Most Popular History Feature Films
1. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
R | 139 min | Drama, History, War
WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people, and becomes the first man in American history to win the Medal of Honor without firing a shot.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer
Votes: 21,542 | Gross: $42.85M
2. Dunkirk (2017)
Action, Drama, History | Post-production
Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire, Canada and France are surrounded by the German army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh
3. Anthropoid (2016)
R | 120 min | Biography, History, Thriller
Based on the extraordinary true story of Operation Anthropoid, the WWII mission to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect behind the Final Solution and the Reich's third in command after Hitler and Himmler.
Director: Sean Ellis | Stars: Jamie Dornan, Cillian Murphy, Charlotte Le Bon, Anna Geislerová
Votes: 10,807 | Gross: $2.96M
4. The Big Short (2015)
R | 130 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
Four denizens in the world of high-finance predict the credit and housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s, and decide to take on the big banks for their greed and lack of foresight.
Director: Adam McKay | Stars: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt
Votes: 210,148 | Gross: $70.24M
5. Braveheart (1995)
R | 178 min | Biography, Drama, History
When his secret bride is executed for assaulting an English soldier who tried to rape her, William Wallace begins a revolt against King Edward I of England.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen
Votes: 753,168 | Gross: $75.60M
6. Free State of Jones (2016)
R | 139 min | Action, Biography, Drama
A disillusioned Confederate army deserter returns to Mississippi and leads a militia of fellow deserters, runaway slaves, and women in an uprising against the corrupt local Confederate government.
Director: Gary Ross | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, Keri Russell
Votes: 18,469 | Gross: $20.76M
7. 13 Hours (2016)
R | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
During an attack on a U.S. compound in Libya, a security team struggles to make sense out of the chaos.
Director: Michael Bay | Stars: John Krasinski, Pablo Schreiber, James Badge Dale, David Denman
Votes: 60,744 | Gross: $52.82M
8. Silence (I) (2016)
159 min | Drama, History | Completed
In the seventeenth century, two Jesuit priests face violence and persecution when they travel to Japan to locate their mentor and propagate Christianity.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, Adam Driver, Ciarán Hinds
9. Spotlight (I) (2015)
R | 128 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.
Director: Tom McCarthy | Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber
Votes: 223,790 | Gross: $44.99M
10. Schindler's List (1993)
R | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazi Germans.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
Votes: 886,249 | Gross: $96.07M
11. The Finest Hours (2016)
PG-13 | 117 min | Action, Drama, History
The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952.
Director: Craig Gillespie | Stars: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Eric Bana
Votes: 35,458 | Gross: $27.55M
12. American Hustle (2013)
R | 138 min | Crime, Drama, History
A con man, Irving Rosenfeld, along with his seductive partner Sydney Prosser, is forced to work for a wild FBI agent, Richie DiMaso, who pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence
Votes: 364,701 | Gross: $150.12M
13. Legend (I) (2015)
R | 132 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Identical twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray terrorize London during the 1960s.
Director: Brian Helgeland | Stars: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, Taron Egerton, Paul Anderson
Votes: 96,017 | Gross: $1.87M
14. Pompeii (I) (2014)
PG-13 | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A slave-turned-gladiator finds himself in a race against time to save his true love, who has been betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts, he must fight to save his beloved as Pompeii crumbles around him.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson | Stars: Kit Harington, Emily Browning, Kiefer Sutherland, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Votes: 86,413 | Gross: $23.22M
15. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
R | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt
Votes: 454,620 | Gross: $56.67M
16. Straight Outta Compton (2015)
R | 147 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The group NWA emerges from the mean streets of Compton in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1980s and revolutionizes Hip Hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood.
Director: F. Gary Gray | Stars: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr.
Votes: 128,202 | Gross: $161.03M
17. Bridge of Spies (2015)
PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, History, Thriller
During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan
Votes: 194,346 | Gross: $72.31M
18. Everest (2015)
PG-13 | 121 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A climbing expedition on Mt. Everest is devastated by a severe snow storm.
