25 years, 25 films: Every MTV Movie Awards winner for Best Movie

In the MTV Movie Awards’ inaugural year, James Cameron’s “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” took home the very first Best Movie award. The sci-fi thriller beat out “Backdraft, “Boyz in the Hood,” “JFK,” and “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” We guess it was a big year for movies with colons and the word “hood” in the title. Cameron was joined by stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick in accepting the award.

“A Few Good Men” was nominated for a few good awards, but one of the few it managed to win was Best Movie at the 1993 MTV Movie Awards. Although it defeated fellow nominees “Aladdin,” “Basic Instinct,” “The Bodyguard,” and “Malcolm X,” each of those films would eventually win other awards at the event.

Allen and Albert Hughes’ “Menace II Society” took home the most coveted award at the 1994 MTV Movie Awards, and it had to beat two Steven Spielberg films to achieve this feat. “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s List,” “Philadelphia,” and “The Fugitive” were the film’s fellow nominees, the first two of which belong to the famous director. Don’t feel too bad for “Schindler’s List,” however, as it would eventually nab seven Academy Awards, seven BAFTAs, and three Golden Globes.

Writer/director Quentin Tarantino was on-hand to accept his golden popcorn when “Pulp Fiction” bested “The Crow,” “Forrest Gump,” “Interview with the Vampire,” and “Speed” to win Best Movie at the 1995 MTV Movie Awards. That same night, John Travolta and Uma Thurman also won Best Dance Sequence for doing the twist at Jack Rabbit Slim’s in the film’s now-iconic scene.

The spine-chilling thriller “Se7en” won three honors at the 1996 MTV Movie Awards: Most Desirable Male (Brad Pitt, of course), Best Villain (Kevin Spacey), and Best Movie. In the last category, the film knocked off “Apollo 13,” “Braveheart,” “Clueless,” and “Dangerous Minds” to nab the golden popcorn.

Wes Craven took home his first and only Best Movie award at the 1997 MTV Movie Awards when “Scream” defeated “Independence Day,” “Jerry Maguire,” “The Rock,” and “Romeo + Juliet.” Craven was in attendance to accept the award alongside stars Courteney Cox, Neve Campbell, Rose McGowan, Jamie Kennedy, Matthew Lillard, and David Arquette. Although it didn’t occur until 18 years later, MTV would eventually release a TV spinoff of the film.

Of course James Cameron’s “Titanic” would win Best Movie at the 1998 MTV Movie Awards - it was one of the biggest blockbusters in the history of film! Also, the competition in the category wasn’t especially stiff, with “Good Will Hunting” as the only other film that could have possibly won. No offense to “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” “Men in Black,” or “Face/Off.”

The MTV Movie Awards are known for catering to a slightly younger audience, which is how a comedy like the Farrelly Brothers’ “There’s Something About Mary” beat “Saving Private Ryan” for Best Movie at the 1999 event. The other nominees were “Armageddon,” “Shakespeare in Love,” and “The Truman Show.” The crude comedy also won Best Female Performance (Cameron Diaz), Best Villain (Matt Dillon), and Best Fight (Ben Stiller vs. Puffy the Dog).

“The Matrix” came away with three wins at the 2000 MTV Movie Awards: Best Movie, Best Male Performance (Keanu Reeves), and Best Fight (Keanu Reeves vs. Laurence Fishburne). The film faced some stiff competition that year, as “American Beauty” (which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture) was also nominated, along with “The Sixth Sense,” “American Pie,” and “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.”

Director Ridley Scott had a 40-percent chance of winning Best Movie at the 2001 MTV Movie Awards, as his films “Gladiator” and “Hannibal” both received nominations. The former ended up winning, with “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Erin Brockovich,” and “X-Men” left in the dust. Producer Douglas Wick accepted the golden popcorn for the win.

In a sign of things to come, “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” won Best Movie at the 2002 MTV Movie Awards. The victory ended Ridley Scott’s chances at a repeat (for “Black Hawk Down”), and it also bested “The Fast and the Furious” and comedies “Legally Blonde” and “Shrek.”

Peter Jackson nabbed back-to-back Best Movie honors when “The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers” was declared the winner at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. “Two Towers” surprisingly beat Eminem’s music-centric film “8 Mile,” as well as “Barbershop,” “The Ring,” and “Spider-Man” for the coveted award. It also won Best Action Sequence (The Battle for Helm’s Deep), Best Virtual Performance (Gollum), and Best On-Screen Team (Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, and Gollum).

