25 great films with huge ensemble casts

Lionsgate While the biggest names in a movie tend to score top billing, a film’s overall success often depends on the chemistry of the entire ensemble rather than just one or two stars. Can you imagine “The Breakfast Club” without Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, or Ally Sheedy? Would “When Harry Met Sally…” have been such a big hit without the duo of Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher cast alongside Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan? One of the most prestigious awards recognizing the cast as a collective unit is the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Since the creation of this award in 1995, all but four winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture have been nominated for this SAG award first, and a dozen films have won both awards. The largest cast to win the SAG award for best ensemble is the 2001 film “Gosford Park,” boasting 20 credited actors. Stacker researched and compiled data on films with at least seven major actors, ranging from A-listers in lead roles to veteran character actors in supporting roles. To be included in this list, films were required to have a minimum 6.5 IMDb user rating or a 75 Metascore and at least 2,500 votes on IMDb. Keep reading to learn about 25 of the best films with large ensemble casts, listed in alphabetical order. You may also like: 100 best fantasy movies of all time 12 Years a Slave (2013) Killer Films – Director: Todd Haynes – IMDb user rating: 6.8 – Metascore: 73 – Runtime: 135 minutes Six actors–Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw–each portray a version of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in “I’m Not There.” This experimental biopic reflects various aspects of the iconic musician’s life through six different characters, none of which are actually Dylan himself; rather, they are symbolic representations of him at different points in time. Director Todd Haynes stated that his goal with the film was to “find a narrative and cinematic parallel to what Dylan did to popular music in his era.” The Ice Storm (1997) Searchlight Pictures – Director: Ang Lee – IMDb user rating: 7.4 – Metascore: 72 – Runtime: 112 minutes Before “Brokeback Mountain” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Ang Lee directed “The Ice Storm,” a suburban drama based on the 1994 novel by Rick Moody. The film explores the turmoil beneath the picture-perfect facades of two middle-class families in early 1970s Connecticut. An extensive ensemble cast carries the film–among them Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, and Sigourney Weaver–which won the 1997 award for Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) Participant – Director: Tom McCarthy – IMDb user rating: 8.1 – Metascore: 93 – Runtime: 129 minutes “Spotlight” recounts the true story of how The Boston Globe investigated and exposed child molestation, along with systemic efforts to cover up this abuse, within the Catholic Church in 2002. The Atlantic describes it as “a film about the methodical process of reporting, not the stirring heroism behind it,” emphasizing the importance of the journalistic work itself over praise for the investigative reporters who broke the story. Nonetheless, the casting of The Boston Globe staff is top-notch, featuring A-listers like Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, and Liev Schreiber. The Thin Red Line (1998) Fox 2000 Pictures – Director: Terrence Malick – IMDb user rating: 7.6 – Metascore: 78 – Runtime: 170 minutes The 1998 version of “The Thin Red Line” is the second film based on James Jones’ 1962 novel. Jim Caviezel plays a U.S. Army private who goes AWOL during World War II until his sergeant (Sean Penn) finds him, forcing him to return and train for the Battle of Guadalcanal against Imperial Japan. Although the list of cast members is long, Terrence Malick’s extensive edits significantly cut screen time for many actors: Adrien Brody’s role as a corporal was whittled down to almost nothing, and three hours of voice-over recorded by Billy Bob Thornton was removed from the film entirely. True Romance (1993) Morgan Creek Entertainment – Director: Tony Scott – IMDb user rating: 7.9 – Metascore: 59 – Runtime: 119 minutes Written by Quentin Tarantino, “True Romance” is the unexpectedly adventurous love story of a nerd named Clarence (Christian Slater) and a call girl named Alabama (Patricia Arquette). The pair quickly fall in love and get married, but things go awry when Clarence kills Alabama’s pimp and steals a suitcase full of cocaine, sending the newlyweds on the run from the mob. Although it only earned $12.3 million domestically with a budget of $12.5 million, the film’s long list of big Hollywood names–those like Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Brad Pitt, and Christopher Walken–helped it become a cult classic. Wet Hot American Summer (2001) Eureka Pictures – Director: David Wain – IMDb user rating: 6.5 – Metascore: 42 – Runtime: 97 minutes Based on the summer camp adventures of writers Michael Showalter and David Wain, “Wet Hot American Summer” parodies popular sex comedies of the 1980s like “Porky’s” and “Bachelor Party.” The film follows the antics of a group of camp counselors trying to make the most of their last day at summer camp in 1981. Despite bombing at the box office–the film was only released in two New York theaters, grossing a mere $295,206–it became a fan favorite thanks to performances by Elizabeth Banks, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, and Paul Rudd. The Women (1939) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) – Director: George Cukor – IMDb user rating: 7.7 – Metascore: data not available – Runtime: 133 minutes Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, and Norma Shearer lead a cast made up entirely of women–135 of them, in fact!–in this classic comedy-drama. “The Women” is based on the 1936 play by Clare Boothe Luce about life and love among a group of Manhattan socialites as one of their own navigates the knowledge that her husband is having an affair. You may also like: Sequels that outperformed the original at the box office