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).
How big of a hit was Independence Day? Twenty-five years after its release it remains Will Smith's second-highest-grossing film to date—and that's without factoring for inflation. The Roland Emmerich-directed alien invasion thriller found a top-billed Smith playing a Marine fighter pilot in an ensemble that also included Bill Pullman and Mary McDonnell as the president and first lady, and Jeff Goldblum as a brainy scientist (a few years after playing a similar role in Jurassic Park). Emmerich had to fight the studio (20th Century Fox) to cast Smith as the lead, but given that Independence Day grossed more than $800 million, Smith wouldn't have any problem landing jobs in the future.
“Smith’s good-natured bravado is heroically appealing, while Goldblum’s herky-quirky demeanor is winningly apt as mankind’s counterintelligence to the aliens’ attack.” —Duane Byrge, The Hollywood Reporter
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