*Bruce Willis is taking a break from acting as he battles aphasia, a neurological condition that affects the ability to communicate. 3/30/2022
Want to know the best Bruce Willis movies? How about the worst Bruce Willis movies? Curious about Bruce Willis’s box office grosses or which Bruce Willis movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Bruce Willis movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place.
I have followed Bruce Willis’ career since he hit the big time with his star making role as David Addison on Moonlighting. I still think the Moonlighting 3 episode story arc with Mark Harmon,was some the best television I have ever seen and the pinnacle of that series. Since Moonlighting, Bruce Willis has had a very busy career, making over 60 movies over the last 27 years. It has been a roller coaster ride…the highs….. movies like Pulp Fiction, most of the Die Hards, and The Sixth Sense…..the lows….movies like The Whole Ten Yards, Hudson Hawk, Bonfire of the Vanities and North. His IMDb page shows 145 acting credits since 1980. In the table below, Ultimate Movie Rankings ranks movies in 6 different sortable columns.
Bruce Willis Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews, and awards.
Bruce Willis Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Bruce Willis movies by movie title and movie trailers.
- Sort Bruce Willis movies by co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Bruce Willis movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Bruce Willis movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
- Sort Bruce Willis movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Bruce Willis movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Bruce Willis movie won.
- Sort Bruce Willis movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Bruce Willis
1. Walter Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in the town of Idar-Oberstein, West Germany. His dad was an American while his mother was a German.
2. Bruce Willis worked as a bartender when he was a struggling actor in New York City.
3. In 1984, Bruce Willis left New York City to audition for roles in Los Angeles.
4. Bruce Willis’ big break was getting the role in the television series Moonlighting (1985-1989). Glenn Gordon Caron had to fight with ABC to put Willis in the lead role having already signed Shepherd for both the pilot and series. Caron claims he tested Willis about a third of the way through testing over 2,000 actors, knew “this was the guy” immediately, and had to fight through twice as many more acting tests and readings while arguing with ABC executives before receiving (initial) conditional authorization to cast Willis in the pilot. ABC, according to Caron, did not feel that anyone viewing would think there could possibly be any “believable” sexual tension between Shepherd and Willis.
5. Although Bruce Willis was the 115th choice to play John McClane in 1988’s Die Hard….he was given an unheard, at the time, salary of $5 million dollars.
6. Bruce Willis was the only celebrity that attended Julia Roberts’ wedding to Daniel Moder. Their friendship is referred to in Ocean’s Twelve (2004), when he mistakes Tess Ocean for Julia Roberts, and asks her about ‘Danny’.
7. Bruce Willis was the first actor to ever “act” in a video game (Apocalypse (1998)). No one before had ever done voice work along with having their likeness and movements digitally added to the game, as well as receiving prominent billing on the game’s cover.
8. Bruce Willis was considered for the role of Kyle Reese in The Terminator (1984), which went to Michael Biehn.
9. Bruce Willis has been married two times. He has 5 daughters. His first marriage was to Demi Moore. His current marriage is to Emma Heming.
10. Check out Bruce Willis’ career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Personal Top Ten Bruce Willis Movies
- Die Hard
- The Fifth Element
- Looper
- Lucky Number Slevin
- Nobody’s Fool
- Pulp Fiction
- Sin City
- The Sixth Sense
- Twelve Monkeys
- Unbreakable
Our You Tube Video that goes through the Rankings all of Bruce Willis’ movies.
My Letterboxd.com Bruce Willis Movie Reviews.
Steve Lensman’s Bruce Willis Top 50 Movies You Tube Video
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
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ROBERT ROY.
July 27, 2016 at 8:17 am
GOOD MORNING BRUCE
1 I had meant to study the new Esther Williams page first thing today but she’ll have to wait as your mention of Bruce Willis again awakened in me an old anger that I have to work out of my system before I can concentrate on anything else.
2 Leaving aside the money men who pay the fees and who are the ones who most count I feel that the film community generally has been highly disrespectful to Willis in relation to what he might have felt entitled to because of his staggering domestic and exceptional worldwide grosses.
3 I have scanned the Quigley Top 10 from 1932 until 2011 (which was as far as I could find it going) and can spot Bruce’s name listed only twice therein . On the other hand George Clooney for example is listed 9 times in all and 5 times consecutively from 2007-2011 inclusive .
4 Both men are in the bottom quarter of my own Top 20 favourite actors but although George marginally has the edge in my esteem there is no way he is anywhere near Bruce as a box office star and certainly there should not be that difference between them in the Quigley entries.
5 I bracket Willis along with Lancaster,Peck and Ty Power of yesteryear who despite strings of box office successes stretching over many years were all virtually ignored by Quigley. I know that box office can’t be the only criterion by which stardom is judged but it is a good measure of popularity which is supposed to be Quigley’s raison d’etre.
6. Like Edward Lionheart in Dr Phibes I would feel like punishing all of those who have unfairly neglected Willis over the years except that you as a Willis idolator left him out of your own Top 25 ! As usual the Bible is most observant -“A Prophet is without honour in his own country.”
7 At least you have published criteria by which you can defend your selections but nobody knows what criteria the authors of Quigley use and I therefore find it difficult to accept them as the definitive authority in box office popularity especially when I see how they ignored Willis in many of the years in which he spun box office gold.
