1927 in film

Top-grossing films (U.S.)

Events

• 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 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 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.

  Academy Awards

• Best Production: Wings
• Best Artistic Quality: Sunrise
• Best Actor: Emil Jannings for The Way of All Flesh and the 1928 movie The Last Command
• Best Actress: Janet Gaynor for Seventh Heaven and Sunrise, as well as the 1928 movie Street Angel
• Best Director: Frank Borzage for Seventh Heaven

  Notable films released in 1927

A

• Annie Laurie, starring Lillian Gish

  B

• Bed and Sofa –
• The Beloved Rogue, directed by Alan Crosland, starring John Barrymore, Marceline Day
• –
• Bigamie, starring Heinrich George –
• Blighty, directed by Adrian Brunel; starring Ellaline Terriss and Lillian Hall-Davis –
• The Bugle Call

  C

• 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 –
• College, directed by James W. Horne and Buster Keaton, starring Buster Keaton
• Confetti, directed by Graham Cutts, starring Jack Buchanan and Annette Benson –

  D

• The Dove, directed by Roland West, starring Norma Talmadge, Gilbert Roland and Noah Beery Sr.
• Downhill, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ivor Novello and Isabel Jeans –
• The Drop Kick, directed by Millard Webb, starring Richard Barthelmess

  E

• Education of a Prince –
• The End of St. Petersburg –

  F

• 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 –

  G

• The Gaucho, directed by F. Richard Jones, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Lupe Vélez
• Ghost Train, directed by Géza von Bolváry, starring Guy Newall –

  H

• Her Wild Oat, directed by Marshall Neilan, starring Colleen Moore
• His First Flame, directed by Harry Edwards, starring Harry Langdon
• His Greatest Bluff –
• The Honorable Mr. Buggs, starring Anna May Wong
• Hula, directed by Victor Fleming, starring Clara Bow
• Huntingtower, by George Pearson, starring Harry Lauder –
• Husband Hunters, directed by John G. Adolfi starring Mae Busch, Jean Arthur and Mildred Harris

  I

• It, starring Clara Bow

  J

• 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

  K

• 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

  L

• The Lady in Ermine, directed by James Flood, starring Corinne Griffith
• , directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring June and Ivor Novello –
• 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, directed by G.W. Pabst –
• The Love of Sunya, directed by Albert Parker starring Gloria Swanson
• The Loves of Carmen, directed by Raoul Walsh, starring Dolores del Río

  M

• Madame Pompadour, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Dorothy Gish –
• Man from the Restaurant –
• Mata Hari starring Magda Sonja –
• Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang, starring Alfred Abel –
• Mockery, directed by Benjamin Christensen starring Lon Chaney
• The Mountain Eagle, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Nita Naldi –
• My Best Girl, starring Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers

  N

• Napoléon directed by Abel Gance, starring Albert Dieudonne –

  O

• –
• The Only Way directed by Herbert Wilcox, starring John Martin Harvey and Madge Stuart –

  P

• The Patent Leather Kid, starring Richard Barthelmess
• The Private Life of Helen of Troy, directed by Alexander Korda

  Q

• Quality Street, directed by Sidney Franklin, starring Marion Davies and Conrad Nagel
• Quinneys, directed by Maurice Elvey and starring John Longden and Alma Taylor –

  R

• The Red Mill, directed by William Goodrich, starring Marion Davies
• The Ring, directed by Alfred Hitchcock –
• Robinson Crusoe –
• Romance of the Western Chamber –

  S

• 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 –
• Singed, starring Blanche Sweet and Warner Baxter
• Slide, Kelly, Slide, starring Harry Carey
• Sorrell and Son, starring H.B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson –
• Spring Fever, starring Joan Crawford
• The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, starring Ramón Novarro and Norma Shearer
• , directed by F. W. Murnau, starring George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor
• Svengali directed by Gennaro Righelli and starring Paul Wegener –

