John Wayne Movies

Jump To John Wayne Links: 1. Box Office 2. Oscar Movies 3. Reviews 4. Trailers 5. Trivia 6. UMR Table

John Wayne made 88 movies before becoming a star in 1939’s Stagecoach. From Stagecoach to 1976’s The Shootist, Wayne made another 82 movies. That is a grand total of 170 movies in his career. John Wayne was the first movie star that I became aware of as a child. I still remember the shock of watching him die in The Alamo (my older brother had told me he was going to survive…he obviously lied to me). For nearly forty years, Wayne was one of the most popular stars making movies.

John Wayne’s IMDb page shows 180 acting credits from 1926-1976.  The following table only lists about half of John Wayne’s movies.  Cameos, television appearances, and almost all of his B westerns from the 1930s were not included in the rankings.  His remaining 94 movies are ranked by 6 different columns of sortable information.

Dean Martin, Walter Brennan & John Wayne in 1959's Rio Bravo
Dean Martin, Walter Brennan & John Wayne in 1959’s Rio Bravo

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

John Wayne 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.

  • If movie title is a blue, then there is a John Wayne movie trailer attached to the page link
  • Sort John Wayne movies by co-stars or in some cases directors
  • Sort John Wayne movies by adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost
  • Sort John Wayne movies by box office rank in the year of release
  • Sort John Wayne movies by how the movie was 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 John Wayne movie received.
  • Sort John Wayne 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 buttons to make this table very interactive.

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above John Wayne Table

1.  51 John Wayne movies crossed the magical $100 million mark.  That is a percentage of 54.26% of his movies listed.  His top domestic box office hit was The Longest Day (1963).

2.  An average John Wayne movie grosses $124.30 million in adjusted box office gross.

3.  Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  55 John Wayne movies are rated as good movies…or 65.47% of his movies.  His highest rated movie is 1959’s Rio Bravo.  His lowest rated movie is The Conqueror (1956).

4.  24 John Wayne movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 28.23% of his movies.

5.  9 John Wayne movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 10.71% of his movies.

6.  A “good movie” Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 60.00 or higher.  61 John Wayne movies scored higher that average….or 71.76% of his movies.  True Grit (1969) got the highest UMR Score.  Brannigan (1975) got the lowest UMR Score.

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Jump To John Wayne Links: 1. Box Office 2. Oscar Movies 3. Reviews 4. Trailers 5. Trivia 6. UMR Table

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285 thoughts on “John Wayne Movies”

  1. 1 Everybody seems to be intent on ‘outdaddying’ the late MB. In an interview before Edward G Robinson died when asked what he thought of modern gangster movies he replied that he regarded Don Corelone as his “offspring”.

    2 Now apparently [unless Steve is writing under the pseudonym of Cogerson and is again trying to wind me up] Russell Crowe is saying that HE is the definitive Jor El. However to my best knowledge Jor El did not throw telephones at domestic staff, use foul language in front of female colleagues during public appearances, or engage in fantasies.

    3 Sadly Russell whom I like did all those things. Regarding the last mentioned flaw when he was an unknown Crowe released a very unmusical pop song call “I want to be like Marlon Brando.” Later when Russell himself became a superstar it clearly embarrassed him to have been so sycophantic about a fellow performer so he sheepishly told an interviewer that when he recorded that song he didn’t even know who MB was and it was simply a name that his subconscious had picked up somewhere !

    4 However in an episode of Frasier the British actor Derek Jacobi sent up the concept of dramatic actors playing established sci-fi icons for the money [Jacobi called his character Tobor].
    Therefore it doesn’t bother me if Crowe’s Jor El was the better performance provided Steve doesn’t (a) place Russell in the same bracket as Olivier and Welles and/or (b) try to say that Crowe is the better mumbler.

    Reply

    1. Hey Bob.
      1. I can see how EGR could relate his career…and how it lead to The Godfather.
      2. Just pulling your like about Crowe and Brando.
      3. Luckily for Crowe he had only that one horrible event…seems he learned his lesson to a certain degree.
      4. Very cool about Crowe and the Brando song…I did not know that.
      5. More good trivia from Frasier…I used to watch that show all the time…and I even have a few of the first seasons on DVD.
      6. You never know what Steve will say….lol.
      I will have to answer your other comments…as well as finish my Norma Shearer update when I get back from work…..things are heating up again as school is about to open….and I have to go to a yearly training meeting this morning.

