Clint Eastwood Movies

Want to know the best Clint Eastwood movies?  How about the worst Clint Eastwood movies?  Curious about Bill Murray’s box office grosses or which Clint Eastwood movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Clint Eastwood movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Clint Eastwood is one of my favorite movie stars. Eastwood started appearing in movies in the mid 1950s, he gained his first notoriety playing Rowdy Yates on the television show Rawhide from 1959 to 1964. During a break from Rawhide, Eastwood agreed to star in a low budget western that was being filmed in Italy called A Fistful of Dollars (1964). The movie was a huge hit overseas, as result Eastwood became a star playing the “The Man With No Name”. He returned in two more spaghetti westerns directed by Sergio Leone. My favorite Eastwood movie, the classic The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) was the last of the trilogy.

In 1971 Eastwood played Detective Harry Callahan in the hit Dirty Harry. Dirty Harry turned Eastwood into a mega superstar. He would end up playing Harry Callahan in four sequels. During the 1970s and 1980s, Eastwood appeared in hit movie after hit movie. Having established himself as a solid investment, he talked Warner Brothers into letting him direct the movie Play Misty For Me (1971). The low budget movie turned into a success and the career of Clint Eastwood the director was launched. As Clint approached the age of 60, his movies were not receiving much box office success. Things looked like they were slowing down for him, when he starred, produced, and directed Unforgiven 1992. Unforgiven earned Eastwood his first Oscar® nomination for Best Actor, and Oscar® wins for Best Director and Best Picture.

Over the last forty years, Eastwood has appeared in less movies and concentrated on directing. In 2004 he starred, produced and directed Million Dollar Baby. This female boxing movie earned Eastwood his second-Best Actor nomination and won two more Oscars® for Best Director and Best Picture.  His IMDb page shows over 90 acting and directing credits since 1955. This page will rank Clint Eastwood movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, uncredited roles, cameos, and a handful of his pre-A Fistful of Dollars were not included in the rankings.

Clint Eastwood as "Dirty Harry" in 1983's Sudden Impact
Clint Eastwood as “Dirty Harry” in 1983’s Sudden Impact

Clint Eastwood Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Newsweek photo

Clint Eastwood 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 Clint Eastwood movies by co-stars of his movies.
  • Sort Clint Eastwood movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Clint Eastwood movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort Clint Eastwood 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 Clint Eastwood movie received.
  • Sort Clint Eastwood 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.

Clint Eastwood Adjusted World Wide Box Office Grosses

My Personal Top Ten Clint Eastwood Movies in Alphabetical Order

1. A Fistful of Dollars (1964)….the movie that turned a television supporting player into a superstar movie actor

2.  The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)….the last and best of the Sergio Leone spaghetti western trilogy

3.  In The Line of Fire (1993)….I re-watch this one about every other year….Clint and John Malkovich get better with each passing year

4. Kelly’s Heroes (1970)….this is closing in on 50 years old…but it is still a fun and entertaining movie to watch

5.  The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)…the first time Clint demonstrated that he could direct a classic movie

6. Paint Your Wagon (1967)…..I am not much of a musical person…..but I love watching his Clint/Lee Marvin musical

7. Play Misty For Me (1971)…. Clint made Fatal Attraction years before Michael Douglas did

8. Space Cowboys (2000)…Clint, Tommy Lee Jones, the late great James Garner and a Kelly Heroes’ reunion with Donald Sutherland…what more could you want from a movie?

9.  Sudden Impact (1983)….gotta include a Dirty Harry movie in this list…..my favorite of the 5 Dirty Harry movies

10. Unforgiven (1992)…. Clint’s masterpiece….gets better with each new viewing

Check out Clint Eastwood‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

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156 thoughts on “Clint Eastwood Movies”

  1. Clint Eastwood was my hero starting with Rowdy Yates. I was allowed to stay up and watch wagon train just to watch Clint. If he wasn’t on I went to bed. I think, by far, American Sniper and Grand Torino were 2 of his best films. I love every movie he has done. The man has the knack of entertaining people no matter what. Trying to collect all his work.

