a Yourlist ranking · the crowd decides the order
Which remake actually topped the movie it was based on? Vote up the versions that improved the story, the scares, or the performances — and vote down any that just don't beat the source material.
What counts: Ranked by how convincingly the remake surpasses its source in craft, performance, and lasting reputation, not just box office. Years, scores, and grosses are approximate consensus figures for quick comparison, not precise citations.
Cronenberg didn't just remake the 1958 creature feature, he turned it into a body-horror tragedy about disease and love, with Jeff Goldblum's Brundlefly transformation becoming a genre-defining showcase of practical effects. The original is a curiosity now; this one is still genu
Original Year: 1958Remake Year: 1986Remake Quality: 8.5/10Domestic Box Office: 40 $M
added by IJR
John Carpenter's Antarctic paranoia machine flopped against E.T. in 1982 but has since eclipsed 1951's The Thing from Another World in every conversation about the story, thanks to Rob Bottin's monstrous effects and a nihilistic ending nobody forgets. It's the textbook case of a
Original Year: 1951Remake Year: 1982Remake Quality: 8.7/10Domestic Box Office: 19 $M
added by IJR
Brian De Palma and Oliver Stone took Howard Hawks' 1932 gangster picture and blew it up into a garish, quotable, cocaine-fueled epic that became more culturally embedded than the movie it borrowed its title from. Tony Montana's 'say hello to my little friend' outlives anything fr
Original Year: 1932Remake Year: 1983Remake Quality: 8.3/10Domestic Box Office: 66 $M
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Scorsese relocated Infernal Affairs from Hong Kong to Boston and won his only Best Picture Oscar doing it, thanks to a murderers' row of DiCaprio, Damon, and Nicholson chewing through Irish mob paranoia. The rat-on-the-balcony final shot is the kind of signature moment the origin
Original Year: 2002Remake Year: 2006Remake Quality: 9/10Domestic Box Office: 132 $M
added by IJR
Soderbergh took the shaggy 1960 Rat Pack hangout movie and turned it into the platonic ideal of the heist caper, with Clooney, Pitt, and a script that actually clicks together like a vault mechanism. Nobody rewatches the Sinatra version for the plot; everyone rewatches this one.
Original Year: 1960Remake Year: 2001Remake Quality: 8.2/10Domestic Box Office: 184 $M
added by IJR
The Coen Brothers went back to Charles Portis's novel rather than the John Wayne version and found a bleaker, funnier, more faithful film, anchored by Hailee Steinfeld's steely Mattie Ross. It earned ten Oscar nominations, more than the original ever managed.
Original Year: 1969Remake Year: 2010Remake Quality: 8.1/10Domestic Box Office: 171 $M
added by IJR
James Mangold expanded the tense, economical 1957 Western into a bigger, dirtier, more morally tangled showdown between Christian Bale and Russell Crowe. The added final act gives the story a gut-punch the original's tidy runtime never attempted.
Original Year: 1957Remake Year: 2007Remake Quality: 7.8/10Domestic Box Office: 53 $M
added by IJR
Philip Kaufman moved the pod-people paranoia from a sleepy 1956 town to a fully modern San Francisco and made it scarier, sadder, and stranger, ending on one of the most chilling final shots in horror history. Donald Sutherland's scream-point closes a loop the original never dare
Original Year: 1956Remake Year: 1978Remake Quality: 7.9/10Domestic Box Office: 25 $M
added by IJR
Frank Oz took Roger Corman's cheap, quick 1960 cult oddity and turned it into a full Broadway-caliber musical monster comedy with Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, and a giant singing plant voiced by Levi Stubbs. It's the rare case of a remake becoming the version everyone actually quo
Original Year: 1960Remake Year: 1986Remake Quality: 7.4/10Domestic Box Office: 38 $M
added by IJR
Zack Snyder's directorial debut swapped Romero's shambling social satire for sprinting, terrifying zombies and a relentless mall siege, proving a remake could honor its source's DNA while completely reinventing its scares. It kicked off the 2000s zombie boom almost single-handedl
Original Year: 1978Remake Year: 2004Remake Quality: 7.3/10Domestic Box Office: 59 $M
added by IJR
Scorsese cranked Robert Mitchum's menacing 1962 stalker into Robert De Niro's tattooed, Bible-quoting Max Cady, a performance so unhinged it redefined the whole thriller. The remake's operatic intensity makes the restrained original feel almost quaint by comparison.
Original Year: 1962Remake Year: 1991Remake Quality: 7.6/10Domestic Box Office: 79 $M
added by IJR
Bradley Cooper's directorial debut, the fourth pass at this doomed-romance story, found new heartbreak in Lady Gaga's breakout performance and 'Shallow' becoming an instant standard. It's the version of this oft-remade tale that finally felt urgent again.
Original Year: 1937Remake Year: 2018Remake Quality: 7.9/10Domestic Box Office: 215 $M
added by IJR
Christopher Nolan's Hollywood remake of the moody Norwegian original relocated the guilt-ridden detective story to Alaska's endless daylight, with Al Pacino and Robin Williams sharpening the psychological cat-and-mouse considerably. It's a rare American remake that critics agree
Original Year: 1997Remake Year: 2002Remake Quality: 7.2/10Domestic Box Office: 67 $M
added by IJR
Mike Nichols and Elaine May Americanized La Cage aux Folles into a sharper, funnier farce, with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane elevating the drag-club-meets-conservative-parents premise into something both hilarious and quietly progressive for its time. It out-earned and out-quot
Original Year: 1978Remake Year: 1996Remake Quality: 7.1/10Domestic Box Office: 124 $M
added by IJR
William Wyler's version of the oft-adapted chariot-race epic dwarfed the 1925 silent film in scale and spectacle, sweeping eleven Oscars and setting a record that stood for decades. The chariot race alone became the template for every big-budget action sequence that followed.
Original Year: 1925Remake Year: 1959Remake Quality: 8.6/10Domestic Box Office: 147 $M
added by IJR
John Huston's third crack at Dashiell Hammett's novel, after two forgotten early-30s versions, is the one that actually defined film noir, with Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade becoming the genre's blueprint detective. Nobody remembers the 1931 version exists; everyone knows 'the stuf
Original Year: 1931Remake Year: 1941Remake Quality: 8.8/10Domestic Box Office: —
added by IJR
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