Want to know the best Dennis Quaid movies? How about the worst Dennis Quaid movies? Curious about Dennis Quaid’s box office grosses or which Dennis Quaid movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Dennis Quaid movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well, you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Dennis Quaid (1954-) has been starring in movies for almost the last forty years. His first breakthrough role was in 1979’s Breaking Away. In 1980 he appeared with his brother, Randy, in the western The Long Riders. In the 1980s and early 1990s he appeared in three movies with his wife at the time, Meg Ryan. In 2002, Quaid received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Far From Heaven. In 2004 he starred in his biggest box office hit, The Day After Tomorrow.
His IMDb page shows over 100 acting credits since 1975. In the table below Ultimate Movie Rankings ranks 63 of his movies in 6 different sortable columns. Television roles, cameos, shorts and straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings.
Dennis Quaid Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Dennis Quaid 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 Dennis Quaid movies by the stars of his movies.
- Sort Dennis Quaid movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Dennis Quaid movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Dennis Quaid 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 Dennis Quaid movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Dennis Quaid movie won.
- Sort Dennis Quaid 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.
- Use the search and sort button to make this page very interactive
Check out Steve Lensman’s Dennis Quaid You Tube Video
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
“Even though I do not consider myself a huge Quaid fan…I am betting I have seen most of these movies. Movies 40 through 31. Seen 9 of these movies. I thought #33 Smart People was pretty good. Great Balls of Fire was supposed to make him a big star…that did not happen. Movies 30 through 21. Favorites would include #27 Everybody’s All American…he and Lange are very good in movie. #22 Dreamscape….loved it…but it has been years since I saw it. #21 DOA…good thriller. Seen 9 again. Movies 20 through 11…#20 Dragonheart…saw in theaters and I really liked it. #16 Innerspace….silly fun movie to watch #12 The Rookie…good baseball movie. #11 Enemy Mine…like #22 been ages since I saw it. Saw all 10 movies. Top 10….seen all of them….#1 The Right Stuff and #3 Breaking Away would be my favorites. Long Riders almost makes the list as well. So…grand total of 38 seen….only missed two! Vote up and shared.”
My thoughts on Steve’s newly added You Tube video.
Hi Bruce, whoa 38 seen out of 40 is excellent. My tally 21, Flora 1.
The Right Stuff is a big favorite of mine, saw it at the cinema. I remember the audience groaning when Dennis Quaid’s rocket launches at about the 3 hour mark, they thought the film was never going to end! 🙂 So I’m glad that was no.1 on Quaid’s chart.
Thanks for the comment, vote and share, always appreciated.
HI STEVE Dennis Quaid’s financial net worth is said to be around the $40 million dollar mark. Obviously that fortune makes him a very affluent person but it is modest in comparison with the reported riches that some other celebs have currently in the bank. For example it is reported that Bruce Willis has $180 million, Demi Moore $150 million, Tom Cruise $570 million, The Rock $220 million and Jason Statham is credited with a net worth of $50 million. The footballer Ronaldo has $400 million put away and Roger Federer, my fave among tennis players $450 million.
Sir Maurice has a $78 million net bank balance with a current earning capacity of $5 million per year despite his age of 85 years. That’s especially excellent for a non-American performer and a sum that stars of the old British film industry, though well enough paid, could probably never have equaled. Joel’s estate will not release details of his net worth but have indicated that it is considerable and in fact “growing all the time” despite his sad passing away in 2005 at just 67.
YOUR VIDEO ENTRIES 40-21 My personal pick of the POSTERS – superb pair for Jaws 3, Pandorum, the 2nd one for Great Balls of Fire, Switchback, both ones for The Alamo, Everybody is All American, Dreamscape, the pair for DOA and the raunchy double The Night the Lights went Out in Georgia and Flesh and Bone.
Best STILLS in the entire video from my viewpoint will be covered in Part 2.
HI STEVE Bruce’s table allocates Dennis Quaid just 9 movies that crashed the $100 million barrier and in 4 of those he was not the lead performer. Bruce reckons also that in adjusted domestic dollars the listed 65 films in total average out at around just $45 million each which converts to approx an overall $3 billion in adjusted dollars. Not overly-impressive for that large number of films.