      Reply

      1. 1 Not knowing what Steve will say next makes it all the more interesting !!!

        2 For once I’ve got the drop on you. 4 Christmases ago W o Robert bought me a box set of every episode in the entire 11 Frasier seasons and as Christmas comes around each year I re-watch them all during the Nov/Dec period

        3 Throughout Frasier you will find references to stars like Bud, Olivier and even Danny Kaye. In one episode Niles reminds Frasier about the times he (Niles) acted in school plays and he says “I had the acting skills of Laurence Olivier and the charm of Danny Kaye.”

        4 Another episode called A Word to the Wise Guy is all about a gangster who talks and behaves like Don Corelone and he has a girlfriend called “Brandy” He explains to Niles and Frasier that the latter is the “traditional spelling of that name”!

        5 Kelsey Grammer had a supporting role in a police drama called 15 Minutes starring DeNiro and Edward Burns and Kelsey said that he was in such awe of DeNiro that it reduced
        him to a state where he could hardly speak his lines.

        6 Hope school went well. How do you fit it all in!?

        BOB

        * * On your DeNiro page 45th out of 90 with an adjusted gross of 36.40 mil. I can’t think of anyone in your pages who has more films listed than DeNiro

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob.
          6. There is always time for BBP…Blood Born Pathogens and Triple A training…Awareness, Attitude and Action….lol.
          6B. Mr. DeNiro and Mr. Caine are tied for 2nd…behind Samuel L. Jackson and his 92….which is actually up to 93 now…I just have not added in his new Tarzan movie.
          1. I agree.
          2. You have me there for sure….we only have the 1st and 2nd seasons….but we do have all the Seinfeld, Moonlight (Bruce Willis series) and News Radio seasons.
          3. & 4. I liked the references they used in that show.
          5. Cool trivia behind the scenes information on 15 Minutes….which is in our DVD collection….but has gathering dust for years….seems there was a commentary I wanted to check out.
          Thanks for the comment. 🙂

          Reply

  2. BRUCE:

    1 Prominent among the stars in whom I’m interested and who seem to have generated a lot of publicity over the years are Liz Taylor/Richard Burton because of sex, MB and Tracy because of their antics of and on screen, and Duke because he was a larger than life character who was regarded as epitomising THE ideal American hero.

    2 Your recent presentations to us readers have given me the opportunity to use quite a few stories about the Burtons/Tracy/Brando but haven’ fitted the bill for fresh references to the Duke though I have a few Wayne anecdotes waiting in the wings for your posting of certain new updates.

    3 In the meantime there is a question that I’ve kept meaning to ask you regarding Big John and How the West Was Won. The Duke apart you appear to have given almost every other major star in the ensemble cast credit for that film’s grosses. Yet the Duke too would seem to satisfy your general criteria for including in a star’s grosses any movie in which his/her name helps publicise a film; and the posters for the film give the Duke equal alphabetical billing to ever other STAR in the film and Wayne’s face appears on those posters – see Wikipedia for example

    4 So can you remember your reasons for not allowing JW to use How the West was Won’s grosses. In a way it’s academic because it doesn’t affect his No 2 position in you 00 greatest stars chart.

    BOB

    Reply

    1. 1. Wow the theory of repetition is working well here. With Faye Dunaway getting a new page…..it got me thinking about which movie had the most UMR actors in it. I thought the answer was A Bridge Too Far…but after thinking harder…How The West Was Won…popped into my head. And I was thinking about Wayne’s role in the movie and the fact that I did not give him credit…and then I see your comment….and it is asking about Wayne and How The West Was Won. A quick theory of repetition.
      2. Look forward to your future Wayne stories.
      3. Yep you have caught me in a contradiction of my rules. Yes Wayne was featured in the ads…..and the poster for HTWWW….and yes I did not include the movie in his page…..but why you ask? Well let me tell you….and just like an old serial….stay tuned….the answer is coming…but I am taking WoC to lunch and should have left 5 minutes ago….so stay tuned.

