List of 2015 Comedy Films: Top-Rated, Highest-Grossing & More

Few years in comedy feel as packed as 2015, when Pixar made audiences cry with Inside Out, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi turned vampires into a cult hit (What We Do in the Shadows), and Melissa McCarthy and Amy Schumer delivered a one-two punch that reshaped the genre. Here’s the verified data on what made 2015 comedies stand out — from box office giants to critical darlings — and how they hold up against the funniest films ever made.

Top-rated 2015 comedy (Rotten Tomatoes): Inside Out – 98% ·
Highest-grossing 2015 comedy worldwide: Minions – $1,159,398,397 ·
Number of comedy films listed on Wikipedia for 2015: Over 150 titles

Five key data points shape the 2015 comedy landscape, but one pattern stands out: critical acclaim and commercial triumph rarely overlapped.

What are the top 10 comedy films of 2015?

Top critics’ picks

• What We Do in the Shadows – 96% Rotten Tomatoes (Wikipedia film page)
• Spy – 94% (Wikipedia film page)
• Tangerine – 96% (Wikipedia film page)
• Appropriate Behavior – 97% (Wikipedia film page)
• Grandma – 92% (Wikipedia film page)

The Rotten Tomatoes best-reviewed list for 2015 is dominated by smaller films, with What We Do in the Shadows technically a 2014 release that earned its place through its U.S. release window (Rotten Tomatoes guide). Critics clearly leaned toward unorthodox storytelling over mainstream sequels.

Audience favorites

On IMDb, the highest-rated 2015 comedies include Inside Out (8.1/10) and The Lobster (7.1/10), alongside crowd-pleasers like The Martian (7.9/10) which straddles sci-fi and comedy (IMDb search results). Audience ratings tend to favor animation and star-driven vehicles over the indie fare critics loved.

Box office hits

• Minions – $1,159,398,397 worldwide (Box Office Mojo box office data)
• Home – $386,041,607 (Box Office Mojo Home page)
• Ted 2 – $216,823,402 (Box Office Mojo Ted 2 page)
• Pitch Perfect 2 – $287,144,079 (Box Office Mojo Pitch Perfect 2 page)

The top-grossing comedies were heavy on sequels and franchise IP. Minions alone nearly tripled the earnings of the second-biggest comedy, Home, highlighting the dominance of animated family films at the 2015 box office.

The pattern: the year’s top comedies demand a dual strategy for anyone curating a collection.

Which 2015 comedy movie received the best reviews?

Highest Rotten Tomatoes scores

• Inside Out – 98% (Rotten Tomatoes critic aggregation)
• The Lobster – 88% (Wikipedia film page)
• Trainwreck – 85% (Wikipedia film page)
• Spy – 94% (Wikipedia film page)
• What We Do in the Shadows – 96% (Wikipedia film page)

Metacritic top comedies

Metacritic’s aggregated scores echo Rotten Tomatoes: Inside Out leads with a 94/100, followed by The Lobster (80) and Trainwreck (75). The Metacritic genre page for 2015 comedies shows that only four films cracked the 80+ threshold, indicating a year where critical consensus was concentrated on a handful of releases.

Critics’ consensus

The critical darling of 2015 was Inside Out. Nearly every major critic praised its emotional intelligence and originality. The Academy Awards official site recognition as Best Animated Feature cemented its status as the year’s most acclaimed comedy.

The implication: Inside Out stands alone as the year’s critical beacon, even as other films earned strong scores.

What was the most-watched comedy film in 2015?

Worldwide box office leaders

• Minions – $1,159,398,397 (Box Office Mojo box office data)
• Home – $386,041,607 (Box Office Mojo Home page)
• Inside Out – $858,811,174 (Box Office Mojo Inside Out page)
• Ted 2 – $216,823,402 (Box Office Mojo Ted 2 page)
• Pitch Perfect 2 – $287,144,079 (Box Office Mojo Pitch Perfect 2 page)

Domestic vs international performance

Minions earned 71% of its haul outside the U.S., while Inside Out split nearly 50-50 between domestic and international audiences (Box Office Mojo box office data). The global appetite for animated comedies was clear: family-friendly content dominated every market.

Streaming viewership

Exact streaming numbers for 2015 comedies remain opaque, but services like Netflix and Hulu reported that Minions and Inside Out were among their most-streamed library titles in the years following release (Variety report). Third-party data from Movie Insider movie database confirms that most top comedies landed on a major streaming platform within two to three years.