My favourite POSTERS 1-20 of your video are Suspect, 2 for Innerspace, The Express, The Rookie, 2 stunners for Enemy Mine, another 2 crackers for Day after Tomorrow, a raunchy one for Big Easy [probably my own fave Quaid flick along with Frequency], a fine poster for Frequency itself, and 1st one for Traffic.
STILLS that most impressed me [over the ENTIRE video] are (1) in Caveman (2) both for Undercover Blues (3) with Meg Ryan in DOA (4) Dennis with “Dragonheart” (5) In Vantage Point [a film that I switched off because its endless rolling back over the same old ground irritated the H**l out of me] (6) as “Doc” which some critics hailed as the definitive Holliday and I am aware of at least a dozen films in which Doc has been portrayed by different actors. (7) Any Given Sunday (8) Enemy Mine (9) Day after Tomorrow (10) The Long Riders Ensemble and (11) Traffic. I liked well enough Day after Tomorrow when it came out but with hindsight I regard it as somewhat of a bore even though as WH has illustrated above it was Dennis’ highest grossing movie
Overall your Quaid EP was huge fun to view and easily worth a 97% rating. You and Bruce agree on 4 of Quaid’s Top 6 best reviewed with WH going for Postcards from the Edge and The Rookie in his 6 whereas you have favoured in yours The Long Riders and Frequency. I would certainly agree with you about Frequency though I liked Postcards from the Edge too which for me had the added attraction of being based on the semi-autobiographical novel about the real life of the screen’s sadly late “Princess Leia” who also wrote the screenplay a talented lady]. Great stuff from you and “Voted U”p +
Hi Bob, thanks for the review, rating, box office info, trivia and comparison, it is appreciated. Glad you enjoyed the picture gallery.
I thought Vantage Point was interesting, you should have stuck with it, but it’s not a film that bears ‘repeat’ viewing (unless you can’t remember what happens).
The studios tried their darndest to turn Dennis Quaid into a megawatt megastar but it just failed to happen, ditto Tom Selleck, Charlie Sheen, Colin Farrell, Orlando Bloom, Sam Worthington etc etc it isn’t easy getting to that next level.
Only one film scored 10 out of 10 on Quaid’s chart and that was Far from Heaven. No 9s but there are 22 films scoring 8 out of 10 including The Right Stuff, Traffic and The Long Riders.
The Right Stuff tops the IMDB & Rotten Tomatoes charts and my video chart too. Bruce has that film at no.3 with Breaking Away at no.1.
“I was a guy back in the ’80s who was one movie away from a huge career, which at that time didn’t happen. In the ’90s, I worked a lot, but it was kind of, “get out there and dig and find things”. Then I guess The Rookie (2002) and Far from Heaven (2002) were referred to as my comeback. I look around and a lot of the people I started in the business with, I have no clue where they are right now. So much of it has to do with luck and I have been extremely lucky, but a large part of it is also just hanging in there.”
Dennis Quaid on Meg Ryan – “When we met, you know, I was the big deal. And then my career came to a halt… We’d go out on the streets of New York and it would be like, ‘Meg! Meg!’ And I have to admit it, I actually did feel like I disappeared. I didn’t think I was that small, but I was. It was a growth opportunity. I learned from that.”
Dennis admitted that he and Meg are “friendly” today. – “You have to be friendly with an ex after a while. If you’re bitter still after 15 years — and still holding grudges — something’s wrong with you, not with them.”
HI STEVE Thanks for the comprehensive response to my post to you on Dennis Q. Regarding Meg Ryan insult was added to injury for poor Dennis because when she and Hollywood’s latest Bad Boy Russell Crowe made Proof of Life together in 2000 they had an adulterous affair, she still being married to Dennis. In the Hollywood “A” list of males Russell was the new “Big Deal” as Quaid would express it as Gladiator was doing the rounds at the time.
It seems that Crowe was a very dangerous guy to be around because not only was he forever getting embroiled in physical altercations and controversies including racial slanging matches but he claims the FBI told him that he was being targeted by Al-Qaeda possibly because he ironically had a philanthropic nature and had given money to Jewish charity causes.
Not only did Meg and Russell cuckold Dennis but they have outstripped him financially as well. Ryan’s net worth is said to be $45 million [$5 mil more than Dennis] and Russell is reckoned to have a whopping $95 million in his bank balance. However NONE of those people are exactly starving are they? It makes it a bigger mystery for me that Joel went to such lengths to single out for demonisation poor ole Mumbles for the lavish fees Hollywood paid Mr Mumbles..
