Best Tearjerker Movies of All Time

Last Updated on 2 June 2025

The following list is a snapshot of society’s current opinions of the 300 best tearjerker movies of all time, movies that can make you cry, for various reasons.

Sometimes we just need a good cry, and these movies can do that. There are actual benefits to crying. Here is a scientific explanation.

I found 30 different ranked lists online of “best tearjerker movies of all time” and pulled them all into Excel and merged them all to get this definitive compilation. See my Methodology page for the research process that was used, including links to all 30 lists that were averaged. Below is a checklist you can print to track which ones you’ve seen, followed by the ranked list with links to IMDb. The list is also on IMDb.

Best Tearjerker Movies – Viewing Checklist Download

My Girl (1991)
Steel Magnolias (1989)
Titanic (1997)
The Notebook (2004)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Marley & Me (2008)
Up (2009)
The Color Purple (1985)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Beaches (1988)
The Green Mile (1999)
Love Story (1970)
The Fox and the Hound (1981)
Life Is Beautiful (1997)
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Past Lives (2023)
Schindler’s List (1993)
Atonement (2007)
Fruitvale Station (2013)
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
Toy Story 3 (2010)
The Farewell (2019)
Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009)
A Walk to Remember (2002)
Bridge to Terabithia (2007)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Bambi (1942)
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Call Me by Your Name (2017)
Stepmom (1998)
My Life (1993)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Old Yeller (1957)
Terms of Endearment (1983)
P.S. I Love You (2007)
My Sister’s Keeper (2009)
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
A Star Is Born (2018)
Moonlight (2016)
Furious 7 (2015)
Wonder Woman (2017)
Your Name. (2016)
Armageddon (1998)
Coco (2017)
Inside Out (2015)
Me Before You (2016)
Aftersun (2022)
Brian’s Song (1971)
Seven Pounds (2008)
Lion (2016)
Marriage Story (2019)
Pieces of a Woman (2020)
The Florida Project (2017)
The Land Before Time (1988)
Beautiful Boy (2018)
Ghost (1990)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Imitation of Life (1959)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
The Lion King (1994)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The Way We Were (1973)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Brief Encounter (1945)
Field of Dreams (1989)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
The Joy Luck Club (1993)
The Iron Giant (1999)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Selena (1997)
Precious (2009)
Interstellar (2014)
If I Stay (2014)
May December (2023)
Spoiler Alert (2022)
Train to Busan (2016)
The Impossible (2012)
Five Feet Apart (2019)
The Hours (2002)
Roma (2018)
Blue Valentine (2010)
Into the Wild (2007)
One Day (2011)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Little Women (2019)
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
The Pianist (2002)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
West Side Story (1961)
Other People (2016)
Pay It Forward (2000)
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Stand by Me (1986)
La La Land (2016)
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Finding Neverland (2004)
A Good Person (2023)
City Lights (1931)
Sounder (1972)
The Wrestler (2008)
Braveheart (1995)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)
Short Term 12 (2013)
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Stella Dallas (1937)
The NeverEnding Story (1984)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
One True Thing (1998)
Remember the Titans (2000)
Little Women (1994)
Simon Birch (1998)
What Maisie Knew (2012)
Soul (2020)
Patch Adams (1998)
The Elephant Man (1980)
Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)
United 93 (2006)
All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
Philadelphia (1993)
Still Alice (2014)
Never Let Me Go (2010)
50/50 (2011)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Revolutionary Road (2008)
A Monster Calls (2016)
City of Angels (1998)
Les Misérables (2012)
A Silent Voice (2016)
The Lovely Bones (2009)
All the Bright Places (2020)
Ordinary People (1980)
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Awakenings (1990)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
A Jazzman’s Blues (2022)
Dead Man Walking (1995)
Good Grief (2023)
Letters to Juliet (2010)
Shadowlands (1993)
We Live in Time (2024)
Click (2006)
The Bucket List (2007)
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
About Time (2013)
The Last Song (2010)
A Man Called Otto (2022)
Amour (2012)
Gladiator (2000)
Bicentennial Man (1999)
The Hate U Give (2018)
Reign Over Me (2007)
Arrival (2016)
Minari (2020)
Men of Honor (2000)
The Fisher King (1991)
The Sea Inside (2004)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
To Leslie (2022)
The Fallout (2021)
Rent (2005)
Cast Away (2000)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Remember Me (2010)
I Am Sam (2001)
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
I Am Legend (2007)
The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
The Outsiders (1983)
La Strada (1954)
The Past (2013)
The Big Sick (2017)
Dear John (2010)
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
Eight Below (2006)
Once (2006)
Room (2015)
The Light Between Oceans (2016)
My Dog Skip (2000)
Charlie St. Cloud (2010)
Come and See (1985)
Like Father, Like Son (2013)
Lost in Translation (2003)
The Whale (2022)
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
The Secret Life of Bees (2008)
What Dreams May Come (1998)
Agnes Browne (1999)
I See You (Kita Kita) (2017)
The Mighty (1998)
Wolf Children (2012)
The Choice (2016)
Rudy (1993)
All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
Harriet the Spy (1996)
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Irreplaceable You (2018)
Warrior (2011)
The Blind Side (2009)
Now and Then (1995)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
The Champ (1979)
The Flowers of War (2011)
Glory (1989)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Killer of Sheep (1978)
Penguin Bloom (2020)
This Boy’s Life (1993)
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Casablanca (1942)
After Love (2020)
First Match (2018)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Till (2022)
Frequency (2000)
The Theory of Everything (2014)
Legends of the Fall (1994)
Encanto (2021)
Philomena (2013)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Midsommar (2019)
Roman Holiday (1953)
The Duchess (2008)
The Kid (2000)
The Remains of the Day (1993)
Living (2022)
Logan (2017)
My Left Foot (1989)
Son of Saul (2015)
Trapped (2002)
Watership Down (1978)
A Star Is Born (1954)
Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995)
The Piano Teacher (2001)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Nomadland (2020)
Our Friend (2019)
The Iron Claw (2023)
Vortex (2021)
Sound of Metal (2019)
When They See Us (2019)
Miss You Already (2015)
Monster’s Ball (2001)
Y tu mamá también (2001)
Devdas (2002)
Endless (2020)
For Coloured Girls (2010)
Longtime Companion (1989)
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Sleepers (1996)
If Anything Happens I Love You (2020)
Ikiru (1952)
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (2024)
Charly (1968)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)
Rocks (2019)
Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
The Missing Picture (2013)
Wonder (2017)
Aimee & Jaguar (1999)
Away from Her (2006)
Holding the Man (2015)
In America (2002)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Loving (2016)
Margarita with a Straw (2014)
The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019)
The Laramie Project (2002)
Truly Madly Deeply (1990)
A Dog’s Purpose (2017)
Shoplifters (2018)
Collateral Beauty (2016)
Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005)
Die Beautiful (2016)
Just Mercy (2019)
The Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
The Snow Walker (2003)
Once Were Warriors (1994)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
The Lucky One (2012)
All of Us Strangers (2023)
Marvin’s Room (1996)
The Namesake (2006)