8,406 films on the site were released in 2021, and 886 have enough critic or audience ratings to be ranked. Quo Vadis, Aida? tops the list, ahead of Simple as Water and Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train. The biggest hit was Spider-Man: No Way Home with $1.9B worldwide, and CODA won Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars.
Quo Vadis, Aida? is the best-rated film of 2021, with an Echo Score of 92; Simple as Water is second with the same Echo Score 92. Ranked by Echo Score, our 0–100 rating.
#1 of 886 Best-rated film of 2021
2021 Drama History War 1h 41m Bosnian
92 Echo Score $813.3K worldwide
Directed by Jasmila Zbanic
Quo Vadis, Aida? earned $813.3K worldwide; the year's biggest hit, Spider-Man: No Way Home, earned $1.9B.
About Quo Vadis, Aida?Simple as Water and Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train follow Quo Vadis, Aida?. Documentary is the most common genre in the top 25 (13 films). Ranked by Echo Score, our 0–100 rating.
2021 · Action, Adventure · 1h 57m
Dir. Haruo Sotozaki
2021 · Documentary · 1h 57m
2021 · History, Family · 1h 47m
Dir. Marilyn Agrelo
2021 · Drama · 1h 56m
Dir. Arie Esiri
2021 · Adventure, Sci-Fi · 1h 53m
Dir. Jeff Rowe
2021 · Documentary · 1h 30m
Dir. Frank Oz
2021 · Biography, History · 1h 11m
Dir. Posy Dixon
2021 · Drama · 2h
2021 · Action, Animation · 1h 44m
Dir. Chizuru Miyawaki
2021 · Drama, Documentary · 1h 34m
Dir. Matthew Heineman
2021 · Action, Drama · 1h 56m
Dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
2021 · Documentary · 1h 34m
Dir. Tom Hurwitz
2021 · Documentary · 2h 9m
Dir. Ulrike Ottinger
2021 · Drama · 2h 17m
2021 · Drama, Romance · 1h 35m
2021 · Documentary · 1h 22m
Dir. Jerry Rothwell
2021 · Documentary · 1h 30m
2021 · Documentary · 1h 35m
Dir. Nanfu Wang
Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $1.9B worldwide, ahead of The Battle at Lake Changjin ($902.5M). The top 10 took $7.7B together; 1,423 films released in 2021 have a box office record here. Grosses that look like data errors are left out.
#1 $1.9B worldwide Spider-Man: No Way Home $814.9M domestic · Action 
#2 $902.5M worldwide The Battle at Lake Changjin $342.4K domestic · Drama 
#3 $822M worldwide Hi, Mom Drama, Comedy 
#4 $774.2M worldwide No Time to Die $160.9M domestic · Action 
#5 $726.2M worldwide F9: The Fast Saga $173M domestic · Action 
#6 $686.3M worldwide Detective Chinatown 3 Action, Adventure 
#7 $506.8M worldwide Venom: Let There Be Carnage $213.6M domestic · Action #8 $485.5M worldwide Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train $49.9M domestic · Action 
#9 $470.1M worldwide Godzilla vs. Kong $100.9M domestic · Action 
#10 $432.2M worldwide Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings $224.5M domestic · Action Dune: Part One leads with 16 wins from 41 nominations, then The Power of the Dog with 11 wins. CODA won Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars. In all, 166 films released in 2021 have award nominations on the site, with 151 wins between them.
The highest-ranked 2021 film of 12 genres, from Drama (Quo Vadis, Aida?) to Musical (tick, tick...Boom!). Each film appears once, under its first genre that is still free.
Quo Vadis, Aida? 92 Echo Score Simple as Water 92 Echo Score Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train 90 Echo Score Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street 90 Echo Score The Mitchells vs. The Machines 90 Echo Score Keyboard Fantasies 90 Echo Score Gintama: The Very Final 89 Echo Score Riders of Justice 88 Echo Score Supernova 86 Echo Score Dune: Part One 85 Echo Score 
The Summit of the Gods 85 Echo Score 
tick, tick...Boom! 85 Echo Score October was the busiest month of 2021 with 1,040 releases; its best-rated film is Keyboard Fantasies.
49% of 2021's films with a known language are in English (4,082). French comes next with 524 films, out of 95 languages in all.
A best-of page for each of 55 years, from 1900 to 2026 (so far). Before 1980 there is one page per decade, for its first year (1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970); from 1980 every year has its own.
Quick answers about 2021's best-rated films, biggest hits and awards, from the lists above.
Quo Vadis, Aida? is the best-rated film of 2021 on What's After the Movie, with an Echo Score of 92. Simple as Water is second and Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train third. Ranked by Echo Score, our 0–100 rating.
About Quo Vadis, Aida?Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $1.9B worldwide, the most of any 2021 release on the site. The Battle at Lake Changjin follows with $902.5M.
2021 box officeCODA (2021) won Best Picture at the 2022 Academy Awards.
CODADune: Part One has the best award record of the 2021 releases on the site: 16 wins from 41 nominations.
2022 awards seasonThe site lists 8,406 films released in 2021. 886 of them are ranked, and October had the most releases with a known day (1,040).
Ranked by Echo Score, our 0–100 rating. Only feature films count (60 minutes or longer, no concert recordings), and a film needs enough ratings, box office or award attention to be ranked.
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