The following is an overview of 1927 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Top-grossing films (Worldwide)
| Rank | Title | Gross |
|---|
| 1. |
The Jazz Singer |
$7,630,000 |
| 2. |
Wings |
$3,600,000 |
| 3. |
Blake of Scotland Yard |
$3,500,000 |
| 4. |
7th Heaven |
$2,500,000[1] |
| 5. |
Love |
$1,677,000 |
| 6. |
Tell it to the Marines |
$1,658,000 |
| 7. |
Metropolis |
$1,236,166 |
| 8. |
Jesse James |
$1,200,000 |
| 9. |
Mr. Wu |
$1,068,000 |
| 10. |
When a Man Loves |
$1,037,000[2] |
|
Events
[3][4]
- January 10 - Fritz Lang's science-fiction fantasy Metropolis premieres in Germany.
- March 11 - World's largest movie theatre, the Roxy Theatre, opens in New York City.
- April 7 - Abel Gance's Napoleon often considered his best known and greatest masterpiece, premieres (in a shortened version) at the Paris Opéra and demonstrates techniques and equipment that will not be revived for years to come, such as hand-held cameras, and what is often considered the first widescreen projection format Polyvision. It will be more than three decades before films with a widescreen format would again be attempted.
- May 11 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded in Los Angeles by Douglas Fairbanks. The 1st Academy Awards (Oscars) will be awarded to films which are released in 1927 or 1928.
- August 12 - Paramount's dramatic film Wings, which will go on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture, opens at the Criterion Theater in New York City, with an unheard-of roadshow admission price of $2.00 per ticket.
- September 5 - Nicholas Schenck becomes president of Loews Inc. following the death of Marcus Loew.
- September 7 - Oswald the Lucky Rabbit debuts in Trolley Troubles.
- September 23 - Fox Films acquires the rights to the Tri-Ergon sound-on-film technology, which had been developed in 1919 by three German inventors, Josef Engl, Hans Vogt, and Joseph Massole.
- October 6 - The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, premieres at the Warner Theater in New York City. Although not the first 'talkie', The Jazz Singer becomes the first box-office hit and popularizes sound motion pictures. It is the highest-grossing movie up to this time.
- December 3 - The silent short Putting Pants on Philip, the first official billing of comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, is released in the United States.
- Cinematograph Films Act sets a minimum quota for British films to be shown in British cinemas.
- Italian Alberto Rabagliati wins a Rudolph Valentino look-alike contest and moves to Hollywood to start his acting career.
Notable films released in 1927
U.S.A. unless stated
[5]
- Annie Laurie, starring Lillian Gish
- Bed and Sofa (Tretya meshchanskaya) - (U.S.S.R.)
- The Beloved Rogue, directed by Alan Crosland, starring John Barrymore, Marceline Day
- Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (documentary) - (Germany)
- Bigamie, starring Heinrich George - (Germany)
- Blighty, directed by Adrian Brunel; starring Ellaline Terriss and Lillian Hall-Davis - (Britain)
- The Bugle Call'
- The Cat and the Canary, directed by Paul Leni
- Chicago, directed by Frank Urson
- Children of Divorce, starring Clara Bow, Gary Cooper and Esther Ralston
- The Chinese Parrot, directed by Paul Leni
- The Club of the Big Deed (Союз Великого дела) - (U.S.S.R.)
- College, directed by James W. Horne and Buster Keaton, starring Buster Keaton
- Confetti, directed by Graham Cutts, starring Jack Buchanan and Annette Benson - (GB)
- The Dove, directed by Roland West, starring Norma Talmadge, Gilbert Roland and Noah Beery
- Downhill, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ivor Novello and Isabel Jeans - (GB)
- The Drop Kick, directed by Millard Webb, starring Richard Barthelmess
- Education of a Prince - (France)
- The End of St. Petersburg (Konets Sankt-Peterburga) - (U.S.S.R.)
- The Fair Co-Ed, directed by Sam Wood; starring Marion Davies and Johnny Mack Brown
- The First Auto, directed by Roy Del Ruth, starring Barney Oldfield, Patsy Ruth Miller, Charles Emmett Mack, Russell Simpson, Gibson Gowland
- The Forty-First (Sorok pervyy) - (U.S.S.R.)
- The Gaucho, directed by F. Richard Jones, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Lupe Vélez
- Ghost Train, directed by Géza von Bolváry, starring Guy Newall - (GB/Germany)
- Her Wild Oat, directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Colleen Moore
- His First Flame, directed by Harry Edwards, starring Harry Langdon
- His Greatest Bluff (Sein größter Bluff) - (Germany)
- The Honorable Mr. Buggs, starring Anna May Wong
- Hula, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Clara Bow
- Huntingtower, by George Pearson, starring Harry Lauder - (Britain)
- Husband Hunters, directed by John G. Adolfi starring Mae Busch, Jean Arthur and Mildred Harris
- It, starring Clara Bow
- The Jazz Singer, directed by Alan Crosland, starring Al Jolson and May McAvoy
- Johnny Get Your Hair Cut, directed by B. Reeves Eason and Archie Mayo starring Harry Carey
- The Kid Brother, a comedy starring Harold Lloyd
- The King of Kings, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring H. B. Warner, Dorothy Cumming and Joseph Schildkraut
- The Lady in Ermine, directed by James Flood, starring Corinne Griffith
- The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring June and Ivor Novello - (GB)
- London After Midnight, directed by Tod Browning, starring Lon Chaney, Sr., Conrad Nagel and Marceline Day
- Long Pants, directed by Frank Capra, starring Harry Langdon
- The Love of Jeanne Ney (Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney), directed by G.W. Pabst - (Germany)
- The Love of Sunya, directed by Albert Parker starring Gloria Swanson
- The Loves of Carmen, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Dolores del Río
- Madame Pompadour, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Dorothy Gish - (GB)
- Man from the Restaurant (Chelovek iz restorana) - (U.S.S.R.)
