The Worst Oscar-Winning Movie Of All Time, According To IMDb

Few people likely remember Joseph Brooks' 1977 musical drama "You Light Up My Life." The film stars Didi Conn (who played Frenchy in the Olivia Newton-John classic "Grease") as Laurie Robinson, a children's show host and commercial performer who dreams of a singing career. She is engaged to be married to Ken (Stephen Nathan), but has a one-night fling with a random film director named Christopher Nolan. (Seriously, that's the character's name. He's played by Michael Zaslow.) Weeks later, when Laurie goes to an audition, she finds Nolan might be her director. Awkward. She sings her latest opus, a little ditty called "You Light Up My Life," and everyone loves it. (The film's writer/director Brooks also penned the song.)

The rest of the movie is a turgid melodrama about Laurie's ambitions, her relationship with her father (a comedian whom she performs on TV kids shows with), her growing ambivalence toward her fiancé, and her new potential romance with Nolan. The movie is, by all accounts, truly terrible. It got awful reviews, and only sports a 17% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On IMDb, it has a 4.8 rating (out of 10), which is incredibly low as these things go. The bulk of the IMDb users rate it at a five or less. The film, on the whole, is unremarkable. 

Except for the song. The song was a monster. A huge monster. The over-the-credits ballad version of "You Light Up My Life" was performed Kvitka Cisyk, but it was eventually re-recorded by Debby Boone, and Boone's version spent 10 straight weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the second highest-charting song of the 1970s. It was the highest-charting song in Billboard history until 1992 when it was dethroned by Boyz II Men's "End of the Road."

The Kvitka Cisyk version of the song won an Oscar, making the "You Light Up My Life" movie the lowest-rated film (on IMDb) to have an Academy Award. 

To offer an editorial, the Debby Boone version of "You Light Up My Life" sucks in a profound way. It's so soft as to be viscous, so treacly as to induce diabetes. The song is ostensibly a love song, but Boone later revealed that it's a Christian work. The lyrics are chewy and vague and lack passion. "You fill my nights with song" isn't exactly dripping with sexual innuendo. Rockers and music fans mocked "You Light Up My Life" roundly, and a young "Weird Al" Yankovic even once, in 1980, performed the song in the style of Devo on "The Dr. Demento Show." Debby Boone was celebrated by the musical establishment with a Grammy for Song of the Year, while simultaneously becoming a punchline. 

Debby Boone, daughter of Pat, became a massive superstar, but never had a second high-charting hit on the Billboard Hot 100. Boone's 1978 single "California" only reached #50. Her 1980 single "Are You On the Road to Lovin' Me Again?" hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary charts, at any rate, and she continued to record throughout the 1980s. From 1989 to 2005, Boone released no records. She may be the most successful one-hit wonder in musical history. After the song struck, Boone immediately moved into country music and then Christian music, two genres that, in the early 1980s, didn't have a lot of crossover success. In recent years, she's only appeared on other peoples' records, including other members of the Boone family. 

Meanwhile, the "You Light Up My Life" movie kind of vanished from the public consciousness, eclipsed by Boone's song. The film did make a noticeable handful of money, however, grossing $8.5 million on a $1.2 million budget. Adjusted for inflation, that would be like a 2025 movie making over $45 million on a $6.3 million budget. It's nothing to sneeze at. One can only postulate that the success of the movie was boosted by the song.

Meanwhile, the mastermind behind "You Light Up My Life" — the movie and the song — has a dark history indeed. 

The writer/director of "YLUML," Joseph Brooks, would go on to direct other not-very notable movies such as "If I Ever See You Again" in 1978 (which tanked), "Headin' for Broadway" in 1980, and "Invitation to the Wedding" in 1985. None of these matched his initial success. The story goes that he wanted to cast his at-the-time girlfriend, Cindy Williams, in the lead role for "YLUML," but they broke up while the film was starting production and Conn took her place. Brooks was a wealthy man thanks to a prolific career conducting film scores and writing commercial jingles. His film career was only big for the one movie.

He was also an accused sex criminal. Brooks, it seems, ran a notorious "casting couch" ring. With the aid of an assistant, Brooks lured dozens women into his apartment with the promise of movie roles, and then would allegedly sexually assault them. Brooks and his assistant were eventually busted, and he was indicted on 91 counts of sexual abuse. The case was set to go to trial, but more and more victims kept coming forward, lengthening the process. Brooks' trial was set to begin in 2011, but Brooks took his own life before it could happen. He was millions of dollars in debt. To add to the Brooks family's drama, his son, Nicholas, was convicted for the murder of his girlfriend in 2013. 

To recap: A forgettable movie was released into the ether, a dumb ballad took over the world for a decade, and a monster was caught and indicted for sex crimes. No one would guess such huge drama lurked behind "You Light Up My Life."