Want to know the best Joel Coen movies? How about the worst Joel Coen movies? Curious about Joel Coen box office grosses or which Joel Coen movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Joel Coen movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
I have been a fan of Joel and Ethan Coen ever since I discovered Blood Simple back in the mid 1980s. At the time I worked at a video store and I would recommend Blood Simple to the customers. When they returned the movie….50% loved the movie and 50% hated the movie…there was no middle ground. Many of the ones that hated the movie, told me they would never ever watch another movie that I recommended.
Turns out….that over the years that 50/50 breakdown would be how I looked at the Coen brother’s movies. I think about half of their movies are all-time classics…while I think the other half of their movies are ones that I did not like at all. One thing that has not changed over the years…is the fact that any Coen brother’s movie is a must see movie for me. My personal favorite Coen brother movies are Miller’s Crossing, The Hudsucker Proxy and Fargo.
Ethan Coen (1957-) and his older brother Joel Coen (1954-) are American directors, writers, producers and editors. Both brothers have won 4 Oscars®. Three of their more popular movies are True Grit, No Country For Old Men and The Big Lebowski (for some reason I am one of the few that does not like this movie). So far there have been 17 Coen brothers movies. This page will rank those 17 Coen Brothers Movies movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.
Joel Coen 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 Joel Coen Movies by stars of his movies
- Sort Joel Coen Movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Joel Coen Movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Joel Coen 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 Joel Coen Movies received.
- Sort Joel Coen 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 Joel Coen Movies Table
- One Joel Coen movie (True Grit) crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 5.55% of their movies listed. True Grit (2010 is easily their biggest box office hit).
- An average Joel Coen movie grosses $43.12 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 17 Joel Coen movies are rated as good movies…or 94.44% of his movies. No Country for Old Men (2007) is their highest rated movie while Ladykillers (2004) is lowest rated movie.
- Nine Joel Coen movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 50.00% of their movies.
- Two Joel Coen movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 11.11% of their movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 13 Joel Coen movies scored higher that average….or 72.22% of his movies. True Grit (2010 got the the highest UMR Score while The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Joel and Ethan Coen
1. Joel and Ethan Coen were born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their mom was an art historian at St.Cloud University while their dad was an economist at the University of Minnesota.
2. As children Joel and Ethan Coen, remade movies they had seen on television using a Vititar Super 8 camera. Now those would be some interesting movies to watch!
3. One of Joel Coen’s big breaks was working as an assisant film editor on the classic horror movie, The Evil Dead. He became friends with the director of The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi. At one point Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Frances McDormand, Holly Hunter and Sam Raimi shared an apartment.
4. Their first movie was 1984’s Blood Simple. Blood Simple would set the precendent for future Coen brother movies….it was loved by critics and Hollywood folks yet did not generate much box office success. With the exception of True Grit almost every Coen movie has fallen into that category.
5. Blood Simple has the greatest DVD commentary ever! The commentary is provided by fictional film historian, Kenneth Loring. The commentary was scripted by the Coen brothers….I am not even sure if anything true is said in the entire commentary.
6. The Coen brothers each have 13 Oscar® nominations and 4 Oscar® wins. They won 3 Oscars® for No Country For Old Men and 1 Oscar® for Fargo. 12 of the 13 nominations were shared. Joel’s 13th nomination was for directing Fargo…while Ethan’s 13th nomination was for producing Fargo.
7. Joel Coen has been married to actress Frances McDorman since 1984. They have one son. Ethan is married to film editor Tricia Cooke…they have two children.
8. The Coen brothers edit their own films. However if you look at the credits you will see the editor listed as Roderick Jaynes….that is the pseudonym they use to hide this fact.
9. The Coen brothers like to use the same actors repeatedly in their movies. Steve Buscemi (6 movies), Frances McDormand (6 movies), Jon Polito (5 movies), John Goodman (5 movies) and George Clooney (4 movies…that includes their next movie)…seem to be their favorites.
10. Check out Joel Coen’s movie career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Great job buddy
Thank you Fargo.
Never been a fan of their movies, but I enjoyed checking this out, you are the Twitter man
Thanks Ron G. Glad you liked this page. Sorry they are not one of your favorites.
The Coens at last. Some cool facts here, their no.1 film was twice as successful as their no.2 film. Joel directed his wife in Fargo and she won an Oscar for her efforts, has that ever happened before or since? 🙂
I’ve seen 9 of the 17 films you’ve listed. 5 from the box office chart and 5 from the critics chart.
The last time I saw Blood Simple was in the 80’s, maybe it’s time for a rewatch. I saw Raising Arizona again recently and it still made me laugh.
I’ve watched The Big Lebowski and Fargo a number of times over the years. I have True Grit and No Country on DVD. I did not like The Ladykillers, the original Alec Guinness version was much better. I have not seen their recent movie. Good work as always Bruce, top marks
Hey Steve. Thanks for commenting and visiting my latest movie page. I have actually seen every single one of these movies. I am shocked you did not like the Tom Hanks Ladykillers…lol. I did not like Inside Llewyn Davis….so that must mean their next one…should be good….because I run 50/50 on their movies.
Nice job my friend.
Thanks woodchipper….that is a cool name….lol.
I love the Coen brothers too. How can you not like The Big Lebowski? The Dude, Donnie, Sobchak what more do you want? Hudsucker Proxy is horrible glad to see it at the bottome.
Hey Lee. I have watched The Big Lebowski three times now….and it is not growing on my yet. As for Hudsucker Proxy that is one that has gotten better in time….thanks for the comment and the visit.
Thanks woodchipper….that is a cool name….lol.