of all time out of George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion and then adapted the screenplay to be one of Hollywood’s most successful films of all time.

Rex Harrison repeated his Tony Award-winning Broadway performance of Henry Higgins, an arrogant linguistics professor, for the screen and was awarded again, this time with an Oscar for Best Actor. He bets he can transform Eliza Doolittle (Hepburn), “a lowly, unrefined flower girl into a sophisticated, elite woman,” ^VD “just by teaching her to speak properly.” ^A98 Higgins ends up falling for his street-urchin-pupil-turned-proper-lady by the end.

The ”lushly produced” ^VD is marked by “terrific tunes” ^VD including “I Could Have Danced All Night,” and “Wouldn’t It Be Lovely,” and “The Rain in Spain.”

Sources:

^A98 American Film Institute (1998). “AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Movies”
^A07 American Film Institute (2007). “AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies – 10th Anniversary Edition”
^VD Video Detective (1997). “Top 100 Films of All Time”

Awards/Honors/Lists:

Dave’s Movie Database Lists:

Dave’s Movie Database Genre Lists:

Box Office:

Oscars:

Wins: 8 – including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Harrison), Best Color Cinematography, Best Color Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Sound, Best Score, Best Color Costume Design

Nominations: 12 – including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Holloway), Best Supporting Actress (Cooper), Best Film Editing