Ranked! All 8 Planet of the Apes Movies

We rank all eight of the official Planet of the Apes movies from least to greatest

With fans buzzing over 20th Century Fox’s War for the Planet of the Apes Times Square motion poster reveal, ahead of its New York Comic Con event, we thought it a fine time to flashback to all eight of the official Planet of the Apes movies thus far, ranking them in order of their quality and re-watchability.

The original Planet of the Apes film was released in 1968, a labor of love for all involved and it was a huge success, both critically and commercially. The movie – which starred aging Hollywood icon Charlton Heston as Col. Taylor, an American astronaut lost in the brutal landscape of a planet ruled by talking, socialized simians, one where mute humans are the “dogs” – spawned four sequels, in which supporting actor Roddy McDowall’s intellectual, liberal Chimpanzee Cornelius (and his own son, Caesar) became the star.

The Planet of the Apes movies inspired both a short-lived live-action series (itself edited down to a series of TV movies) and an even shorter-lived animated series, as well as a wealth of merchandise, comics and toys.

Later, Tim Burton hooked up with Apes legend Richard Zanuck to make a new Planet of the Apes movie and of course, more recently, the series was revived again, forgoing prosthetic make up effects for state of the art digital effects and a more operatic sense of apocalyptic dread.

Now, director Matt Reeves is on the cusp of unleashing the third entry in that new series, War for the Planet of the Apes, with Andy Serkis’ warrior ape Caesar continuing the bloody battle with the rogue humans inadvertently started in the previous entry, 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

But for now, sit back and get your thumb ready to scroll through our assessment of the Planet of the Apes movies released to date. Our ranking choices might surprise you…



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