Queens have been a huge part of literature, just as their male counterparts in royalty. Films are no exception; there's no shortage of courtroom intrigue and political spectacles when queens are involved. While they're mostly overshadowed by princesses, queens deserve every bit of screen time they get, and they certainly make more of an impact.
At least, the most iconic queens in movies definitely do. Some of them are powerful, independent monarchs who are as beautiful as they are authoritative. Others are evil, insecure tyrants who prefer to eat the faces of those more beautiful than them. It's up to the viewers to guess which is which among these iconic movie queens; but regardless, they will slay, one way or another.
8 Alien Queen (Aliens)
Speaking of slaying, the Alien Queen from Aliens took that one too literally. She's the one responsible for the Xenomorph infestation in the whole film, and given their insect-like social structure, the Alien Queen is the biggest meanie in the family. She's even big enough to necessitate a crude mining mech suit.
Her reign was promptly ended by Sigourney Weaver's Ripley, who was adamant that there was only one room for a sci-fi queen in the Alien franchise, and it shouldn't be the one with a nasty case of halitosis. Still, one Alien Queen is too many already. It's a good thing they don't appear too frequently in the Alien films.
7 The Evil Queen (Snow White)
While on the topic of evil queens, "The Evil Queen" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is yet another horrible villain. The difference is, she seems to put more into self-care than the Alien Queen, well, physical self-care at least. The Evil Queen from Snow White is one enlarged pore away from a psychotic breakdown.
She puts so much value on her outdated and colonial beauty standards, that she envies a younger girl with pure white skin. The Evil Queen even goes out of her way to become the "fairest" of them all. She's not exactly a good monarch, but she's an iconic villain nonetheless, and a good lesson of what not to be, along with the Alien Queen with bad breath.
6 Mothra (Monsterverse)
Not all monster queens are terrible villains. Some of them are ambiguous antiheroes who help with the defense of Earth. In the Monsterverse films, there is Mothra, Queen of the Monsters. She's mostly just an acid-spitting giant moth, or more appropriately, a behe-moth.
But she makes up for that destructive tendency by having healing powers in the form of her moth powder. In hindsight, no one actually crowned Mothra as a queen, but who's going to argue with a giant moth? Besides, Godzilla needed an ally as a King of the Monsters, and Mothra was there to help in the fight against King Ghidora.
5 Elsa (Frozen)
Moving on to more humanoid queens, Elsa is another troubled queen. The Snow Queen moniker was thrust upon her by the local populace who love their folktales. Frozen, however, is a lighter take on the Snow Queen myth, where Elsa is more amicable but is still a misunderstood being.
She was locked away during her childhood due to her destructive snow powers, and was relegated to an heir, next in line to her sister as the actual queen of her kingdom. But Elsa was wise enough to not become the villain in her own story, proving that she can let it go; it never bothered her anyway.
4 Elizabeth Tudor (Elizabeth)
There have been many Elizabeths in history and a lot of them are notable queens, but the most significant among them was most likely Elizabeth Tudor (the first one) dating back to the 16th century. She inherited a kingdom in turmoil after numerous Henry kings ran the Kingdom of England down. Elizabeth had her work cut out for her.
And surprisingly she managed to "fix" England and more, at least according to her Elizabeth films. That was despite the potential bloodthirsty usurpers who thought of her as weak among other threats from across the sea. The fact that she's real makes her film adaptations even more amazing.
3 Queen Amidala (Star Wars)
Queen Amidala isn't real, sadly, but she's demonstrated similar willpower and political wisdom to Elizabeth. She's one of the power players in the Star Wars films and holds a good spot in the Galactic Republic's Senate— a spot which she delegated to Jar Jar Binks so she can pursue her angsty child-murderer husband.
All jokes aside, Padme Amidala's courage is next to none as far as non-force-sensitive characters go. At times, her display of valor and risky combat maneuvers even paints her in a borderline suicidal light. In any case, fictional queens with a level of popularity that surpasses some historical queens are more than qualified here.
2 Galadriel (The Lord of the Rings)
Speaking of fictional queens, Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings and Rings of Power is perfect in every way. She's a capable fighter who can single-handedly take down a Tolkien-mythos troll. She's the fairest of all elves, and she's also the wisest (so it would seem).
She's the whole package of what a queen should be, and adding her functional immortality to that pile of positive traits is just too unfair to other queens. Thankfully, she's not real, otherwise, all other monarchs would become obsolete in the mere presence of this elven goddess.
1 Cleopatra
Here's a real one that has also appeared in several movies. Cleopatra from classical Egypt is a name that lived on for more than a thousand years; that's one heck of an achievement. While her physical body might have died, she's immortal in the hearts and minds of anyone who can read history books and watch films.
It's all thanks to the political drama she caused, toying with both Marcus Antonius and Julius Caesar, practically turning the Roman Empire into her guard dog. This didn't last of course, since Julius Caesar died, and Augustus, his nephew went to war with Cleopatra and Marc Antony. Such historical events courtesy of Cleopatra inspired the greatest of artists, like Shakespeare.