Best Western Movies

new western 11111Want to know the best Western Movies movies?  How about the worst Western Movies movies?  Curious about Western Movies box office grosses or which Western Movies movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Western Movies movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information…and alot more.

Recently got a request to do a Westerns page from Chris.  This page represents page two of that request.  The first page looked at the Top 100 Westerns based on critic reviews and audience voting.  This page lists all the movies we researched (252 movies currently) but did not make the Top 100.  When I played football in high school….the 3rd stringers had to ride the bus with the cheerleaders (not really a problem) and the equipment.  Think of this page as that bus….they all want to get to the first bus…..and all the people on the first bus want to avoid the 2nd bus.

Obviously they are way more Westerns out there.  Is your favorite western missing?….just commented at the bottom and I will research and include that movie.  If your favorite is good enough….it might even make it to the Top 100 Western page.

once-upon-a-time-in-the-west

Western 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 Western Movies by the stars of the movies
  • Sort movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses based on actual ticket sells (in millions)
  • Sort movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort by how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each movie received.
  • Sort Western Movies 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.

All-Time Worldwide Western Box Office Hits

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39 thoughts on “Best Western Movies”

  1. Hi Bruce , i just wanted to know where you have found the international grosses for those movies :
    How the west was won
    The Alamo
    The Magnificent Seven
    I searched many many years for worldwide grosses about those movies …. and i never found anything…I was always thinking that they were not available … I’m astonished …
    Where did those numbers came from please ?….
    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Hey Max……sadly my database does not give the reference too often….WoC has been pushing for that to be included for many years……but I have generally resisted doing that…mainly due to (1) time issues…just not enough hours in the day and (2) I pretty much know where the number comes from 95% of the time.

      So….on the John Wayne westerns….that actually came from a John Wayne superfan…..he shared about 30 international totals with me…..not 100% sure of his sources….but…we already had 66% of those 30…and his numbers watched my numbers….so I went ahead and included them in the database…..scratching the old memory bank…seems he had already writte a Wayne book or was finishing up writing a Wayne book.

      As for The Magnificent Seven…..that came from numerous books….which ones I do not remember…but if I had to guess it was either a Bronson or more likely a McQueen book (only because there are so many McQueen books than Bronson books)….one of the readers and commenters here is actually writing a Bronson book right now…..looking forward to that one.

      So….in wrapping up this comment….the numbers I used did not come from my usual sources….so I do not feel as confident as I normally feel….but they seem to make sense to me.

      Reply

  2. OK Bruce , so i have a scoop for you concerning the biggest western of all time according to box office gross 😉 :

    How the west was won made 1 029 666 444 (in 2017 $) so if if divide it by 8.97 (average ticket price in 2017) it made 114 790 016 million admissions

    The Magnificent Seven made 455 000 003 (in 2017$) so if i divide it by 8.97 it made 50 724 638 admissions

    But !! The admissions in Russia aren’t included in the foreign gross of all those movies !! How the west was won have not admission figures available in Russia…
    On the other hand , the Magnificent Seven is one of the biggest success ever in Soviet Union with 67 MILLION ADMISSION !!!!

    So if i take 50 724 638 million admissions + 67 000 000 million admissions = 117 724 638 million admission for The Magnificent Seven

    Those numbers made it the most successful western of all time !
    Here’s the link … And i have a lot of other infos like that that will surprise you 😉
    https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/velikolepnaya-semerka-1960-8207/

    Reply

    1. Hey Max…..interesting information….seems like I need to look at Russian box office numbers more closely. Gotta admit, some of the numbers seem to be on the very high side. As for your logic….the math is correct. Now the questions are (1) What is the source of the information! (2) Is the source reliable? (3) Why did studios not include it in their figures? In the end…your numbers have me very intrigued. Thanks for the link and the followup comment.

      Reply

      1. HI Bruce, some infos about that :

        1) The source of the information is the link i send you in the previous post ; if you enter the name of a movie ; even in english ; it will give you the number of admission it made in Russia (if it made some notable admission) and even in some other european countries (those other european admissions are in general included in the studios total figures).

