Johnny Depp has had a long and varied career of ups and downs, hits and misses, but how do Johnny Depp movies rank from worst to best? Beginning his career as a teen heartthrob in films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and the hit TV show 21 Jump Street, Depp quickly graduated to leading roles, eventually fostering a relationship with director Tim Burton. It’s with Burton that he developed a movie star persona that would become uniquely his, a mix of eccentric oddities and deeply-felt soulfulness. This peculiar presence would go on to shine in films like Edward Scissorhands and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, leading inevitably to his instantly-iconic turn as Captain Jack Sparrow.
Later in his career, he became embroiled in controversy and was dropped from his role as the main villain in Warner Bros’ Fantastic Beasts franchise. Depp’s future in the film industry, in general, was clouded by 2022’s controversial trial between him and actress/ex-wife Amber Heard. Thankfully, his filmography remains a vast and varied collection, overflowing with lonesome outsiders, grim-faced gangsters, and pounds upon pounds of white makeup. From Captain Jack and Edward Scissorhands to zany Tim Burton creations and plenty of cameos, Johnny Depp movies have a little bit of something for everyone.
62 Mortdecai (2015)
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Johnny Depp took on a strange character when he signed on to play Lord Charlie Mortdecai, a character who originated in the novel series by Kyril Bonfiglioli. In the books, he was an art dealer and swindler. This movie was based on Don’t Point That Thing at Me, where Mortdecai crossed the wrong man and found himself offering to help a local police inspector for a reward to pay off his debt. Sadly, Depp chose to go way over the top in his performance as Mortdecai as a buffoon, and he ended up nominated for a Razzie, with critics calling it unfunny and misguided.
61 Yoga Hosers (2016)
While there are a lot of Johnny Depp movies with him as the lead, he has also taken on several chances to cameo in other films. For Kevin Smith, Depp took on the same character in two different movies – a Canadian detective named Guy LaPointe. The worst of the two movies was Yoga Hosers, which starred Depp’s daughter Lily-Rose and Kevin Smith’s daughter Harley Quinn as two teenagers who end up in a life-or-death battle with Bratzis (one-foot-tall Nazis made of bratwurst). It has the worst critical scores of any Kevin Smith movie.
60 The Professor (2018)
In 2018, Johnny Depp starred in the comedy-drama The Professor, which premiered at the Zurich Film Festival before getting a theatrical release in 2019. He plays Richard Brown, an English professor who learns he has terminal cancer. The rest of the movie shows how he reacts to the news, all while his relationship with his family and faculty at the college disintegrates as he keeps his diagnosis to himself. The movie received negative critical reviews, with some saying it was an interesting concept that didn’t result in a good time.
59 Tusk (2014)
Johnny Depp’s first appearance as Guy LaPointe for Kevin Smith came in the 2014 horror movie, Tusk. While Smith is most known for his comedies, he took a break for a pair of horror movies, neither of which received critical praise. Tusk was a movie that Smith came up with while discussing ridiculous ideas on his podcast and set out to tell a story of an older man turning a young man into a walrus through a medical procedure. Depp starred as a detective investigating the case but took on heavy prosthetics and an overblown accent in the movie, which has a small cult following.
58 Private Resort (1985)
Depp’s second film is a sophomoric sex comedy about two teens in Miami prowling for women when they encounter a jewel heist. Rob Morrow co-stars with Depp while comedian Andrew Dice Clay has an early acting role in the movie as well. The movie was a flop, making only $331,816 worldwide, and was the least successful of three R-rated comedies in the ’80s in the “Private” line of movies, following Private Lessons and Private School. It would be five years before Depp got another starring opportunity as a lead in a movie.
57 The Brave (1997)
Johnny Depp made his directorial debut in 1997 in the movie The Brave. Depp also starred in the movie as Raphael, an Indigenous person living in a remote community. He works near a garbage dump and sells what he can to help support his family. However, when he gets the chance to star in a snuff film, as the person who is killed, he takes the deal so his family can have money to make a better life than he could provide – only to grow closer to them before his fate. The movie received early terrible reviews, so Depp refused to release it in the United States (via The Los Angeles Times).
56 Alice Through The Looking Glass (2016)
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Johnny Depp’s first trip to Wonderland had Tim Burton’s eye and talent behind it, but the sequel swapped out Burton for James Bobin, and this paint-by-numbers follow-up to the live-action remake ticks along on autopilot. While the movie made $299 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), it is estimated to have lost $70 million when everything was added in, making it the end of the franchise. While Alice Through the Looking Glass still had amazing visuals, that was the only area that critics praise, and it ended up with three Razzie nominations, with Johnny Depp picking up two by himself.
55 The Man Who Cried (2000)
This drama is about a Russian Jewish girl in 1927 who escapes to England and meets a handsome horseman. A British drama, the cast was top-notch, with Depp joining Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett, Harry Dean Stanton, and John Turturro. However, it was only Blanchett who received praise for her performance from the National Board of Review. As a whole, the movie received a negative critical rating, with reviews calling it awkward with flatly drawn characters.
