100 English films of 1959 ranked by box office. #1: Ben-Hur ($146.9 million).
| # | Film | Lead | Director | Budget | Box office | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben-Hur | William Wyler | $15 million | $146.9 million | 9.79x | |
| 2 | The 400 Blows | François Truffaut | $30.7 million | |||
| 3 | Some Like It Hot | Billy Wilder | $2.9 million | $25 million | 8.67x | |
| 4 | The Nun's Story | Fred Zinnemann | $3.5 million | $12.8 million | 3.66x | |
| 5 | The Shaggy Dog | Charles Barton | $1.2 million | $12.3 million | 9.84x | |
| 6 | Solomon and Sheba | King Vidor | $5 million | $12.2 million | 2.44x | |
| 7 | Journey to the Center of the Earth | Henry Levin | $3.4 million | $10 million | 2.91x | |
| 8 | North by Northwest | Alfred Hitchcock | $4.3 million | $9.8 million | 2.28x | |
| 9 | Operation Petticoat | Blake Edwards | $9.3 million | |||
| 10 | Suddenly, Last Summer | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | $2.5 million | $9 million | 3.60x | |
| 11 | Anatomy of a Murder | Otto Preminger | $2 million | $8 million | 4.00x | |
| 12 | Pillow Talk | Michael Gordon | $1.6 million | $7.6 million | 4.75x | |
| 13 | Imitation of Life | Douglas Sirk | $1.2 million | $6.4 million | 5.33x | |
| 14 | Rio Bravo | Howard Hawks | $1.2 million | $5.8 million | 4.73x | |
| 15 | Never So Few | John Sturges | $3.5 million | $5.3 million | 1.51x | |
| 16 | A Hole in the Head | Frank Capra | $1.9 million | $5.2 million | 2.75x | |
| 17 | It Started with a Kiss | George Marshall | $1.8 million | $4.7 million | 2.60x | |
| 18 | The Mating Game | George Marshall | $867,000 | $3.9 million | 4.53x | |
| 19 | Say One for Me | Frank Tashlin | $2 million | $3.9 million | 1.96x | |
| 20 | The Horse Soldiers | John Ford | $3.8 million | |||
| 21 | Porgy and Bess | Otto Preminger | $7 million | $3.5 million | 0.50x | |
| 21 | The FBI Story | Mervyn LeRoy | $3.5 million | |||
| 21 | Don't Give Up the Ship | Norman Taurog | $3.5 million | |||
| 24 | Ask Any Girl | Charles Walters | $1.1 million | $3.5 million | 3.05x | |
| 25 | The Journey | Anatole Litvak | $2.3 million | $3.5 million | 1.51x | |
| 26 | This Earth Is Mine | Henry King | $3.5 million | $3.4 million | 0.97x | |
| 27 | The Gazebo | George Marshall | $1.2 million | $3.3 million | 2.72x | |
| 28 | Li'l Abner | Melvin Frank | $3.2 million | |||
| 29 | The Big Fisherman | Frank Borzage | $4 million | $3 million | 0.75x | |
| 29 | A Dog of Flanders | James B. Clark | $600,000 | $3 million | 5.00x | |
| 29 | Al Capone | Richard Wilson | $550,000 | $3 million | 5.45x | |
| 29 | The Five Pennies | Melville Shavelson | $3 million | |||
| 29 | Career | Joseph Anthony | $3 million | |||
| 34 | The Wreck of the Mary Deare | Michael Anderson | $2.6 million | $2.8 million | 1.08x | |
| 35 | Carry On Nurse | Gerald Thomas | £71,000 | $2.8 million | ||
| 35 | The Young Philadelphians | Vincent Sherman | $2.8 million | |||
| 37 | The Big Circus | Joseph M. Newman | $2 million | $2.7 million | 1.35x | |
| 38 | Darby O'Gill and the Little People | Robert Stevenson | $2.6 million | |||
| 39 | Last Train from Gun Hill | John Sturges | $2.5 million | |||
| 39 | They Came to Cordura | Robert Rossen | $4.5 million | $2.5 million | 0.56x | |
| 39 | But Not for Me | Walter Lang | $2.5 million | |||
| 39 | Have Rocket, Will Travel | David Lowell Rich | $380,000 | $2.5 million | 6.58x | |
| 43 | Room at the Top | Jack Clayton | £280,000 | $2.4 million | ||
| 44 | Green Mansions | Mel Ferrer | $3.3 million | $2.4 million | 0.73x | |
| 45 | The Diary of Anne Frank | George Stevens | $3.8 million | $2.3 million | 0.61x | |
| 46 | The Hanging Tree | Karl Malden | $2.2 million | |||
| 46 | On the Beach | Stanley Kramer | $2.9 million | $2.2 million | 0.76x | |
| 48 | The Fugitive Kind | Sidney Lumet | $2.3 million | $2.1 million | 0.91x | |
| 48 | Pork Chop Hill | Lewis Milestone | $3 million | $2.1 million | 0.70x | |