      Reply

      1. BRUCE

        1 Look forward to your Duke explanation.

        2 As I was thinking of just actors I overlooked John Ford for HTWWW. However have you not forgotten sexy Thelma? which would bring the total to 8 if Duke and Old Cantank were excluded and 10 if you allowed them in.

        3 Anyway it’s all great fun and hope lunch was good.

        BOB

        Reply

        1. Hey Bob.
          Ok…..John Wayne and How The West Was Won.. Originally….back in 2011 on HubPages I created this Wayne page. HTWWW not only made the page….but was ranked in the Top Three. I did not really like that my movie score (the name of it on Hub Pages) ranked it so high….but it got good reviews….got some Oscar love….won some Oscars….and made a boatload of money….all things my score formula loves….it just and still doesn’t have a way to separate lead roles from supporting roles and cameos…..it is in for a penny in for a pound.

          As the page picked up some traction….I started getting e-mails and comments telling me that HTWWW was ranked too high mainly because he only has a couple of lines and his part is a cameo. And that having HTWWW ranked so high made the rest of the rankings look bad. So since I agree with that logic….I deleted the movie from the table. This of course got people sending me e-mails (on our 2nd website I got more e-mails than I did comments) saying where is HTWWW? So I went back and added it back in….but did not give it a Cogerson Movie Score (that is what it was called back then)….but it was listed as a cameo role. On those pages I had to type the text 1st. 2nd, 3rd….etc….when I got to HTWWW I just typed in “cameo role”. This was a nice solution for awhile.

          So then we moved again. On UMR.com….I do not have to type in the number ranking…as it does it automatically….another reason why I like this site more. That however would not allow me to skip HTWWW and it was ranked as his 3rd best movie. So of course…somebody from a John Wayne forum destroyed the page because HTWWW was ranked higher than so many more Wayne classics. Actually it was one of the more profanity filled comments ever…and is one of the few comments that got deleted forever. That being said I agreed with their point just not the way they articulated it….so I deleted the movie AGAIN.

          That gets us to the most recent updates. When we decided to change our UMR Score formula…as we reduced the importance of box office and increased the importance of reviews…and change the way to re-calculate box office grosses…we revisited the Wayne site again. When I ran the program to get all the Wayne numbers we decided to leave the default settings as Critic/Audience Rating versus UMR Score. When doing it this way…HTWWW moved all the way down to 19th place. Which turns out to be a perfect place….it is in the table….but it is ranked behind his many many classics.

          So with all the additions and deletions of HTWWW I forget it’s current status….but it has been listed with his movies for the last 3 months….and everybody seems happy. So there you go…a lengthy reason…but you asked….lol.

          So that makes 10 UMR stars of HTWWW…which is probably the most of any movie in our database.

          Reply

          1. BRUCE:

            1 Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Sorry I put you through that. Definitely you could not have kept W o C waiting for lunch while you went through all those explanations. I’ll give you a breather of about a month then I’ll try to get you to credit Bud’s grosses with his posthumous cameo for Superman Returns to se if we can get another 250 mil added to his figures – the Numbers give him credit for it !!!

            2 Thanks also for your Travolta reply and your comments on Faye’s page. A good day on Cogerson for me!

          2. Hey Bob…..it would have been very hard to get that entire story done in a minute or two. But it is currently on the John Wayne page….and hopefully it will remain there from now on.

            If Larry Oliver did not get credit for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow…or whatever that Angelina Jolie movie was called…..then I am not thinking Brando is going to credit here for Superman Returns…..plus I thought Russell Crowe was Superman’s real dad…..lol.

  3. I have never seen a John Wayne movie before. If I were to watch any of his movies first, which should it be?

    Reply

    2. 1 Personally I would start with those films that he made in the years when he was in his physical prime and you would have the added advantage of seeing unfold one of the greatest careers in screen history. Stagecoach in 1939 (I think) was one of his earliest classics though Red River (1948) is also a relatively early must as in it he transcended mere stardom and started to become the legend that was JOHN WAYNE.

      2. Besides probably because of his battles with cancer he did not age too well and by the late 60s/early 70s he had I thought become almost a send-up of himself. Because he was still enormously popular. he got away with it. However he was too astute not to realise it all and I love the report of a conversation that he had with Henry Fonda.