8 Now that I’ve got that off my chest I’ll move on to Esther a REAL top box office female star and not the second rate version like the ridiculous Anne Hathaway whom Quigley has recently honoured. Indeed Esther could be my final post for a week or so as I’m off to Italy tomorrow for a vacation. So at least you’ll get a break from Belfast snapping at your heels for a while!!
BOB
PS This has been copied from the Mel Brooks as although it is a response to Bruce Cogerson’s comments on that page I feel it more properly belongs to the Bruce Willis page and Mr Cogerson may feel that it should ultimately be deleted from Brooks.
Hey Bob.
1. Being a huge Bruce Willis fan…..I have to say I really like this comment….as you are preaching to the choir…..lol.
2. I have always felt that Quigley was a fun list to look at…..but could not be really taken as gospel as the for biggest box office stars for a particular year….it is more of a popularity contest and George is very very popular.
3. 9 times they named Clooney on the Quigley list? That is amazing for an actor that has 8 $100 million dollar movies….I give him credit for his three Ocean’s Eleven movies (though he had some serious help Damon, Pitt, Roberts, Pacino)…but he was a supporting actor in 3 of those movies…..Batman and Robin was another….and that one almost killed Batman forever…..the 8th was The Perfect Storm….so he has 4 hits…..and countless movies that came in under expectations.
4. Clooney in your top 20? He is not one of my favorites but I do watch everything he makes…..his movies are usually well done.
5. One of my pages I have been thinking about doing for years is one that compares current actors to classic actors….for instance….Morgan Freeman is the Spencer Tracy of our time, Adam Sandler is the Jerry Lewis of our time, Denzel Washington is the Sidney Poitier of our time, Meryl Streep is the Katharine Hepburn of out time….those are some of the ones I have come up with…..I think of Lancaster or Powers….I would saw Willis and Powers are the closest match.
6. If Bruce had not fallen into straight to home entertainment hell the last 3 years….I probably would have included him….but him producing this low budget crap has even hurt his standing in my eyes….seems every three months a new low budget horrible movie Bruce Willis arrives…..I watch it…and think….why Bruce why Bruce? Maybe Death Wish will bring him back.
7. Yep Esther and her massive box office await you.
8. Hope you have an awesome and safe vacation.
🙂
BRUCE:
I I always seem to be the odd man out because I did not like the Ocean films though I give George some credit for their box office success as he played Danny Ocean. I love George though in the low grossers The Ides of March and Good Night and Good Luck and it was the latter that turned me into a Clooney fan.
2 I see that George is now producing but not starring in Ocean’s Ocho which is to be an all female version of the male Ocean films. George’s Gravity mate Bullock and Cate Blanchett are apparently signed for the female equivalents of Clooney/Pitt.
3 I’ll give it a miss but at least if George is not starring in it and it flops Bullock’s agent can’t blame him !!
Hey Bob.
1. Well I did like the Bruce Willis cameo in part 2…..it was the best part of the movie…though I am biased. Willis was actually offered the Danny Ocean role first….but had to turn it down.
2. I agree The Ides of March is a good movie. I liked Up In The Air as well. Not thinking I have ever watched a Clooney movie twice.
3. Female reboots are becoming very popular….though Ghostbusters is almost done already at the box office….not much staying power there.
4. As Bullock gets older…she might need a lot of scapegoats…..unless she can beat Father Time…..but some far time is undefeated.
Thanks for the good thoughts on Bruce Willis….makes me think it is time to re watch one of my favorite Bruce movies.
Nice Bruce page. I like Bruce but his career looks like it is running out of gas.
Hey Stan R32…..I think he will bounce back. 2012 was a pretty good year…with Looper and Moonrise Kingdom….2013 with a success at the worldwide box office…over $800 million for his 3 films. 2014 was bad…with only his brief Sin City 2 appearance…..2015 is starting off rough….Vice was horrible….but I have faith…..Bruce was some tread on them ther’ tires.
Hey Bruce from your personal top 10 I have not seen Nobody’s Fool. My favorite’s are Die Hard, Fifth Element and Pulp Fiction.
I like your shiny new updated Bruce Willis page, more facts and stats on one page than you’d get anywhere else.
Hey Steve thanks for revisiting my Bruce page. I think you have now commented on all three Willis page through the years…..your efforts are greatly appreciated. Nobody’s Fool has the last great Newman performance…it is worth checking out. Willis, Melanie Griffith, Jessica Tandy and Phillip Seymour Hoffman are very good in supporting roles.
I spotted Bruce Willis in the crowd at the pie eating contest in Stand by Me. I’d put that as #2 behind Die Hard.
Hey Kelley…not sure that is Bruce in Stand By Me….he has worked with the director of Stand By Me a couple times…so I guess you never know…thanks for the visit.
Hey Bruce looks like Red 2 isn’t going to pass Red 1’s total B.O.
I don’t think it’s opened here in the UK yet. I have GI Joe 2 here in 3D, blind buy, will watch it at the weekend. Hopefully better than GI Joe 1.
Hey Steve….well the year of the Bruce sequels generated lots of worldwide box office (over 800 million) but not sure any of the three movies could be considered good movies