Every Will Smith Movie, Ranked Worst to Best
Updated December 1, 2022 to add Emancipation.
First rising to fame in the 1980s as the non-DJ half of the hip hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Will Smith moved into acting in 1990 as the star of the hit NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (soon to be rebooted as a Peacock drama series). He would make his big-screen debut a few years later in a few indie movies before quickly moving to above-the-title stardom with 1995's Bad Boys. He has been a major presence in film ever since, with roles in over 30 films, a pair of Oscar nominations, and a cumulative box office gross of over $4 billion.
His newest film, King Richard, is headed to theaters and HBO Max on November 19th and is expected to be an Oscar contender in multiple categories. How does it compare to his past work? In the gallery on this page, we rank every one of Will Smith's films in order from worst to best by their Metascores, which represent the consensus opinions of top film critics. Note that we have excluded titles where Smith's role was limited to a brief cameo appearance (such as in Winter's Tale, Jersey Girl, and Anchorman 2).
Will Smith's second film appearance came in this 1993 Richard Benjamin-directed comedy about Black teenager Zora (Nia Long), who discovers that her father was a sperm donor—in fact, a white car salesman, played by Ted Danson (and loosely based on Southern California TV used car pitchman Cal Worthington)—much to the surprise of Zora's mom, played by Whoopi Goldberg. The fourth-billed Smith played Zora's friend Tea Cake Walters, a character inspired by real-life comedian T.K. Carter. Critics didn't love it, but America was a minor box office hit.
“Newcomer Long is a pleasure to watch and Smith kind of riffs by himself off to the periphery of the action as though looking for a movie to belong to.” —Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
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