If Christopher Walken (1943-) is not the best character actor performing right now , then he is close to the top of that list. When I think of Mr. Walken, the following movies scenes pop into my head. His Colonel Koons telling young Butch Coolidge about the history of Butch’s watch in the classic Pulp Fiction (1994). His interrogation of Dennis Hooper in True Romance (1993). And of course playing Russian roulette with Robert DeNiro in The Deer Hunter (1978).
Christopher Walken has been appearing in movies since 1969. He became an overnight sensation 8 years later with his Oscar® winning performance in The Deer Hunter (1969). After a few lead roles, he pretty much slipped into supporting roles. It is a role that suites him pretty well.
His IMDb page shows 133 acting credits since 1969. This page will rank 73 Christopher Walken movies from Best to Worst in five different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.
Christopher Walken Movies Ranked By Combination of Box Office, Reviews and Awards (UMR Score) *Classic UMR Table (the one with all the stats is the second table)
Christopher Walken Movies Can Be Ranked 5 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort by Christopher Walken movies by his co-stars
- Sort Christopher Walken movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Christopher Walken movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Christopher Walken movies 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 Christopher Walken movie received.
- Sort Christopher Walken 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Christopher Walken Table
- Fifteen Christopher Walken movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 48.38% of his movies listed. 1992’s Batman Returns is his biggest box office hit.
- An average Christopher Walken movie grosses $58.20 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 30 Christopher Walken movies are rated as good movies…or 46.15% of his movies. Pulp Fiction (1994) is his highest rated movie while Gigli (2003) is his lowest rated movie.
- Ten Christopher Walken movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 15.38% of his movies.
- Five Christopher Walken movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 7.69% of his movies.
- A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00. 26 Christopher Walken movies scored higher that average….or 33.84% of his movies. The Deer Hunter (1978) got the the highest UMR Score while Gigli (2003) got the lowest UMR Score.
Check out Steve Lensman’s Christopher Walken You Tube Video
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Oh, Cogerson. I haven’t read any of her reviews yet, although I know The New Yorker’s history artwork. Score one for you. 🙂
Hey Flora, I think she reviewed movies from the late 1960s until she got sick in the mid 1990s. She was with Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, and Rex Reed, one of the most well known critics in the country. She wrote for the New Yorker, her reviews were the only reason I ever found myself looking through a New Yorker.
..well first up my friend – when it comes to film I’ll tell EVERYONE about you and where to go – lol – your hubs of course..
secondly, Flora and I are wondering if you’re familiar with the legendary film critic Pauline Kael – I made a reference to her in Flora’s new hun.
Thirdly, again great work and presentation – I saw a terrific little film a few years back with Christopher playing one of his classic character roles singing Tom Jones’ Delilah – do you recall seeing that one?
Hey epigramman….your references to my hubs is greatly appreciated…..I appreciate your movie knowledge and your skill you show in your hubs as well.
I am very familiar with Pauline Kael for years so was one of the most influential movie critics out there….I think every library in America has at least one or two of her volumes of movie reviews. I think Quentin Tarantino is still upset that she was never able to write a review about any of his movies.
As for the movie you reference ….it is called Romance & Cigarettes which was made in 2005…a movie with a great cast(Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon and Walken)….it was directed by the great character actor John Turturro(Barton Fink, Big Lebowski and the Transformer movies)….it however did not get much of a release at the theaters….so I did not include it on the list…but I can include it….as actually it looks like Mr. Walken needs a facelift…one of the first hubs I did….thanks for checking out my page.
Everyone is entitled to there own opinion. personally I thought The Deer Hunter was a very Boring movie. Don’t understand why people rave about it so much. As for Chistopher Watkins, I have seen him in many movies. Some movies I liked, Some movies I didn’t but the one constant in each movie is Chris Watkins. Weather it is a Drama, Deer Hunter, Action, Last Man Standing, or Comedy, Joe Dirt, even a misical, Hair spray, Every word that man says wheather threatening to rip your head off or asking you to pass the mashed potatoes, sound exactly the same. The man has no Range. like I said, just my opinion.
Hey ruffridyer…..well I will say that Deer Hunter did not seem as exciting the second time around…the first half of the movie does crawl at times…..but the Russian Roulette scenes are very memorable….but they only take up about 15 minutes of the movie…..I think the lack of range that you mention is probably why he was not able to make it as a leading man….he is much effective in supporting roles…my favorite two parts are his very small parts in Pulp Fiction and True Romance…thanks for reading.
Over the years I have come to be a big fan of Christopher Walken. Thanks for putting this together.
You are welcome toknowinfo
A ton of great movies here as well..reading your hubs makes me want to watch a lot of different movies all at the same time! Catch me if you can was a great movie!
hey topgopfrich….Catch Me If You Can has a great Walken performance.