- Mata Hari starring Magda Sonja - (Germany)
- Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Alfred Abel - (Germany)
- Mockery, directed by Benjamin Christensen starring Lon Chaney
- The Mountain Eagle, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Nita Naldi - (GB/Germany)
- My Best Girl, starring Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers
- Napoléon directed by Abel Gance, starring Albert Dieudonne - (France)
- October: Ten Days That Shook the World - (U.S.S.R.)
- The Only Way directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring John Martin Harvey and Madge Stuart - (Britain)
- The Patent Leather Kid, starring Richard Barthelmess
- The Private Life of Helen of Troy, directed by Alexander Korda
- Quality Street, directed by Sidney Franklin, starring Marion Davies and Conrad Nagel
- Quinneys, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring John Longden and Alma Taylor - (Britain)
- The Red Mill, directed by William Goodrich (Fatty Arbuckle), starring Marion Davies
- The Ring, directed by Alfred Hitchcock - (GB)
- Robinson Crusoe - (GB)
- Romance of the Western Chamber - (China)
- The Scar of Shame, a race movie starring Harry Henderson and Lucia Lynn Moses
- Seventh Heaven, directed by Frank Borzage, starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell
- Shooting Stars, directed by Anthony Asquith and A.V. Bramble - (GB)
- Singed, starring Blanche Sweet and Warner Baxter
- Slide, Kelly, Slide, starring Harry Carey
- Sorrell and Son, starring H.B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson - (GB)
- Spring Fever, starring Joan Crawford
- The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Ramón Novarro and Norma Shearer
- Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, directed by F. W. Murnau, starring George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor
- Svengali directed by Gennaro Righelli and starring Paul Wegener - (Germany)
- Tillie the Toiler, directed by Hobart Henley; starring Marion Davies and Matt Moore
- Topsy and Eva, directed by Del Lord; starring Rosetta Duncan and Vivian Duncan
- Twelve Miles Out, directed by Jack Conway, starring John Gilbert and Joan Crawford
- Uncle Tom's Cabin, directed by Harry A. Pollard, starring Margarita Fischer
- Underworld, directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring George Bancroft, Clive Brook, Evelyn Brent
- The Unknown, directed by Tod Browning, starring Lon Chaney Sr., Norman Kerry, and Joan Crawford
- The Way of All Flesh, starring Emil Jannings
- When a Man Loves, an early Vitaphone sound movie starring John Barrymore and Dolores Costello who would become John Barrymore's future wife
- Why Girls Love Sailors, a Laurel and Hardy short
- Wings, directed by William A. Wellman, starring Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Richard Arlen
Animated short film series
Births
- January 4 - Barbara Rush, American actress
- January 15 - Phyllis Coates, American actress
- January 17 - Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer (died 2008)
- January 31 - Jean Speegle Howard (died 2000)
- February 7 - Juliette Gréco, French singer and actress
- February 20 - Sidney Poitier, American actor
- March 1 - Harry Belafonte, American actor and singer
- March 20 - Cairbre (also known as Leo), Dublin Zoo-born Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion mascot
- March 21 - Virginia Weidler, American actress (died 1968)
- March 31 - William Daniels, American actor
- April 13 - Maurice Ronet, French film actor, director and writer (died 1983)
- April 30 - Ellen Alaküla, Estonian actress (died 2011)
- May 5 - Pat Carroll, American actress
- May 11 - Bernard Fox, Welsh actor (died 2016)
- May 13 - Herbert Ross, American film director, producer and choreographer (died 2001)
- May 30 - Clint Walker, American actor (died 2018)
- June 8 - Jerry Stiller, American actor and comedian
- June 23 - Bob Fosse, American dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter and director (died 1987)
- June 27 - Geoffrey Palmer, British actor
- July 4
- July 6 - Janet Leigh, American actress (died 2004)
- August 9 - Robert Shaw, British actor and novelist (died 1978)
- August 30 - Bill Daily, American actor
- September 16 - Peter Falk, American actor (died 2011)
- September 19
- October 14 - Roger Moore, English actor (died 2017)
- October 18 - George C. Scott, American film and stage actor (died 1999)
- October 27 - Silvia Laidla, Estonian actress (died 2012)
- October 31 - Lee Grant, American actress
- November 12 - John Hollis, British screen actor (died 2005)
- November 17 - Fenella Fielding, English actress (died 2018)
- November 14 - McLean Stevenson, American actor (died 1996)
- November 20 - Estelle Parsons, American actress
- November 23 - Sybil Jason, American actress (died 2011)
Deaths
- January 13 - Arnold Daly, American actor, playwright and producer (born 1875)
- March 17 - Charles Emmett Mack, American actor (born 1900)
- April 25 - Earle Williams, American actor (born 1880)
- May 7 - Bruce McRae, American stage and screen actor (born 1867)
- May 16 - Sam Bernard, English stage and screen actor (born 1863)
- May 20 - Oscar Stribolt, Danish actor (born 1873)
- June 3 - Einar Hanson, Swedish stage and screen actor (born 1897)
- June 4 - Robert McKim, American actor (born 1886)
- July 26 - June Mathis, American screenwriter (born 1889)
- September 5 - Marcus Loew, American theater chain executive & founder of Loews Theaters (born 1870)
- October 5 - Sam Warner, American co-founder of Warner Brothers studios (born 1887)
- October 13 - Hughie Mack, American actor (born 1884)
- November 4 - Valli Valli, German stage and film actress (born 1882)
- December 6 - Kate Toncray, American actress (born 1867)
- December 16 - Romaine Fielding, American actor and director (born 1868)