  T

• 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

  U

• 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

  W

• 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

  Comedy film series

• Harold Lloyd
• Buster Keaton
• Our Gang
• Harry Langdon
• Laurel and Hardy

  Animated short film series

• Felix the Cat
• Aesop's Film Fables
• Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes
• Alice Comedies
• * Alice the Golf Bug
• * Alice Foils the Pirates
• * Alice at the Carnival
• * Alice at the Rodeo
• * Alice the Collegiate
• * Alice in the Alps
• * Alice's Auto Race
• * Alice's Circus Daze
• * Alice's Knaughty Knight
• * Alice's Three Bad Eggs
• * Alice's Picnic
• * Alice's Channel Swim
• * Alice in the Klondike
• * Alice's Medicine Show
• * Alice the Whaler
• * Alice the Beach Nut
• * Alice in the Big League
• Krazy Kat
• Un-Natural History
• Pete the Pup
• Inkwell Imps
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
• * Trolley Troubles
• * Oh Teacher
• * The Mechanical Cow
• * Great Guns!
• * All Wet
• * The Ocean Hop
• * The Banker's Daughter
• * Empty Socks
• * Rickety Gin
• Newslaffs

  Births

• January 4 – Barbara Rush, American actress
• January 15 – Phyllis Coates, American actress
• January 17 – Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer
• January 31 – Jean Speegle Howard
• 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, Dublin Zoo-born Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion mascot
• March 21 – Virginia Weidler, American actress
• March 25 – Monique van Vooren, Belgian-American actress
• March 31 – William Daniels, American actor
• April 1 – Maria Eugénia, Portuguese actress
• April 2 – Rita Gam, American actress
• April 5 – Chao-Li Chi, Shanxi-born actor
• April 13 – Maurice Ronet, French film actor, director and writer
• April 30 – Ellen Alaküla, Estonian actress
• May 5 – Pat Carroll, American actress
• May 6 – Ettore Manni, Italian actor
• May 11 – Bernard Fox, Welsh actor
• May 13 – Herbert Ross, American film director, producer and choreographer
• May 30 – Clint Walker, American actor
• May 31 – Koreyoshi Kurahara, Malaysian-Japanese screenwriter, director
• June 8 – Jerry Stiller, American actor and comedian
• June 15 – Ottó Foky, Hungarian animator
• June 23 – Bob Fosse, American dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter and director
• June 27 – Geoffrey Palmer, British actor
• June 30 – Mario Lanfranchi, Italian film, theatre and television director, screenwriter, producer, collector and actor
• July 4
• *Gina Lollobrigida, Italian actress
• *Neil Simon, American playwright and screenwriter
• July 6 – Janet Leigh, American actress
• July 30 –Richard Johnson, British actor, writer and producer
• August 9 – Robert Shaw, British actor and novelist
• August 14 – Roger Carel, French voice actor
• August 19 – L. Q. Jones, American actor
• August 30 – Bill Daily, American actor
• September 16 – Peter Falk, American actor
• September 19
• *Rosemary Harris, English actress
• *William Hickey, American actor
• October 14 – Roger Moore, English actor
• October 18 – George C. Scott, American film and stage actor
• October 27 – Silvia Laidla, Estonian actress
• October 31 – Lee Grant, American actress
• November 12 – John Hollis, British screen actor
• November 17
• *Fenella Fielding, English actress
• *Lynn Stalmaster, American casting director
• November 14 – McLean Stevenson, American actor
• November 20 – Estelle Parsons, American actress
• November 23 – Sybil Jason, American actress
• November 30 - Robert Guillaume, American actor and singer
• December 29 – Giorgio Capitani, Italian film director and screenwriter

  Deaths

• January 13 – Arnold Daly, American actor, playwright and producer
• March 17 – Charles Emmett Mack, American actor
• April 25 – Earle Williams, American actor
• May 7 – Bruce McRae, American stage and screen actor
• May 16 – Sam Bernard, English stage and screen actor
• May 20 – Oscar Stribolt, Danish actor
• June 3 – Einar Hanson, Swedish stage and screen actor
• June 4 – Robert McKim, American actor
• July 26 – June Mathis, American screenwriter
• September 5 – Marcus Loew, American theater chain executive & founder of Loews Theaters
• October 5 – Sam Warner, American co-founder of Warner Brothers studios
• October 13 – Hughie Mack, American actor
• November 4 – Valli Valli, German stage and film actress
• December 6 – Kate Toncray, American actress
• December 16 – Romaine Fielding, American actor and director
• December 24 – Julia Bruns, American stage & film actress

  Film debuts

• Robert Armstrong – The Main Event
• Claudette Colbert – For the Love of Mike
• Ann Sothern – Broadway Nights
• Barbara Stanwyck – Broadway Nights
• Lupe Vélez – What Women Did for Me
• Fred Zinneman, director and producer – The March of the Machines