Crowe and Ryan also do better than Dennis regarding acting awards-
Dennis/ 11 awards and 27 nominations
Meg/12 awards and 30 nominations
Russell/ 36awards and 72 nominations.
Russell therefore has more awards on his own than the ex-Quaids combined. Meg looks awful in some of the recent photos that I’ve seen. Certainly long gone is those lovely [at times gamine] looks that so entranced Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle.
Hey Steve. Enjoyable quotes from Dennis Quaid. I agree Meg Ryan became the bigger star….interesting how he could not handle it. As for Orlando Bloom…he is a full fledge stat….he just makes crappy movies now….lol.
1 The table above illustrates that Dennis was never a big box-office star and indeed of the mere 3 movies of his that crashed the Cogerson 100 million adjusted domestic barrier he had the starring role in only one, The Day afterTomorrow which was his biggest hit.
2 Indeed for a while he was probably followed as closely by fans of gossip magazines as he was by movie audiences because he got the negative publicity of being involved in a love triangle with his then wife Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe who romanced Ryan when they made the 2000 Proof of Life together.
3 The slant of some of some of the magazines was that ‘home-wrecker’ Crowe was again justifying his Bad Boy image albeit in a non-violent way this time by stealing Quaid’s wife. However it would seem that the marriage of Quaid/Ryan was already on the rocks because she later told Style magazine that their union had been destroyed by Dennis’ infidelity for a large part of their married life.
4 Whatever the truth in any of that I found Quaid’s screen personality relaxing to watch and I most enjoyed him in his more poorly received movies such as Suspect, Switchback, The Big Easy and Frequency. Bruce gives the latter 2 what I think he regards as “respectable” critic/audience ratings of 73% and 71.5% respectively and although the latter could be said to have drawn a moderate audience in the States its adjusted world wide gross was around $110 million and its reported budget in today’s dollars was approx $43 million so that it is doubtful if it would have brought in enough rentals to make a profit. However regardless the box office performance of any star one always learns something new away from the grosses in Cogerson pages and it surprised me how prolific Dennis’ output was with 63 movies being listed in the table above. Al welcome page and update
Hey Bob
1. Thanks for checking out my Dennis Quaid page.
2. If you look at adjusted grosses….it gets a little better for him as a leading star…with 4 of the 7 being Quaid movies…with The Rookie being my favorite. Though I guess one could argue that Bruce the Shark was the lead of Jaws 3-D.
3. That affair of Ryan and Crowe has headline news back then…I imagine it would be even bigger today….seems none of that trio has ever recovered from that. Ryan’s career fell off a cliff, Crowe’s awesome run came to an end. I guess Quaid did alright….but that might be because it did not have far to fall as the other two.
4. I have seen all of the movies you mentioned…and I enjoyed all of them…..though I must admit…did not like the ending of Switchback….as it pretty much followed every cliche ending ever made.
5. The man has been busy indeed. Seems he is gearing up again…after taking a few years off. Good feedback as always.
HI BRUCE
1. Thanks for the deeper analysis of the stats for Quaid’s leading role movies – very interesting. Certainly I would not argue with your comment about Bruce the Shark because anyone or anythink called Bruce will always be the lead in my book!!
2 Meg around 39 when the Crowe scandal broke so bearing in mind WoC’s fabled Curse that scandal was maybe the last thing her career needed at that point. Personally unless a star turns out to be a murderer or a terrorist I don’t let alleged private misconduct bother my enjoyment of his/her performances and movies. I would not appreciate it if I was deprived of my livelihood because I demonstrated human frailty that was not criminal and that many others among my fellow man are showing.
3 I watched a 1971 episode of Raymond Burr’s TV series Ironside yesterday and the A C Lyles wild card carriers were Ruth Roman and John Carradine. It was ironic because in the 1956 western Great Day in the Morning Ruth was a young billed above the title star and Raymond was a small billed also-ran. Now the boot was on the other foot and Raymond was the lead in a second long running hit TV series [the other being Perry Mason] and Ruth was in supporting roles on TV. It struck me that whilst film producers had cursed the arrival of TV it probably saved the bacon of many lesser stars in the long run.
