All The ‘Cinderella Stories’ Ranked!

Everybody knows the iconic ‘Cinderella Story’ starring Hillary Duff, but since then, the franchise has released multiple variations of this iconic set-up. We evaluated the films in order to highlight each adaptation!

6. A Cinderella Story: A Christmas Wish

This adaptation follows Kat Decker, played by Laura Marano, who is an aspiring singer. While working as an elf at a Christmas amusement park, she meets the charming new boy playing Santa, played by Gregg Sulkin. This follows the Cinderella format pretty closely, including a wicked step-mother and step-sisters as well as an animal companion. The musical aspect of the film adds a fun new twist to this classic story. On Rotten Tomatoes the film was given a 40% and on IMDB it was rated a 5.3/10, giving this film an overall score of 46.5%.

5. A Cinderella Story

This film was the first movie within the franchise starring Hillary Duff and Chad Michael Murray. In this version, Hillary Duff plays a teenager in California who is forced to work as a waitress for her step-mother’s, Jennifer Coolidge, diner. When her pen-pal turns out to be the coolest boy in school, she looks for a way to go to the homecoming dance with him. This movie is iconic online for all of its quotable moments. The story stays pretty traditional but has a lot of fun twisting it into a more modern take. The film was given a 53% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.9/10 on IMDB giving it a final score of a 56%.

4. A Cinderella Story: If The Shoe Fits

This film is one of the more recent adaptations of the iconic original story. Tessa, an aspiring popstar, is forced to be a personal assistant to her step-mother. When her step-sisters are given the opportunity to audition to be casted as Cinderella, Tessa decides that she will dress up as Bella Snow, a British pop-star, in order to be considered. This interpretation of Cinderella is different because it has the main character pretend to be someone else for a longer stretch of time, which gives the film new obstacles to tackle. The movie stays true to form with the wicked Step-Mother and Step-Sisters, but in this film they are much less capable and the drama comes from Tessa having to hide her true identity. This film was rated 58% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.6/10 on IMDB which gives it a final score of 57%.

3. A Cinderella Story: Starstruck

This is the latest installment into the franchise with it only being released in 2021. The movie follows Finley, played by Bailee Madison, who is an aspiring actress who gets her chance at stardom when a Hollywood Film Crew arrives in her town. Finely must dress up as a man in order to be able to act in the film because her audience was sabotaged by her step-family. When Finley and the male lead, Jackson Stone, played by Michael Evans Behling, start to fall in love she must maintain a balance between her dreams and love life. This film has a really interesting way of using the wicked step-family in order to cause problems that has not really been done in the other iterations in the franchise. The movie received a 63% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.5/10 on IMDB which causes the overall score to be a 59%.

2. A Cinderella Story: Once Upon A Song

Lucy Hale stars as Katie, a foster kid that is trying to stay on the good side of her step-family to avoid being put back in the system. Katie sees an opportunity to have her voice heard when it is revealed that the president of Kensington Records is looking for a new star. Her step-sister steals her demo and presents it to popstar Luke Morgan, played by Freddie Stroma, as her own Luke sets out to find the real singer. As before, this film follows the theme of pursuing your dreams and not limiting yourself. There is an emphasis on the musical aspect with the film actually releasing original songs from the film on an album. Receiving a 5.9 on IMDB and a 62% on Rotten Tomatoes the film finishes with a score of 60.5%.

1. Another Cinderella Story

Coming in at number one is the 2008 version starring Selena Gomez and Drew Seeley. In this version, Mary Santiago is an aspiring dancer that hides her dreams from her evil step-mother who forces Mary to be at her beck and call. Joey Parker, international super-star, is the new kid at Mary’s school and everyone wants to be with him. When they secretly dance together at the Valentine Masquerade ball, Joey wonders if she could be the one. Not only is the movie’s cast incredible but the dance sequences throughout are flawless. This film takes a creative spin on the old classic and adds in a little more humor than one would normally expect to find in a Cinderella retelling. The film was rated a 74% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.7/10 on IMDB giving the film a final rating of 65.5%.