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Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 1950s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
84 sci-fi films from the 1950s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), at 7.7 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 6.7. Biggest split between audiences and critics: On the Beach, 7.1 on IMDb against 55 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Day the Earth Stood Still '1951 | Sci-Fi / Thriller / Drama | 7.7 | 92% | 83 | 7.4 | Robert Wise |
| 2 | Invasion of the Body Snatchers '1956 | Sci-Fi / Horror / Thriller | 7.7 | 97% | 92 | 7.5 | Don Siegel |
| 3 | Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century '1953 | Animation / Comedy / Sci-Fi | 8.1 | - | - | 7.6 | Chuck Jones |
| 4 | Godzilla '1954 | Thriller / Horror / Sci-Fi | 7.6 | 94% | 79 | 7.6 | Ishirō Honda |
| 5 | Water, Water Every Hare '1952 | Animation / Comedy / Sci-Fi | 7.9 | - | - | 7.5 | Chuck Jones |
| 6 | The Incredible Shrinking Man '1957 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 7.6 | 83% | 73 | 7.5 | Jack Arnold |
| 7 | Forbidden Planet '1956 | Sci-Fi | 7.5 | 96% | 80 | 7.3 | Fred M. Wilcox |
| 8 | The Man in the White Suit '1951 | Comedy / Sci-Fi | 7.2 | 100% | - | 6.9 | Alexander Mackendrick |
| 9 | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea '1954 | Sci-Fi / Fantasy | 7.2 | 91% | 83 | 7.1 | Richard Fleischer |
| 10 | Them! '1954 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 7.2 | 93% | 74 | 6.8 | Gordon Douglas |
| 11 | Hare-Way to the Stars '1958 | Animation / Comedy / Sci-Fi | 8.0 | - | - | 7.2 | Chuck Jones |
| 12 | The Fabulous World of Jules Verne '1958 | Sci-Fi | 7.5 | 100% | - | 7.2 | Karel Zeman |
| 13 | The Fly '1958 | Sci-Fi / Horror / Drama | 7.1 | 95% | 62 | 7.0 | Kurt Neumann |
| 14 | Journey to the Beginning of Time '1955 | Fantasy / Sci-Fi | 7.1 | - | - | 7.2 | Karel Zeman |
| 15 | On the Beach '1959 | Sci-Fi / Drama / Romance | 7.1 | 77% | 55 | 6.7 | Stanley Kramer |
| 16 | The Curse of Frankenstein '1957 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 7.0 | 85% | 59 | 6.8 | Terence Fisher |
| 17 | The Thing from Another World '1951 | Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi | 7.0 | 87% | - | 6.7 | Christian Nyby |
| 18 | The War of the Worlds '1953 | Sci-Fi / Action | 7.0 | - | 78 | 6.8 | Byron Haskin |
| 19 | Monkey Business '1952 | Comedy / Sci-Fi | 6.9 | 74% | - | 6.7 | Howard Hawks |
| 20 | 1984 '1956 | Sci-Fi / Drama | 6.9 | - | - | 6.5 | Michael Anderson |
| 21 | Lust of the Vampire '1957 | Horror / Mystery / Sci-Fi | 6.5 | - | - | 6.3 | Riccardo Freda |
| 22 | Creature from the Black Lagoon '1954 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.9 | 81% | 68 | 6.8 | Jack Arnold |
| 23 | Quatermass 2 '1957 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 6.7 | 83% | - | 6.4 | Val Guest |
| 24 | The Mysterians '1957 | Sci-Fi / Action / Drama / Thriller / War | 6.1 | - | - | 6.3 | Ishirō Honda |
| 25 | Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man '1951 | Horror / Comedy / Sci-Fi | 6.6 | 80% | - | 6.3 | Charles Lamont |
| 26 | Destination Moon '1950 | Sci-Fi / Drama | 6.3 | 69% | - | 5.9 | Irving Pichel |
| 27 | The World, the Flesh and the Devil '1959 | Drama / Sci-Fi / Romance | 6.8 | - | - | 6.4 | Ranald MacDougall |