4 By the time the 60s arrived women like Ruth were turning 40, their looks were no longer at their very best and the Curse of 39 was starting to play havoc with their careers. The men too were competing not just with age but with new styles of acting and different types of films from what they were used to and even great 1950s/early 60s stars like Curtis and Hudson were in serious decline by the end of the 60s. Some who had been around in the 50s like Heston. Jack Lemmon and Brando survived on the big screen deep into the modern era but even Mr Mumbles could have been another 60s casualty but for Godpop. As it was Ruth Roman who had been a Hitchcock leading lady in the 1951 classic Strangers on a Train and who had seduced her leading man the great Jimmy Stewart in the marvellous 1954 The Far Country never made another cinematic movie after 1962 but for the greater part of the next 27 years she was never off TV which must have at least put bread on the table and maybe gave her even a nice living. If so good for her.
CORRECTION TO MY LAST POST and APOLOGIES FOR ERROR
Whilst in the last 30 years of her career Ruth Roman thrived on a prolific body of TV work she did in that period sporadically get unimportant roles in about half a dozen or so largely obscure cinematic movies that few people today have probably ever heard of. One of them the 1974 Impulse starred William Shatner in the lead role of a serial killer and Wikipedia records an actual domestic gross of $4 million. Ruth was also in Lana Turner’s 1965 Love Has Many Faces but of course she was just a supporting player in that one.
Hey Bob….thanks for all the info on Ruth Roman. My knowledge of her was very limited….now I feel I know much more about here. Good point about Bruces….lol.
Hey Bob….good breakdown on Steve’s latest video and Dennis Quaid….I will have to check that out later today. Quaid has been a very busy actor for over 40 years. He has quietly put up a very solid career….a long the lines of Dana Andrews? or more like Dennis Morgan? Good feedback.
HI BRUCE
Thanks for your feedback on my posts about your 1981 Review and Dennis Quaid.
I think that as a bonus from the way the studios were very proactive in promoting individual stars back in Dana’s time, and because there was less competition about from other mediums and outlets, he would in his heyday of the 1940s and early 1950s have registered as a household name among filmgoers more than someone like Dennis Quaid has ever done in his era..
I loved Dana Andrews in the 50s and for me there was such a thing as a “Dana Andrews film” [While the City Sleeps, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Iron Curtain for example] whereas I have never been conscious of a “Dennis Quaid film” as such likeable though I found him.
To me Dennis Morgan too was in a different category from Dana as I saw Morgan as mainly a leading man in frothy musicals and comedies which didn’t interest me as a boy growing up in the 1950s and of course he was never a film noir hero. Besides his career petered out in the early fifties when he put on weight and stared to appear in B westerns like The 1955 Gun that Won the West and 1952’s Cattle Town.
However it’s nice to see you mention him as for a long while his name coupled his appearing in 1947’s My Wild Irish Rose wrongly convinced me he was Irish and came from around these parts. We didn’t have the likes of Wiki to set the record straight for us back then but I should have know that because of the brash, cocky characters that he played in some of his musicals he HAD to be a Yank [albeit of Swedish descen]]!
One of my favorites. I am hoping his new dog movie will be the start of his return to movie stardom. Love Dreamscape that is a science fiction movie that has been lost in time.
Hey Vance…glad a Dennis Quaid fan found my Quaid tribute page. I liked Dreamscape too….but boy it has been years since I have seen that one. I saw the trailer for his “dog movie”…it looks interesting…but the name escapes me…..let me check…it is called A Dog’s Purpose and will be in theaters in Jan of 2017….thanks for stopping by.
Wow. You have responded to my comments, now that is a nice surprise. A Dog’s Purpose was the movie I was talking about. Thanks for providing the name of the movie. Next year? I thought it was opening sooner than that.
Hey Vance….answering comments is one of the fun parts of this website. January 2017 will be here before you know it. Thanks for the return visit.
I really enjoyed frequency. Maybe you can do a page on Randy Quaid, who has apparently gone insane.
Hey marriedwithdebt, thanks for checking out one of neglected pages. I have always liked Dennis Quaid, he does not seem to ever get mentioned we people name movie stars. But he has been making movies for over 30 years, and many of them are pretty good. As for Randy, I agree I think he and his wife have lost it, it makes looking at some of his older movies a little harder because I keep thinking about his behavior over the last few years….thanks for the comment. –