Three years, three wins for Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. The final installment, “The Return of the King,” won Best Movie at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards over “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” “X2: X-Men United,” “Finding Nemo,” and “50 First Dates.” The film also won Best Fight for its epic Battle at Gondor.

Don’t be jealous that “Napoleon Dynamite” won Best Movie at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. Or Breakthrough Male and Best Musical Sequence (both for star Jon Heder) either, for that matter. The film’s fellow nominees were “Ray,” “Kill Bill: Volume 2,” “Spider-Man 2,” and “The Incredibles.” Out of those flicks, the only one to take home an award at the event was “Kill Bill” for Best Fight (Uma Thurman vs. Daryl Hannah).

Big budgets can’t always buy awards. Just ask “Wedding Crashers,” the $40 million comedy that beat the blockbusters “Batman Begins,” “King Kong,” and “Sin City” for Best Movie at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards. Although, in fairness, “Sin City” actually had the same budget as “Wedding Crashers,” and neither of these films had the smallest in the category. That distinction goes to Judd Apatow’s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” which cost only $26 million to make. 

After “The Curse of the Black Pearl” failed to win Best Movie in 2004, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” avenged the loss in 2007, defeating “300,” “Blades of Glory,” “Borat,” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” In addition to “Pirates” winning the top honor, Johnny Depp also took home a golden popcorn trophy for Best Performance. 

“Transformers” marked the third nomination and first win for director Michael Bay in the Best Movie category at the MTV Movie Awards, as he was previously nominated for “The Rock” and “Armageddon.” In order to earn the honor, “Transformers” had to battle five other films, the largest number of nominees in the award show’s history at the time. Interestingly, “Transformers” actually won an award at the event the previous year, for Best Summer Movie You Haven’t Seen Yet.

The Best Movie category was all about teens and superheroes at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, with the nominees being “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Twilight,” “High School Musical 3: Senior Year,” “The Dark Knight,” and “Iron Man.” Despite the buzz around the Batman sequel, “Twilight” took home the top honor, as well as four additional awards. However, Heath Ledger won a posthumous Best Villain golden popcorn for his now-iconic portrayal of the Joker.

“Twilight” nabbed the Best Movie award again in 2010 for “New Moon,” which beat “Alice in Wonderland,” “Avatar,” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” and “The Hangover.” Get used to it, as this definitely isn’t the last we’ll see from the vampire franchise.

Another year, another win for “Twilight,” this time for the saga’s third installment, “Eclipse.” The competition was especially fierce at the 2011 MTV Movie Awards, as “Twilight” had to overcome the highly acclaimed films “Inception,” “Black Swan,” “The Social Network,” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1” in order to seal its victory.

Not only was 2012 the fourth win in a row for the Twilight Saga, but it was the fourth different director to win for the franchise (first Catherine Hardwicke, followed by Chris Weltz, David Slade, and Bill Condon), and the third time in a row that a Twilight film beat a Harry Potter film. Interestingly, “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2” came out later the same year, but failed to even earn a nomination at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards.

“The Avengers” had to take down a variety of genres to win Movie of the Year at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards. There was its fellow superhero film “The Dark Knight Rises,” the action flick “Django Unchained,” the drama “Silver Linings Playbook,” and the comedy “Ted” all contending for the top spot. All of these were solid pieces of cinema, but we’re mostly just happy that another Twilight installment didn’t win...although Taylor Lautner still took home “Best Shirtless Performance.”

The critically acclaimed films “12 Years a Slave,” “American Hustle,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” failed to win the big one at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards, as did the fantasy film “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” Instead, the second Hunger Games installment, “Catching Fire,” earned Movie of the Year, as well as Best Female Performance (Jennifer Lawrence) and Best Male Performance (Josh Hutcherson). All in all, “Catching Fire” notched eight nominations.

Although the 2015 Movie of the Year nominees also included “American Sniper,” “Boyhood,” “Gone Girl,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1,” “Selma,” and “Whiplash,” somehow, someway, “The Fault in Our Stars” came out with the win. This upset win was clearly aimed at younger movie fans, as the romantic drama barely won any major accolades outside of the Teen Choice, Young Hollywood, and People’s Choice Awards.

After J.J. Abrams shocked the world with an impressive Star Wars sequel, he nabbed Movie of the Year at the MTV Movie Awards. Although the category had been filled with plenty of Oscar bait in previous years, 2016 was all about crowd-pleasers, with “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Creed,” “Deadpool,” “Jurassic World,” and “Straight Outta Compton” earning nominations. Daisy Ridley also won a golden popcorn for her Breakthrough Performance in the film.