PrettyFamous - The Best Ensemble Movies of All Time

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As Hollywood knows, audiences love stars. Putting a bunch of them together in a movie can lead to big returns at the box office. The “ensemble film,” characterized by a large cast of lead actors that share nearly equal screen-time, has proven its value to filmmakers time and time again.

New ensemble films are released each year, with the latest film, “Masterminds,” starring Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis, opening in theaters on Sept. 30. After delays pushed back the release, moviegoers have been waiting excitedly to see if this star-packed ensemble will achieve box office success.

Both the epic fantasy “Lord of the Rings,” and the iconic musical “Hairspray,” are considered ensembles, illustrating how versatile the format can be. “Sin City,” with its episodic format, is proof that most of the stars don’t even need to be on the screen together. After the huge success with “Silver Linings Playbook,” writer and director David O. Russell quickly followed up with “American Hustle” and “Joy” to capitalize on the dynamite chemistry between Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro.

With so many movies to choose from, PrettyFamous, an entertainment research site powered by Graphiq, decided to put together a list of the greatest ensemble films of all time. PrettyFamous looked at all movies that have been nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for best acting ensemble and ranked them based on their Smart Rating: a weighted average of each film’s Rotten Tomatoes score, IMDb rating, Metacritic Metascore, Gracenote rating and U.S. box-office gross, adjusted for inflation.

From “Milk” to “Star Trek,” see where your favorite ensemble films rank on the list.