54 The Astronaut’s Wife (1999)
Johnny Depp (sporting blonde hair in the film) and Charlize Theron give fine performances in this box office bomb ($19.6 million box office on a $75 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). However, its story of an astronaut who returns from space a changed man has undoubtedly been done before and after with far more interesting and engaging results. Critics praised the acting but said the movie moves at a slow pace and never keeps viewers engaged even as the science fiction story builds to its electric conclusion.
53 Transcendence (2014)
Wally Pfister, the cinematographer of The Dark Knight and Inception, tried his hand at directing with this 2014 sci-fi film about a genius whose consciousness is uploaded to the Internet. It’s a good-looking movie, but its intellectual depth is fairly shallow, and any attempts at emotional intimacy are impeded by thinly-drawn characters and generic performances by the cast. Overall, Transcendence falls far short of its titular goal and it is another of the Johnny Depp movies that received almost universally bad reviews.
52 Waiting For The Barbarians (2019)
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Waiting for the Barbarians was a drama movie that premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 and hit theaters in 2020. The film starred Mark Rylance as The Magistrate, a man who managed an outpost of an unnamed Empire that has kept order for years. However, when Johnny Depp’s Colonel Joll arrives, it throws everything into turmoil. Robert Pattinson also stars in the movie, which received lukewarm reviews praising the performances, but critiquing the drama in the movie itself.
51 Happily Ever After (2004)
There are several Johnny Depp movies that see him take part in varying roles in French films. This includes the 2004 comedy-drama, Happily Ever After. The movie features friends and their struggles with romance. However, the movie’s release in North America was mostly because of Johnny Depp’s long and somewhat confusing cameo. He meets a woman and enjoys some music with her before the two end up kissing on an elevator. While called L’inconnu in the credits, he mostly played himself in the appearance. The movie received lukewarm reviews, mostly with the praise going to the actors.
50 The Lone Ranger (2013)
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Johnny Depp playing the Lone Ranger’s Native American sidekick Tonto is a piece of casting that proved highly controversial at the time. However, it wasn’t the only time that Depp played an Indigenous person. This 2013 update from Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski and co-starring Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger lost money at the box office thanks to a massive budget. Despite this, it still received a pair of Oscar nominations, one for Visual Effects and one for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
49 Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
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The fourth installment sees the reins handed from original Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski to Chicago director Rob Marshall. It’s less cluttered and noisy than its predecessor, At World’s End, but what really hurt the movie was kind of sidelining Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow. The movie focused instead on Sam Claflin’s missionary and his love story with a mermaid, played by Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey. One of the high points, though, was Ian McShane portraying the legendary pirate Blackbeard.
48 Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales has more Captain Jack Sparrow than the previous movie in the franchise. It also had a great bad guy with Javier Bardem as Captain Armando Salazar with yet another army of dead pirates. The movie was an improvement over On Stranger Tides, mostly thanks to the return of the focus on Captain Jack and Geoffrey Rush’s Barbossa. It was also a return to form for the box office, making over $795 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), although it received lackluster reviews and picked up several Razzie nominations.
47 The Ninth Gate (1999)
More than 30 years after Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski returned to the subject of Satanism with one of the Johnny Depp movies in the horror genre. It’s a typical display of the director’s style and visual panache, but the scares are limited and Depp is left playing a fairly one-note character. More forgiving audiences may make it through the first and second acts intrigued by the film’s story, but The Ninth Gate ultimately goes off the rails in a climax that loses its focus at times.
46 City Of Lies (2021)
City of Lies was one of the Johnny Depp movies that saw a tough road thanks to his legal problems that started in 2020. The movie was made in 2018 and centered on the murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., with Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) as the director. However, its United States release was postponed first because its production company was sold. Then, it sat on the shelf as Depp’s career faltered, before it finally got a 2021 release on PVOD. It received mixed reviews and is mostly forgotten.
45 The Libertine (2004)
Johnny Depp is actually quite dazzling as the Earl of Rochester in The Libertine, in a performance that fully embraces the downward spiral of a life spent reveling in debauchery. It’s a shame the surrounding elements in the film can’t quite hold a candle, at times lit so darkly one can scarcely see what’s happening in the frame. As far as period dramas go, this one ended up with mostly negative to mixed reviews from critics. On the positive side, it did pick up several nominations at the British Independent Film Awards, winning Rosamund Pike an award for Supporting Actor or Actress.
44 Blow (2001)
Blow sets out to be as gripping a rise-and-fall story as GoodFellas or Boogie Nights. Johnny Depp is in fine form as George Jung, the high-school football star turned premier cocaine importer, and the initial parts of the film concerning his rise are a fun ride. Alas, when the inevitable fall sets in, the film becomes overly sentimental, ultimately revealing that Blow didn’t hit all the right notes as it began to head into Jung’s downfall at the hands of his wife, Mirtha, played by Penélope Cruz. While Cruz took home a Razzie, the movie has become somewhat of a cult classic.
43 The Tourist (2010)
Still one of the most bizarre films to be able to claim “multiple Golden Globe nominee” status, this barely-burning sizzler is a magic trick that transforms two of the most charismatic movie stars of their day into a screen couple with very little chemistry. Angelina Jolie is a woman whose lover owes millions in back taxes and finds the police tailing her to try to find him after he underwent reconstructive surgery. Depp is a math teacher that she meets on a train that she picks out to frame as her husband. The movie received mixed critical reviews but still picked up awards recognition.