Ranking the reception of movie musical adaptations (2002-Present)

I was bored last night and decided to rank the the reception of the movie musical adaptations from Chicago until now. I am using Rotten Tomatoes as a guide. If you prefer Metacritic, sorry.

Here's the ranking

1. Hairspray - 91%
2. Chicago - 87%
3. Sweeney Todd - 86%
4. Dreamgirls 78%
5. Into The Woods - 72% (currently)
6. Les Miserables - 70%
7. Mamma Mia - 54%
8. Jersey Boys - 53%
9. The Producers - 51%
10. Rent - 46%
11. Rock of Ages - 41%
12. Nine 37%
13. The Phantom of the Opera - 33%
14. Annie (2014 remake) - 29%

Thoughts:
No surprise - Annie is on the bottom. I was pretty shocked to see that Hairspray has a higher percentage than Chicago. I remember Hairspray being well-liked, but I had forgotten the critics liked it THAT much. After all, Chicago was a major Oscar winning event, making most of these adaptations possible. Also, nice to see Sweeney Todd in third place. I know musical theater fans were and are pretty tough on that movie, but the critics were quite fond of it.

In terms of critical reception, It's interesting to see Woods and Les Mis so close to each other, especially given that the theater fan reception of Woods seems more enthusiastic than it was and is for Les Mis.
The large gap between between 1-6 and 7-14 isn't too surprising, as 7-14 weren't received very well by fans or critics.

Thoughts on the rankings? If you've seen them all, how would you rank them from best to worst?

Updated On: 12/26/14 at 07:53 PM

People seem to be rough on Sweeney Todd now but when it was released the buzz here if I recall correctly from reading previous threads was generally very positive. I think it is by far the best musical on this list and a great adaptation so I think its critical praise is highly deserved.

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The 2011 Footloose got 71%. Better than Les MIs?? I think not...

Too bad you didn't go back to 2001 to include the awesome Hedwig movie.

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I love Chicago and Jersey Boys, liked Hairspray, and thought Annie was cute. The others aren't worth mentioning.

of course not. because y'know, u said so....

[insert eye roll here]

I like most of those movies but I can rewatch Hairspray & Dreamgirls over-and-over. They're so good, for different reasons.

Ok

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The audience/fan score is actually separate. The main score is comprised of reviews by top critics and second/third tier critics and bloggers.

Broadway Baby,

The top critics score for les mis was 57 and for sweeney 88

LES MIS is one of those that I dislike more and more each time I see it and the more time passes. It's just incredibly uninspired, and it sheds light on what's actually a pretty weak (if very crowdpleasing) musical. I go back and forth on SWEENEY TODD, but I have always thoroughly disliked the Anthony/Johanna storyline which suffers from atrocious casting and a complete lack of interest from Burton. I also can't help but picture like 15 other actresses who would have made a better Mrs. Lovett (I rewatched BILLY ELLIOT today and couldn't help but think how brilliant Julie Walters would have been in the role).

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I personally think Into the Woods is the best musical film adaptation to come along in a long time. I vastly preferred it over to any of the most recent adaptations. I thought Les Miserables was extremely disappointing, and the living singing did nothing for me besides make the film vastly underwhelming.

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Updated On: 12/26/14 at 11:49 PM

I agree so much with ray-andallthatjazz about Les Miz's value depreciating with each successive viewing. I absolutely loved it in the theater (and saw it three times), but as soon as I got it home on DVD it wasn't nearly as good and I've tried two separate additional times to watch it...the first I got about 40 minutes in and couldn't take it, the final time I couldn't get past Fantine. I'm not sure what happened exactly.

Hairspray and Chicago are both films that I can watch ad nauseum and still love.
Dreamgirls is one that, because I feel like it is longer than life, I've chosen to only watch 4 or 5 times in my life, but I have absolutely loved it every single time. I just wish it was shorter.
Sweeney Todd I hated immensely upon first viewing, but after becoming more familiar with the musical itself, I now appreciate much more. I like to think of it as well-acted, sarcastically sung, and appropriately dark. The singing reminds of the stuff in Nightmare Before Christmas (a little bit, I think...it's a movie that I can't stand although I understand many people love it) and Corpse Bride, so maybe Tim Burton wanted the singing to be that way (because of Danny Elfman).
Mamma Mia was fun but unessential. I enjoyed RENT as a teenager and cannot stand it now. Phantom and Nine are both abominations and should burn in the fiery pits of Mordor. I actually enjoyed The Producers...excepting Uma Thurman, and specifying on John Barrowman as a Nazi. Rock of Ages was just a hot mess: fun at times and hugely embarrassing at others.
Annie, I will not do myself the dishonor of paying to see that as it seems like such a horribly misguided abortion that I can't fathom how it was even produced or why someone would go to the theater to see it.
On the whole, I'm glad musicals are being made, I just wish their executions would be a little...less crappy in general.

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I haven't seen Into the Woods yet, and I have no interest in the new Annie at all, but here's my short little reviews of the big Stage-to-Screen transfers that happened within the past 12 years:

*Chicago-A very clever adaptation, so glad it won the Oscar and re-launched the Hollywood musical (NOT Moulin Rogue!)!
*The Phantom of the Opera-I used to really like that movie, but when I last watched it, I kept laughing at myself as to why...
*Rent-I've only seen that movie once years ago without any knowledge of the Broadway show but looking at it now, not only was it a big mistake casting the original actors nearly a decade later, but it was such an underwhelming adaptation and a forgettable movie!
*The Producers-I actually did enjoy it for what it was, but I do agree that it definitely served better as a film of the Broadway show than an actual movie.
*Dreamgirls-I had never seen the show on stage before, but I was pretty impressed with the movie.
*Hairspray-A very clever adaptation while still containing the excitement of the musical!
*Sweeney Todd-I thought it was BLOODY BRILLIANT! A very impressive adaptation of what is personally my favorite Sondheim work!
*Mamma Mia!-I personally never liked the show that much, so the movie didn't really do anything for me.
*Nine-It may not be the best on this list, but I actually didn't mind it that much.
*Rock of Ages-It may not be the best movie ever, but I still found it to be entertaining as hell!
*Les Miserables-My personal favorite, I think it's a very misunderstood masterpiece that hopefully like the stage musical (as well as Victor Hugo's novel), it will be looked upon differently in years to come!
*Jersey Boys-I actually thought that movie was much better than what it was given credit for! I thought the cast did a great job, and I also thought Clint Eastwood did something very real with the musical numbers. And I am happy to see that has a 60% from the top critics on Rotten Tomatoes!