        2) The source is absolutely reliable and it’s the official website of russian box office ; in a way, it’s the Box Ofice Mojo of Russia if you want lol …

        3) The Russian admissions aren’t included in their figures because a lot of old movies were released in Soviet Union with the control of the propaganda who select just some movies and mostly because they were released with a lag ; the magnificent seven was released in 1962 in Russia so it’s not the case for this movie but most came out with several years of gap and so the entries were not included because of that (Spartacus was released in 1968 in Soviet Union and made 63 million admission that aren’t included anywhere !! And there’s a lot of old movies in this case) ; on imdb; some films do not even have a release date known in Russia even though they have been broadcast ! Furthermore, I’m not going to teach you history, I think you know that better than me but I guess you know the relationship between Usa and Russia before the 90’s … I think they had something else to do than to send them the numbers of movie admissions….

        So I can assure you that all these figures are official and to my knowledge none of the admission figures in Russia is included in the total figures of the studios ; you can do math if you want but in some cases the admissions in Russia are higher than the total worldwide of a whole film !!
        exemple: Tarzan the Ape Man: 42.9 m admissions !! MacKennas Gold (1969) : 63 m admissions !!! …..And there’s many more !

        Here’s a link i selected to you (on the bottom of this page) : it gives you a list of the UK/US movies that made the most admissions in Russia , you’ll be astonished because there’s a lot of unknown movies or B Movies that were selected and broadcast to the people under the control of Propaganda ; for example if a film was political or showcased American values; it was forbidden …

        On the link i send you below , the number of admissions in Russia is the number in orange at the bottom right of the sheet of each film ; for example the Magnificent Seven made 67 million admissions …It’s the biggest American film in Soviet Union !! Want to see the others ?? Let’s go ! 😉
        https://www.kinopoisk.ru/top/lists/184/filtr/all/sort/order/country%5B11%5D/11/country%5B1%5D/1/

        Reply

  3. Hello Bruce, i just have a simple question : according to your infos, what it the biggest western in term of box office success worldwide ? Is it “How The West Was Won” ? Or with overseas gross, some others western movies did better ?

    Thanks !

    Reply

    1. Hey Max….I will check the database when I get home. I can at least give you the highest worldwide box office number in my database. Not sure I have a worldwide gross for Duel in the Sun….but I think it would give How The West Was Won a good run for the movie. I will make sure to check when I get home from work.

      Reply

    2. Hey Max…..did a database search….here are the Highest Grossing Westerns (Worldwide) in our database…please note not all movies have domestic and international box office. Dances With Wolves was much closer to How The West Was Won than I even remotely imagined!

      The picture of the table is at the bottom of the page.

      Reply

  4. Hey John….great stats….the 1930-1959 is pretty eye opening….almost 25% of all movies made were westerns….compared today that is crazy…..I think 2016 had 3 or 4 westerns….and only Magnificent Seven did anything at the box office.

    I agree cheap to make and the fact that kids loved them….my father-in-law who helped run a theater in the 1950s said…that westerns always drew the crowds in.

    John Wayne almost made a 100 westerns in the 1930s. Great information in this comment….thanks for digging it out and for sharing it.

    Reply

  5. I found a list from the British Film Institute of the number of feature westerns produced during the 1930 to 1960 era. A feature film is defined by the BFI as a movie of 40 minutes or more. There are a lot of borderline westerns (Mountie films, for example) and I don’t know how the BFI defines westerns, but here are their totals decade by decade.

    1930’s
    Total films—–5029
    westerns——-1073
    percentage—-21.3%

    1940’s
    Total films—–4076
    westerns——–1089
    percentage—–26.7%

    1950’s
    Total films—–2922
    westerns——–822
    percentage—–28.1%

    1930-1959
    Total films—–12,041
    westerns——–2984
    percentage—–24.8%

    so during the classic era, about a quarter of all films were westerns. I think by far the most popular genre, except perhaps comedy if comedy is broadly defined. Why so many? Well, they provided action and good guy-bad guy conflicts. But certainly a contributing factor was that most westerns were relatively cheap to produce. They were the bottom line profit makers which were the foundation for the occasional big budget prestige production.

    Reply

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