71 English films of 1971 ranked by box office. #1: Diamonds Are Forever ($116 million).
| # | Film | Lead | Director | Budget | Box office | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Diamonds Are Forever | Guy Hamilton | $7.2 million | $116 million | 16.11x | |
| 2 | A Clockwork Orange | Stanley Kubrick | $2.2 million | $114 million | 51.82x | |
| 3 | Fiddler on the Roof | Norman Jewison | $9 million | $83.3 million | 9.26x | |
| 4 | The French Connection | William Friedkin | $1.8 million | $75 million | 41.67x | |
| 5 | Dirty Harry | Don Siegel | $4 million | $36 million | 9.00x | |
| 6 | Billy Jack | Tom Laughlin | $800,000 | $32.5 million | 40.63x | |
| 7 | Summer of '42 | Robert Mulligan | $1 million | $32.1 million | 32.10x | |
| 8 | The Last Picture Show | Peter Bogdanovich | $1.3 million | $29.1 million | 22.38x | |
| 9 | Bedknobs and Broomsticks | Robert Stevenson | $6.3 million | $17.9 million | 2.84x | |
| 10 | Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song | Melvin Van Peebles | $150,000 | $15.2 million | 101.33x | |
| 11 | Blindman | Ferdinando Baldi | $1.3 million | $15 million | 11.54x | |
| 12 | Willard | Daniel Mann | $14.5 million | |||
| 13 | The Hospital | Arthur Hiller | $14.1 million | |||
| 14 | Shaft | Gordon Parks | $500,000 | $13 million | 26.00x | |
| 15 | Klute | Alan J. Pakula | $2.5 million | $12.5 million | 5.00x | |
| 16 | Vanishing Point | Richard C. Sarafian | $1.6 million | $12.4 million | 7.85x | |
| 16 | The Andromeda Strain | Robert Wise | $6.5 million | $12.4 million | 1.91x | |
| 18 | Escape from the Planet of the Apes | Don Taylor | $2.1 million | $12.3 million | 5.97x | |
| 18 | Carnal Knowledge | Mike Nichols | $5 million | $12.3 million | 2.46x | |
| 20 | Bananas | Woody Allen | $2 million | $11.8 million | 5.90x | |
| 21 | Cold Turkey | Norman Lear | $11 million | |||
| 21 | The Devils | Ken Russell | $11 million | |||
| 23 | Play Misty for Me | Clint Eastwood | $725,000 | $10.6 million | 14.62x | |
| 24 | The Big Doll House | Jack Hill | $125,000 | $10 million | 80.00x | |
| 25 | McCabe & Mrs. Miller | Robert Altman | $8.2 million | |||
| 26 | Straw Dogs | Sam Peckinpah | $2.2 million | $8 million | 3.64x | |
| 27 | Big Jake | George Sherman | $7.5 million | |||
| 28 | Nicholas and Alexandra | Franklin J. Schaffner | $9 million | $7 million | 0.78x | |
| 29 | Lawman | Robert Duvall | $3 million | $5.9 million | 1.97x | |
| 30 | Le Mans | Lee H. Katzin | $7.6 million | $5.5 million | 0.72x | |
| 31 | Ten Days' Wonder | Claude Chabrol | $5.3 million | |||
| 32 | The Million Dollar Duck | Vincent McEveety | $5.1 million | |||
| 33 | A New Leaf | Elaine May | $4 million | $5 million | 1.25x | |
| 33 | Kotch | Jack Lemmon | $1.5 million | $5 million | 3.33x | |
| 33 | The Anderson Tapes | Sidney Lumet | $3 million | $5 million | 1.67x | |
| 33 | Preacherman | Al Viola | $65,000 | $5 million | 76.92x | |
| 37 | Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory | Mel Stuart | $3 million | $4 million | 1.33x | |
| 37 | The Omega Man | Boris Sagal | $4 million | |||
| 37 | Evel Knievel | Marvin J. Chomsky | $450,000 | $4 million | 8.89x | |
| 37 | Plaza Suite | Arthur Hiller | $4 million | |||
| 37 | Sometimes a Great Notion | Paul Newman | $3.7 million | $4 million | 1.09x | |
| 42 | The Boy Friend | Ken Russell | $2.3 million | $3 million | 1.30x | |
| 43 | THX 1138 | George Lucas | $777,777 | $2.4 million | 3.09x | |
| 44 | The Panic in Needle Park | Jerry Schatzberg | $1.6 million | $2.2 million | 1.34x | |
| 45 | Angels Hard as They Come | Joe Viola | $180,000 | $2 million | 11.11x | |
| 46 | Family Life | Ken Loach | £180,000 | $1.8 million | ||
| 47 | The Hellstrom Chronicle | Ed Spiegel | $1.5 million | |||
| 47 | Made for Each Other | Robert Bean | $1.5 million | |||
| 47 | Little Murders | Alan Arkin | $1.3 million | $1.5 million | 1.12x | |
| 47 | The Abominable Dr. Phibes | Robert Fuest | £300,000 | $1.5 million | ||
| 51 | Night of Dark Shadows | Dan Curtis | $900,000 | $1.4 million | 1.56x | |
| 52 | On Any Sunday | Bruce Brown | $313,000 | $1.2 million | 3.83x | |
| 53 | The Touch | Ingmar Bergman | $1.2 million | $1.1 million | 0.92x | |
| 53 | The Beguiled | Don Siegel | $1.1 million | |||
| 55 | Cry Uncle! | John G. Avildsen | $250,000 | $1.1 million | 4.33x | |
| 56 | 200 Motels | Frank Zappa | $679,000 | $1 million | 1.47x | |
| 56 | The Seven Minutes | Russ Meyer | $2.4 million | $1 million | 0.41x | |
| 56 | The House That Dripped Blood | Peter Duffell | £208,330 | $1 million | ||
| 56 | Macbeth | Roman Polanski | £2.4 million | $1 million | ||
| 60 | Johnny Got His Gun | Dalton Trumbo | $1 million | $767,794 | 0.77x | |
| 61 | Zachariah | George Englund | $1.2 million | $625,000 | 0.52x | |
| 62 | Face-Off | George McCowan | $600,000 | $600,000 | 1.00x | |
| 63 | The Grissom Gang | Robert Aldrich | $3 million | $590,000 | 0.20x | |
| 64 | Wake in Fright | Ted Kotcheff | A$700,000 | $321,323 | ||
| 65 | Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? | Ulu Grosbard | $229,644 | |||
| 66 | Let's Scare Jessica to Death | John D. Hancock | $250,000 | $47,651 | 0.19x | |
| Lady Frankenstein | Mel Welles | $200,000 | ITL 139.7 million | |||
| On the Buses | Harry Booth | £90,000 | £2.5 million | 27.78x | ||
| Villain | Michael Tuchner | £383,786 | £1 million | 2.61x | ||
| Stork | Tim Burstall | A$60,000 | A$224,000 | 3.73x | ||
| Under Milk Wood | Andrew Sinclair | £273,279 | £15,862 | 0.06x |
Figures are shown in the currency they were reported in (Wikipedia, Wikidata or TMDB); no conversion.