| 28 | Not of This Earth '1957 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 6.1 | - | - | 5.7 | Roger Corman |
| 29 | The Monolith Monsters '1957 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.4 | - | - | 6.5 | John Sherwood |
| 30 | When Worlds Collide '1951 | Sci-Fi / Drama | 6.6 | 81% | - | 6.4 | Rudolph Maté |
| 31 | The Revenge of Frankenstein '1958 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.7 | 87% | 68 | 6.6 | Terence Fisher |
| 32 | The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms '1953 | Drama / Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.6 | 91% | - | 6.6 | Eugène Lourié |
| 33 | The Quatermass Xperiment '1955 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 6.6 | 91% | - | 6.5 | Val Guest |
| 34 | Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde '1953 | Comedy / Horror / Mystery / Sci-Fi | 6.4 | 67% | - | 6.2 | Charles Lamont |
| 35 | The Tingler '1959 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.6 | 78% | - | 6.4 | William Castle |
| 36 | The Man Who Could Cheat Death '1959 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.3 | 60% | - | 5.8 | Terence Fisher |
| 37 | I Married a Monster from Outer Space '1958 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.3 | 92% | - | 6.1 | Gene Fowler Jr. |
| 38 | It Came from Outer Space '1953 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 6.5 | 81% | 68 | 6.3 | Jack Arnold |
| 39 | X: The Unknown '1956 | Horror / Sci-Fi / Mystery | 6.1 | 71% | - | 6.1 | Leslie Norman |
| 40 | Abbott and Costello Go to Mars '1953 | Comedy / Sci-Fi | 5.9 | 33% | - | 5.5 | Charles Lamont |
| 41 | 20 Million Miles to Earth '1957 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 6.3 | 75% | - | 6.2 | Nathan Juran |
| 42 | Tarantula '1955 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 6.4 | 93% | - | 6.5 | Jack Arnold |
| 43 | The Man from Planet X '1951 | Sci-Fi / Thriller / Horror | 5.7 | 100% | - | 5.8 | Edgar G. Ulmer |
| 44 | Invaders from Mars '1953 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 6.3 | 88% | - | 5.9 | William Cameron Menzies |
| 45 | World Without End '1956 | Sci-Fi | 5.8 | 50% | - | 5.7 | Edward Bernds |
| 46 | Rodan '1956 | Horror / Sci-Fi | 6.2 | 75% | - | 6.5 | Ishirō Honda |
| 47 | Superman and the Mole Men '1951 | Sci-Fi / Action | 5.5 | - | - | 5.3 | Lee Sholem |
| 48 | Godzilla, King of the Monsters! '1956 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 6.3 | 85% | 61 | 6.5 | Terry O. Morse |
| 49 | Earth vs. the Flying Saucers '1956 | Action / Sci-Fi | 6.3 | 73% | - | 6.1 | Fred F. Sears |
| 50 | 4D Man '1959 | Sci-Fi / Horror | 5.8 | 80% | - | 5.8 | Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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Other genres in the 1950s
Action of the 1950s Animation of the 1950s Comedy of the 1950s Crime of the 1950s Drama of the 1950s Fantasy of the 1950s Horror of the 1950s Musical of the 1950s Mystery of the 1950s Romance of the 1950s Thriller of the 1950s War of the 1950s Western of the 1950s
Directors on this list
Robert Wise Don Siegel Chuck Jones Ishirō Honda Jack Arnold Alexander Mackendrick Richard Fleischer Karel Zeman Kurt Neumann Stanley Kramer Terence Fisher Byron Haskin
Actors on this list
Patricia Neal Mel Blanc Walter Pidgeon Alec Guinness Kirk Douglas James Mason Gregory Peck Ava Gardner Peter Cushing Cary Grant Ginger Rogers Edmond O'Brien