The Best Actress Oscar is one of the most esteemed awards of the night. It recognizes the best female performance of the entire year, a distinction that many actresses hope to gain. It signals respect from your peers, as well as legitimacy in your profession. Once you've won the Oscar, you know you're one of the best actors in the world.
Unfortunately, acting alone does not make a movie, and many Best Actress-winning movies have received a collective shrug from general audiences. And some haven't. Such is the way with movies.
These are the ten Best Actress-winning movies of the 2010s, ranked according to IMDb.
The Iron Lady - 6.4
General audiences didn't seem to care for Oscar bait biopic about a politician (yawn), but it starred an over-awarded Meryl Streep in the leading role. As such, many saw it as a little pretentious. But on top of that, it just wasn't a very good movie.
It currently sits at just 51% on Rotten Tomatoes and 54 on Metacritic, with most critics agreeing that Streep was the only great thing about the movie. This is perhaps one of the blandest Oscar-winning movies of the decade.
Judy - 7.0
Speaking of generally forgettable winners, we have this year's Best Actress-winning movie. Judy stars Renée Zellweger in a fantastic comeback performance as Judy Garland. And, much like The Iron Lady, it received a resounding shrug from movie critics. Sitting at 82% on Rotten Tomatoes (average score of 7.0/10) and 66 on Metacritic, it's clear that this movie didn't exactly get the critics riled up.
It also sits at 7.0/10 on IMDb with just 20,000 votes, with the female 45+ demographic giving it the highest rating at 7.5. No surprise there.
Blue Jasmine - 7.3
Cate Blanchett was the heavy favorite going into the 2014 Academy Awards, having won the Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA for her portrayal of rich Manhattan socialite Jasmine Francis. Critics obviously adored Blanchett's performance, and the movie scored 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Things aren't quite as enthusiastic over on IMDb, as it sits at a third-lowest 7.3/10. The ratings are uniform across all demographics, signaling that everyone found Blue Jasmine "pretty good." Not great, not bad. Just...good.
Still Alice - 7.5
Still Alice stars Julianne Moore as Alice Howland, a linguistics professor who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Like most movies about debilitating diseases, it's a pretty Oscar-bait-y role, and it worked. Moore won all the major awards of the year, although the movie itself only sits at a relatively low 72 on Metacritic.
Over on IMDb it sits at 7.5/10 based on 121,000 votes, with females giving it the slight edge over the males (7.6 versus 7.4). It's also interesting to note that 33.6% of voters gave it an 8/10, and 31.6% a 7/10.
The Favourite - 7.6
Sitting slightly above Still Alice is The Favourite, a movie starring the brilliant Olivia Colman as Queen Anne. Unlike most of the other movies so far mentioned on this list, The Favourite was a favourite of critics. It landed a very respectable and rare 90 on Metacritic while also winning the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.
It was nominated for a year-high ten Academy Awards, although Colman was its only winner. What's very interesting is the rating demographics over at IMDb - the group who rated it the highest (8.3) were males under the age of 18.
Silver Linings Playbook - 7.7
Silver Linings Playbook was the first movie since 1981 to be nominated for all four acting categories - Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence for lead, Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver for ing. Unfortunately, Jennifer Lawrence was the only winner of the group (she also went home with the Golden Globe and SAG Award).
It sits at a very respectable 7.7/10 with an astounding 636,000 votes, a clear indication of its popularity. Males actually favored this movie over the females (7.8 vs. 7.6), with males under the age of 18 once again awarding it the highest rating (8.0).
Black Swan - 8.0
The first winner of the decade was Natalie Portman for her astoundingly good portrayal of the troubled Nina Sayers. Black Swan grossed over $330 million at the box office and landed Portman a slew of awards, including the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG.
Breaking typical tradition, critics and audiences enjoyed this movie an equal amount, as it sits at 79 on Metacritic and 8.0/10 on IMDb. However, it seems like the older you get, the less you enjoy it - both males and females under 18 rated it above 8 (8.5 and 8.3, respectively), whereas those over 45 rated it a more meager 7.5. They just don't get it, man.
La La Land - 8.0
Emma Stone had La La Land - and she won her first Oscar for the latter. She was one of the movie's six Academy Awards, although the movie itself received a record-tying fourteen nominations.
What's surprising about the IMDb demographics is how unpredictable they are. Young people loved the movie far more than the older demographic, and males rated it higher than females (8.6 vs. 8.2 under 18, 8.4 vs. 8.1 in the 18-29 demo).
Room - 8.1
Before she was Captain Marvel, Brie Larson was Ma from Room. Not The Room. Don't get them confused. Larson was a shoe-in for the Best Actress award, as her performance was unanimously acclaimed and showered with awards. The other nominees certainly weren't holding their breaths in anticipation that night.
In a reverse of La La Land, Room has received stronger ratings from the female demographic. The highest-rated demographic is females under 18 (8.6 versus their male counterpart's 8.2), while females over 45 rated it 8.2 (their male counterpart, 7.9).
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - 8.2
Topping the list is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri a wonderful movie starring the always spectacular s McDormand. This was McDormand's second Academy Award (following Fargo) and fifth nomination. With this movie, she cemented her legacy as one of the finest working actresses in the industry.
Critics and audiences alike adored this film, as it scored an 88 on Metacritic and 8.2/10 on IMDb. And the most favorable demographic? You guessed it - males under 18, at 8.6. Interestingly, the least favorite demographic were also males, as both males 30-44 and 45+ rated it an 8.0.