Director: Baltasar Kormákur | Stars: Jason Clarke, Ang Phula Sherpa, Thomas M. Wright, Martin Henderson
Votes: 143,102 | Gross: $43.25M
19. In the Heart of the Sea (2015)
PG-13 | 122 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
A recounting of a New England whaling ship's sinking by a giant whale in 1820, an experience that later inspired the great novel Moby-Dick.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw
Votes: 80,657 | Gross: $24.99M
20. Steve Jobs (2015)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
Steve Jobs takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution, to paint a portrait of the man at its epicenter. The story unfolds backstage at three iconic product launches, ending in 1998 with the unveiling of the iMac.
Director: Danny Boyle | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels
Votes: 103,630 | Gross: $17.75M
21. Lone Survivor (2013)
R | 121 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Marcus Luttrell and his team set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, in late June 2005. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare.
Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster
Votes: 209,284 | Gross: $125.07M
22. American Sniper (2014)
R | 133 min | Action, Biography, Drama
Navy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home to his wife and kids after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner, Cole Konis
Votes: 334,547 | Gross: $350.12M
23. Zodiac (2007)
R | 157 min | Crime, Drama, History
A San Francisco cartoonist becomes an amateur detective obsessed with tracking down the Zodiac killer.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards
Votes: 311,343 | Gross: $33.05M
24. The Founder (2016)
PG-13 | 115 min | Biography, Drama, History | Completed
The story of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc.
Director: John Lee Hancock | Stars: Linda Cardellini, Michael Keaton, Patrick Wilson, Nick Offerman
25. Black Hawk Down (2001)
R | 144 min | Drama, History, War
123 elite U.S. soldiers drop into Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and find themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily-armed Somalis.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana
Votes: 297,434 | Gross: $108.64M
26. Darkest Hour (2017)
Drama, History, War | Filming
Winston Churchill leads a charge against Adolf Hitler's army in the early days of World War II.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Lily James, Gary Oldman, Ben Mendelsohn, John Hurt
27. The Birth of a Nation (2016)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher in the antebellum South, orchestrates an uprising.
Director: Nate Parker | Stars: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Penelope Ann Miller, Jackie Earle Haley
Votes: 5,899 | Gross: $15.57M
28. King Arthur (2004)
PG-13 | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A demystified take on the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Director: Antoine Fuqua | Stars: Clive Owen, Stephen Dillane, Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd
Votes: 138,598 | Gross: $51.88M
29. The King's Speech (2010)
R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it.
Director: Tom Hooper | Stars: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Derek Jacobi
Votes: 515,858 | Gross: $138.80M
30. Unbroken (I) (2014)
PG-13 | 137 min | Biography, Drama, History
After a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.
Director: Angelina Jolie | Stars: Jack O'Connell, Miyavi, Domhnall Gleeson, Garrett Hedlund
Votes: 107,230 | Gross: $115.60M
31. Gangs of New York (2002)
R | 167 min | Crime, Drama, History
In 1863, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points area of New York City seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher, his father's killer.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jim Broadbent
Votes: 320,147 | Gross: $77.68M
32. The Promise (II) (2016)
PG-13 | 134 min | Drama, History
Set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, The Promise follows a love triangle between Michael, a brilliant medical student, the beautiful and sophisticated Ana, and Chris - a renowned American journalist based in Paris.
Director: Terry George | Stars: Angela Sarafyan, Christian Bale, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Oscar Isaac
Votes: 92,163
33. Patriots Day (2016)
130 min | Drama, History, Thriller
An account of Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis's actions in the events leading up to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the aftermath, which includes the city-wide manhunt to find the terrorists behind it.
Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Melissa Benoist, Michelle Monaghan, Mark Wahlberg, J.K. Simmons
Votes: 59
34. The Deer Hunter (1978)
R | 183 min | Drama, History, War
An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of people in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, John Cazale, John Savage
Votes: 237,763
35. The Pianist (2002)
R | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
A Polish Jewish musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto of World War II.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Emilia Fox
Votes: 513,138 | Gross: $32.52M
36. Pearl Harbor (2001)
PG-13 | 183 min | Action, Drama, History
Pearl Harbor follows the story of two best friends, Rafe and Danny, and their love lives as they go off to join the war.
Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, William Lee Scott
Votes: 258,733 | Gross: $198.54M
37. Argo (2012)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1980.
Director: Ben Affleck | Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin
Votes: 461,360 | Gross: $136.02M
38. Atonement (2007)
R | 123 min | Drama, History, Mystery
Fledgling writer Briony Tallis, as a thirteen-year-old, irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Brenda Blethyn, Saoirse Ronan
Votes: 196,240 | Gross: $50.92M
39. A Knight's Tale (2001)
PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, History
After his master dies, a peasant squire, fueled by his desire for food and glory, creates a new identity for himself as a knight.
Director: Brian Helgeland | Stars: Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Shannyn Sossamon
Votes: 139,197 | Gross: $56.08M
40. Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
R | 144 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Balian of Ibelin travels to Jerusalem during the crusades of the 12th century, and there he finds himself as the defender of the city and its people.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Liam Neeson, Martin Hancock
Votes: 221,137 | Gross: $47.40M
41. Amadeus (1984)
R | 160 min | Biography, Drama, History
The incredible story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told by his peer and secret rival Antonio Salieri - now confined to an insane asylum.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
Votes: 277,177 | Gross: $51.60M
42. Gone with the Wind (1939)
G | 238 min | Drama, History, Romance
A manipulative Southern belle carries on a turbulent affair with a blockade runner during the American Civil War.
Directors: Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Sam Wood | Stars: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil
Votes: 219,934 | Gross: $198.66M
43. The Queen (2006)
PG-13 | 103 min | Biography, Drama, History
After the death of Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth II struggles with her reaction to a sequence of events nobody could have predicted.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Alex Jennings
Votes: 86,766 | Gross: $56.44M
44. Apollo 13 (1995)
PG | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, History
NASA must devise a strategy to return Apollo 13 to Earth safely after the spacecraft undergoes massive internal damage putting the lives of the three astronauts on board in jeopardy.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise
Votes: 212,855 | Gross: $172.07M
45. Lincoln (2012)
PG-13 | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
As the Civil War continues to rage, America's president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Votes: 200,891 | Gross: $182.20M
46. The Good Dinosaur (2015)
PG | 93 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
In a world where dinosaurs and humans live side-by-side, an Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend.
Director: Peter Sohn | Stars: Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand, Maleah Nipay-Padilla, Ryan Teeple
Votes: 69,540 | Gross: $123.07M
47. Downfall (2004)
R | 156 min | Biography, Drama, History
Traudl Junge, the final secretary for Adolf Hitler, tells of the Nazi dictator's final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes, Juliane Köhler
Votes: 253,879 | Gross: $5.50M
48. Ben-Hur (2016)
PG-13 | 125 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Judah Ben-Hur, a prince falsely accused of treason by his adopted brother, an officer in the Roman army, returns to his homeland after years at sea to seek revenge, but finds redemption.
Director: Timur Bekmambetov | Stars: Jack Huston, Toby Kebbell, Rodrigo Santoro, Nazanin Boniadi
Votes: 9,992 | Gross: $26.38M
49. Tombstone (1993)
R | 130 min | Action, Biography, Drama
A successful lawman's plans to retire anonymously in Tombstone, Arizona, are disrupted by the kind of outlaws he was famous for eliminating.
Directors: George P. Cosmatos, Kevin Jarre | Stars: Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton
Votes: 97,099 | Gross: $56.51M
50. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
PG-13 | 94 min | Drama, History, War
Set during WWII, a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a German concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.
Director: Mark Herman | Stars: Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, Zac Mattoon O'Brien
Votes: 136,570 | Gross: $9.03M