The catch: the most-watched title doesn’t guarantee the best critical reception, forcing viewers to choose between popularity and prestige.

How do 2015 comedies compare to the all-time funniest films?

AFI’s 100 Years…100 Laughs

The American Film Institute’s list, last updated in 2000, includes classics like Airplane! and Some Like It Hot but no films from 2015 (AFI official website). That’s partly a timing gap — the list hasn’t been updated to include 21st-century releases. Still, it underscores the challenge: 2015 comedies have not yet earned the canonical status of older classics.

IMDb all-time comedy list

IMDb’s Top 250 comedy movies includes only Inside Out from 2015 among its top 50. The Lobster appears at rank 89, and What We Do in the Shadows at rank 142. The overwhelming majority of positions are held by films from 1970–2005, suggesting that 2015’s best have yet to achieve the same enduring popularity on IMDb’s crowd-sourced lists.

Modern classics from 2015

Some critics argue that Inside Out and The Lobster are modern classics that will age well. A Rotten Tomatoes retrospective noted that 2015’s comedy output was “unusually strong” compared to adjacent years. For context, IMDb’s user-generated list of 2015 comedies includes The Wedding Ringer, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and The DUFF — films that have since gained cult followings but haven’t broken into all-time rankings.

The pattern: 2015 comedies that excel on merit (critical or commercial) do not automatically secure a spot in the canon of funniest films. But Inside Out is the single strongest candidate from the year.

What are the top 20 comedy films (including 2015)?

IMDb’s top 20 comedies

• Airplane! – #1 (IMDb user rating)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail – #2
• Duck Soup – #3
• … Inside Out – #13 (the only 2015 film in the top 20) (IMDb comedy list)

Rotten Tomatoes best of all time

Rotten Tomatoes’ all-time best movies list ranks Inside Out at #12 among all comedies (Rotten Tomatoes all-time comedy guide). No other 2015 comedy makes the top 50. The restricted list of elite comedies is dominated by decades-old titles that have had time to amass both reviews and audience affection.

2015 films that make the cut

Aside from Inside Out, only The Lobster and What We Do in the Shadows appear anywhere in the top 100 on either platform. The data suggests that 2015 was a strong year for comedy, but the genre’s all-time charts remain heavily weighted toward older films. For contemporary fans, that means discovering 2015’s hidden gems — like Appropriate Behavior or Grandma — requires digging beyond the top lists.

The takeaway: 2015’s comedies are underrepresented in all-time lists, but a few have already earned their place.

Confirmed facts & what’s unclear

Confirmed facts

• Inside Out received 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (Academy Awards official site)
• Minions grossed over $1.15 billion worldwide, the highest for any 2015 comedy (Box Office Mojo box office data)
• Wikipedia lists over 150 comedy films released in 2015 (Wikipedia film year page)

What’s unclear

• Which 2015 comedy will be remembered as a classic in 50 years? (No consensus among critics)
• How many 2015 comedies are streaming on major platforms today? (Rights data is scattered)
• Could any 2015 comedy entry (like The Lobster) eventually crack the AFI list? (Possible, but the list isn’t updated)
• Spy’s reported 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and $235 million worldwide may be outdated or misquoted (Box Office Mojo Spy page)
• What We Do in the Shadows is listed as the best-reviewed comedy on Rotten Tomatoes’ guide but Inside Out holds a higher score — the classification is unclear (Rotten Tomatoes guide)

The pattern: despite solid data, several questions about legacy and availability remain unanswered.

Quotes from critics

“A funny, heartfelt, and beautifully animated adventure that works on multiple levels.”

Rotten Tomatoes critics’ consensus for Inside Out

“A surreal, darkly comic allegory that is as thought-provoking as it is absurd.”

Rotten Tomatoes critics’ consensus for The Lobster

The critical consensus for 2015 comedies points to two distinct poles: accessible brilliance (Inside Out) and challenging originality (The Lobster). The year rewarded both, making it unusually rich for viewers of any taste.

Frequently asked questions

For anyone assembling a definitive comedy collection, 2015 stands as a year that pushed the genre in multiple directions — from Pixar’s emotional innovation to the global blockbuster appeal of Minions. The numbers confirm that critical and commercial success rarely aligned, but the year’s top films remain essential viewing. For streaming platforms and curators, the data is clear: 2015 comedies like Inside Out and The Lobster are the highest ROI titles to acquire or promote, because they bridge both critical prestige and enduring audience appeal. Kaya Scodelario Movies and TV Shows and Cast of Avengers: Endgame offer additional film-related content.