    Reply

    1. Hey David. I remember watching Clint in Rawhide. I remember always wanting to see more of Rowdy in the show…but Gil Favor was always getting the bigger and better parts of the episode. I think his 8 year run on Rawhide is almost forgotten….which seems sad. I have 44 of these movies in my DVD collection….and other than a few of his 1950s movies…I have seen every movie the man has starred and directed in. I liked American Sniper and Gran Torino too. My top 3 Clint movies would be Unforgiven, Kelly’s Heroes (I watch that about once a year) and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Thanks for taking the time to check out my page and commenting.

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    1. I agree with you Brian G….the man has been bringing it for over 60 years…and still going strong. Happy birthday Clint.

      Reply

  3. WOW! Thanks. I think you’re right about Paint Your Wagon. I don’t see how it could have achieved a rental of $14.5 without a substantially larger gross. This is without a doubt the best site for understanding a film’s success. Not only with the boxoffice numbers, and the older numbers appear to be more accurate then any I’ve come across on line, but also critical response and audience receptiveness, all correlated into one beautifully digested chart. Should be the gold standard for judging a movie’s effectiveness and those of the major players involved. Keep up the great work. I, for one, as I’m sure many others, appreciate it.

    Reply

    1. Hey Wayne. Thanks for the very kind words about my website. I am glad to see you like my chart….if you use the search and sort buttons I feel that table is pretty fun and informative to use….plus in one line of information you can get a good idea how successful or unsuccesful a film was…..If you have requests on somebody that does not have a page then fire away…I have more fun researching and writing requests than I do coming up with my own suggestions for movie pages. Then again I wrote my favorites first…Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks, Michael Caine, Paul Newman and Julia Roberts (ok that one was my wife’s favorite).

      Thanks for helping me get Paint Your Wagon correct again…..that one slipped through the cracks during the transfer from one website provider to my new website provider.

      Reply

      1. Well, since you asked, I would like to throw a few out there. At the top of the list would be Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Lee Marvin, Warren Oates and Walter Matthau.
        As for actresses, how about Goldie Hawn, Jane Fonda, Raquel Welch and one of my favorites, Faye Dunaway.
        As you might have guessed, I’m a big fan of film’s from the ’60’s and ’70’s.

        I realize I’ve probably gone overboard here, and this would certainly be a giant imposition, as your site offers a great deal to enjoy as it stands. Thank you for all your hard work and efforts and thanks for asking.

        Reply

        1. Hey Wayne…..well a couple of weeks I was actually working on a Lee Marvin page…..but I somehow managed to leave my Marvin research papers at a hotel in Gatlinburg Tenn….not to mention the stuff I had researched on Claudette Colbert….all gone! Oates and Matthau were already on the request hotline. Surprisingly this is the first request for Peter Sellers.

          As for the women…..all look like good candidates….I try to do a classic performer and then a current performer….right now I have 38 different classic performers waiting for a page….but on the current performers list…Hawn, Fonda, Welch and Dunaway will move near the front of the line….as I only have 8 current performer requests. I appreciate the suggestions and the return visit. As a rule I try to have a new page published every 3 or 4 days. The clock is ticking because I did a Marlene Dietrich page 2.5 days ago. Up next is Willliam Goldman….my first attempt at doing a writer.

          Reply

  4. I noticed for the John Wayne and Burt Reynolds sections you listed the film’s grosses for year of release, but not for Eastwood. I kind of missed that, especially the late 60’s – early 70’s work (Hang’em High, Coogan’s Bluff, Where Eagles Dare, etc) when up an coming Eastwood grosses were first challenging Wayne’s grosses. I love this site, a lot of fun facts, that offer cross-reference in so many ways. Thanks and please keep it up.

