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).
Hoping to end a streak of three straight box office duds, Smith signed on to his first sequel in 2002. Reuniting the star with director Barry Sonnenfeld and co-star Tommy Lee Jones, MIB2 grossed nearly $450 million—over $100 million less than the 1997 original but still more than enough to make the film a financial success and merit a follow-up a decade later. Critics, however, were much less supportive this time—with praise for the effects but complaints about the plot and the staleness of the premise—making this the worst-reviewed of Smith's three Men in Black outings.
“The only active ingredient is the dynamic between Smith and Jones. There's just enough of that to get us through.” —Desson Thomson, The Washington Post
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