What is the iRankMovies score for Little Miss Sunshine?

Name: Little Miss Sunshine
Director: Valerie Faris
Genre: comedy, drama
Released: 2006
Duration: 1 h 42 min
Rating: 7.8

Little Miss Sunshine has an iRankMovies score of 81.7/100, based on a weighted combination of IMDb (×3.0), Rotten Tomatoes (×2.0), Metacritic (×1.5), and TMDb (×1.0).

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

A family on the verge of a breakdown.

Release:2006

Runtime:1h 42m

Country:United States

Director:Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton

Language:English

Genre

ComedyDrama

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Keywords

CaliforniaHusband Wife RelationshipSibling RelationshipLiterature ProfessorFamily S Daily LifeHighwayBeauty ContestBeauty Queen Contest

iRank82

Little Miss Sunshine rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb7.8/10· 546K votes

Rotten Tomatoes91%

Metacritic80%

TMDb7.693/10· 8K votes

With 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.8/10 on IMDb and 80/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About Little Miss Sunshine

A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.

Cast of Little Miss Sunshine

Greg Kinnear
as Richard Hoover
Toni Collette
as Sheryl Hoover
Steve Carell
as Frank Ginsberg
Paul Dano
as Dwayne Hoover
Abigail Breslin
as Olive Hoover
Alan Arkin
as Edwin Hoover
Bryan Cranston
as Stan Grossman
Beth Grant
as Nancy Jenkins
Wallace Langham
as Kirby
Matt Winston
as Pageant MC
Julio Oscar Mechoso
as Mechanic
Marc Turtletaub
as Doctor #1

Little Miss Sunshine facts

Budget: $8M
Box office: $100.5M

Our take on Little Miss Sunshine

This 2006 comedy-drama, co-directed by Valerie Faris, packs a family of quirky, colorful characters into a battered old van for a road trip to California, where young Olive is set to compete in a beauty pageant. The premise is simple, but the film mines it for both laughs and unexpected tenderness, letting each mismatched relative reveal their private struggles along the way. It suits viewers who like character-driven stories where humor and melancholy sit side by side, and who prefer small, human stakes over spectacle. If you enjoy indie comedies about imperfect families finding their footing together, this offbeat journey rewards patience with warmth and sharp, well-observed writing.

Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026Methodology Data sources

Audience opinions

What the audience liked

•Heartfelt family dramedy balances humor and emotional resonance with exceptional skill
•Dysfunctional family relationships explored with warmth, compassion, and authentic authenticity
•Strong critical and audience reception demonstrates universal appeal of character study

What the audience disliked

•Quirky tone and unconventional narrative may feel uneven to viewers seeking focused storytelling
•Road trip structure occasionally loses emotional momentum during lighter comedic sequences