    Reply

    1. Hey Wayne….thanks for the kind words. Six columns of seems to be the best fit for the table…a 7th column causes the table to get “warped”. On this one Clint’s various roles…actor, director and director and actor bumped that column. But I am more than happy to share those numbers here.

      Movie (Year) Actual Box Office (Millions)
      Unforgiven (1992) $101.16
      Million Dollar Baby (2004) $100.49
      American Sniper (2014) $348.86
      The Good the Bad and the Ugly (1966) $25.00
      Dirty Harry (1971) $39.60
      In the Line of Fire (1993) $102.31
      Mystic River (2003) $90.14
      Magnum Force (1973) $44.22
      The Enforcer (1976) $52.80
      Gran Torino (2008) $148.10
      Escape from Alcatraz (1979) $47.30
      Sudden Impact (1983) $67.64
      The Bridges of Madison County (1995) $71.52
      Every Which Way But Loose (1978) $85.20
      Any Which Way You Can (1980) $89.10
      The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) $29.70
      Space Cowboys (2000) $90.46
      The Gauntlet (1977) $38.94
      Tightrope (1984) $48.14
      Pale Rider (1985) $41.41
      For a Few Dollars More (1965) $10.75
      Where Eagles Dare (1969) $15.73
      Heartbreak Ridge (1986) $42.72
      Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) $20.24
      Hang ’em High (1968) $14.76
      High Plains Drifter (1973) $16.93
      Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) $13.76
      A Fistful of Dollars (1967) $9.24
      Firefox (1982) $46.71
      Kelly’s Heroes (1970) $11.70
      A Perfect World (1993) $31.13
      *Paint Your Wagon (1969) $16.92
      Absolute Power (1997) $50.07
      Invictus (2009) $37.49
      Flags of Our Fathers (2006) $33.60
      Play Misty for Me (1971) $10.60
      Changeling (2008) $35.74
      Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) $10.90
      Joe Kidd (1972) $14.11
      Bronco Billy (1980) $24.27
      The Dead Pool (1988) $37.90
      The Eiger Sanction (1975) $15.52
      Jersey Boys (2014) $47.05
      City Heat (1984) $38.35
      Coogan’s Bluff (1968) $6.82
      Bird (1988) $2.18
      Trouble With The Curve (2012) $35.76
      The Beguiled (1971) $2.42
      The Rookie (1990) $21.63
      Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) $25.11
      Hereafter (2010) $32.75
      Breezy (1973) $5.30
      Blood Work (2002) $26.24
      True Crime (1999) $16.65
      Honky Tonk Man (1982) $4.48
      The Rookie (1990) $21.63
      White Hunter Black Heart (1990) $2.32
      Pink Cadillac (1989) $12.14

      * I actually think Paint Your Wagon is too low. Box Office Mojo has it’s box office at $16.92 million. Everything I have says Paint Your Wagon has 14 million in box office rentals. (Rentals is what the studio gets back from theaters not the gross of the movie)..that would put the gross closer to $30.80 million in actual and about $176 million in adjusted gross. I have communicated with Box Office Mojo about this and they have their reasoning….but I must admit I think they are wrong with this movie. I think like Cleopatra it made a ton of money at the box office…but not enough to overcome it’s monster budget….so it is labeled a bomb.

      Reply

      1. Hey Wayne….actually I was writing that comment I was trying to figure why I was using the box office mojo total versus mine….probably in the transfer my program went back to box office mojo’s total….well I just fixed that number so Paint Your Wagon is now higher in the rankings. From 32nd to 15th place.

        Reply

    1. @Sharon….currently everybody is saying that American Sniper is Clint’s greatest box office hit…..my table has it at #2….it still has some work to do to catch….Every Which Way But Loose. I still shake my head when I realized just how much money Clint, Ruth Gordon and Clyde made back then.

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      1. @Sharon…all the box office numbers in my table are adjusted for inflation…I use ticket sales to calculate what a movie made in 1971 would have made in 2015. I find it much easier to compare movies that way.

        Reply

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