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).
Despite Smith's charismatic on-screen presence, the actor never took the lead in a romantic comedy until this 2005 film from director Andy Tennant (Anna and the King, Fools Rush In). Smith plays a professional dating expert who meets his match in the form of a gossip columnist played by Eva Mendes. Reviews were just so-so at the time, but Hitch was an unexpected box office hit—to the tune of $371 million, making it the third-highest-grossing rom-com in history behind only My Big Fat Greek Wedding and What Women Want—and was recently singled out by EW's Derek Lawrence as "the greatest rom-com of all time."
“Smith is an endearing, driving comedic force, one who makes the buoyant Hitch more enjoyable than it has any reason to be.” —Connie Ogle, The Miami Herald
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