| 50 | Our Man in Havana | Carol Reed | $2 million | |||
| 51 | Alias Jesse James | Norman Z. McLeod | $1.9 million | |||
| 52 | Compulsion | Richard Fleischer | $1.3 million | $1.8 million | 1.34x | |
| 52 | The Devil's Disciple | Guy Hamilton | $1.5 million | $1.8 million | 1.20x | |
| 52 | Thunder in the Sun | Russell Rouse | $1.8 million | |||
| 52 | Happy Anniversary | David Miller | $1 million | $1.8 million | 1.80x | |
| 56 | Count Your Blessings | Jean Negulesco | $2.3 million | $1.7 million | 0.74x | |
| 56 | Tarzan, the Ape Man | Joseph M. Newman | $689,000 | $1.7 million | 2.48x | |
| 58 | Yellowstone Kelly | Gordon Douglas | $1.7 million | |||
| 58 | It Happened to Jane | Richard Quine | $1.7 million | |||
| 58 | Warlock | Edward Dmytryk | $2.4 million | $1.7 million | 0.71x | |
| 58 | The Sound and the Fury | Martin Ritt | $1.7 million | $1.7 million | 0.99x | |
| 58 | Third Man on the Mountain | Ken Annakin | $2 million | $1.7 million | 0.85x | |
| 63 | For the First Time | Rudolph Maté | $500,000 | $1.7 million | 3.37x | |
| 64 | The Last Angry Man | Daniel Mann | $1.7 million | |||
| 65 | Goliath and the Barbarians | Carlo Campogalliani | $1.6 million | |||
| 66 | Watusi | Kurt Neumann | $485,000 | $1.5 million | 3.19x | |
| 67 | The Immoral Mr. Teas | Russ Meyer | $24,000 | $1.5 million | 62.50x | |
| 67 | Middle of the Night | Delbert Mann | $1 million | $1.5 million | 1.50x | |
| 67 | A Private's Affair | Raoul Walsh | $1.2 million | $1.5 million | 1.25x | |
| 67 | Up Periscope | Gordon Douglas | $2 million | $1.5 million | 0.75x | |
| 71 | The Blue Angel | Edward Dmytryk | $1.7 million | $1.4 million | 0.82x | |
| 72 | Woman Obsessed | Henry Hathaway | $1.7 million | $1.3 million | 0.76x | |
| 72 | The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker | Henry Levin | $1.5 million | $1.3 million | 0.88x | |
| 74 | The Angry Hills | Robert Aldrich | $1.2 million | $1.3 million | 1.08x | |
| 75 | The Scapegoat | Robert Hamer | $943,000 | $1.2 million | 1.27x | |
| 76 | Libel | Anthony Asquith | $615,000 | $1.2 million | 1.90x | |
| 77 | Look Back in Anger | Tony Richardson | £250,000 | $1.1 million | ||
| 77 | The Trap | Norman Panama | $1.1 million | |||
| 77 | Jack the Ripper | Robert S. Baker | £50,000 | $1.1 million | ||
| 77 | Holiday for Lovers | Henry Levin | $2 million | $1.1 million | 0.56x | |
| 81 | The World, the Flesh and the Devil | Ranald MacDougall | $1.7 million | $1.1 million | 0.65x | |
| 82 | The House of the Seven Hawks | Richard Thorpe | $535,000 | $1.1 million | 1.99x | |
| 83 | The Black Orchid | Martin Ritt | $1 million | |||
| 83 | The Killer Shrews | Ray Kellogg | $123,000 | $1 million | 8.13x | |
| 83 | Tarzan's Greatest Adventure | John Guillermin | $750,000 | $1 million | 1.33x | |
| 83 | That Kind of Woman | Sidney Lumet | $2.5 million | $1 million | 0.40x | |
| 83 | The Wonderful Country | Robert Parrish | $1 million | |||
| 83 | John Paul Jones | John Farrow | $4 million | $1 million | 0.25x | |
| 83 | Sapphire | Basil Dearden | £140,000 | $1 million | ||
| 83 | The Hangman | Michael Curtiz | $1 million | |||
| 83 | The Jayhawkers! | Melvin Frank | $1 million | |||
| 92 | Night of the Quarter Moon | Hugo Haas | $538,000 | $940,000 | 1.75x | |
| 93 | Girls Town | Charles F. Haas | $457,000 | $875,000 | 1.91x | |
| 94 | The Beat Generation | Charles F. Haas | $439,000 | $750,000 | 1.71x | |
| 95 | The Big Operator | Charles F. Haas | $527,000 | $680,000 | 1.29x | |
| 96 | Frontier Rangers | Jacques Tourneur | $74,000 | $650,000 | 8.78x | |
| 97 | First Man into Space | Robert Day | $131,000 | $635,000 | 4.85x | |
| 98 | The Mouse That Roared | Jack Arnold | $300,000 | $200,000 | 0.67x | |
| 99 | A Bucket of Blood | Roger Corman | $50,000 | $180,000 | 3.60x | |
| Horrors of the Black Museum | Arthur Crabtree | £164,000 | £1 million | 6.10x |
Figures are shown in the currency they were reported in (Wikipedia, Wikidata or TMDB); no conversion.