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).
Adapted from Richard Matheson's 1954 novel (previously filmed several times, including as The Omega Man in 1971), this 2007 post-apocalyptic thriller from director Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games) finds Smith playing the last living human in New York City after a virus has killed off most of the world's population (and turned most of the remaining humans into people-hunting mutants). Smith spends much of the running time as the only human actor on screen and does his part to make Legend a success, according to critics, even if the film as a whole is betrayed a bit by its disappointing third act and weak CGI effects. It was not betrayed by its box office performance, however: I Am Legend grossed nearly $600 million worldwide, making it one of 2007's biggest hits and one of Smith's best-performing films. It would also be the last Will Smith movie to receive positive reviews until 2021's King Richard.
“In what has been a pretty remarkable career up to now, it's this performance that fully affirms Smith as one of the great leading men of his generation.” —Scott Foundas, The Village Voice
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