      3 Hank the Duke and Jimmy Stewart were good friends and when they were all were well past their sell-by date a producer, hoping to get all three legends to appear in the one film sent each of them a script about a trio of ageing cowboys similar to the Scott/McCrea duo in Guns in the Afternoon [I refuse to call it Ride the High Country].

      4. Hank apparently phoned the Duke and said that he had misgivings about the project because “it appears to want the three of us to behave like old coots.” The Duke reportedly responded “Hank, did it ever occur to you that we ARE old coots.”

      Best wishes BOB

      Reply

      1. Hey Bob….in my response to Scott….I mentioned 5 movies….yet Red River and Stagecoach did not make that 5…just goes to show what an awesome career the man had. Stagecoach is his earliest classic….though The Big Trail (1930) is a very good big budget movie that flopped so bad it sent him to B movie purgatory for almost 10 years….yet today without the bad press of it’s horrible flop…it is a very entertaining movie…that is actually well done. That would have been a good movie with all three legends…too bad it did not get done…..as it seemed at least 2 of them were appearing in movies throughout the 1960s. Then again…all three were in How The West Was Won….but never together. Funny story about the Old Coots….lol. Thanks for sharing some suggestions for Mr. Scott.

        Reply

        1. 1 Jet Pilot with Janet Leigh is often cited by many as Duke’s WORST movie. Apparently it was considered so politically embarrassing by Ike during the Presidential election at the time that the Republicans applied pressure for it to be kept out of cinemas until the campaign was over.

          2 Others regard the winning contender for worst Duke movie as The Conqueror. I read that Howard Hughes loved it though and is credited with watching it every night after he went seriously eccentric. There were even reports that as the owner of the film he became so possessive about it that he locked up in a vault during his lifetime every copy
          that he could get his hands on.

          3 Thanks for all of the additional info that you have given me in some of your other replies particularly why the Gable/Bogart movie never proceeded. Until you explained the facts I always thought that billing problems may have capsized the project – or that Wallace Ford had been offered a role in it and demanded the top spot !!

          Best wishes BOB

          Reply

          1. Hey Bob.
            1. When Howard Hughes sold RKO studios….he bought back only two movies from that massive amount of movies….Jet Pilot and The Conqueror.
            2. He loved those movies…and thought they are considered the worst of Wayne’s career….and like you wrote Hughes watched both movies over and over and over in his personal theater in his hotel in Las Vegas.
            3. Maybe watching these two horrible movies so many times is what made him finally snap….lol.
            4. Not thinking Wallace Ford….was the reason Bogie and Gable never made the movie…..but maybe the scenes that is what really happened….lol.

    3. Hey Scott…..Wow….great question. Personally my favorite Wayne movie is The Quiet Man…..but it is not a typical Wayne movie at all. He was one of the most productive actors of all-time so he has lots of great movies to choose from. Looking at the above table…..the Top 3 Critic movies would be The Searchers, Rio Bravo and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Either would be a good place to start. Another might be El Dorado….another of my personal favorites….as you not only get Wayne….but Robert Mitchum and a very young James Caan. Hope that helps…..maybe you can use this page to figure out the ones to avoid…lol. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

      Reply

    4. My favorites Red River, The Shootist (these two best acting ) Stagecoach, Sands of Iwo Jima, Island in the Sky,
      Fun ‘North to Alaska’& HAtari’&Donovan’s Reef, True Grit, Blood Alley, The Quiet Man,
      Legends of the Lost, The Alamo,
      Hell Fighters, The High & the Mighty
      In Harms Way, The Longest Day

      Reply

      1. Hey Rick Camp…..first of all….very cool IMDb page. I am impressed. I have seen and enjoyed all of your fighters except for Blood Alley (I did not like that one) and Legends of the Lost (I have not seen that one). Thanks for stopping by and sharing your favorite John Wayne movies.

        Reply

  4. I have just checked this page to update my John Wayne total. I have now seen 46 John Wayne films. Most of them within the last two years as far as seeing them for the first time.

    The one I saw the most recently for the first time was The Flying Lethernecks which, as you know, aired as part of the Robert Ryan star of the month – my requested page and I came in first place for Robert Ryan seen films.

    Reply

    1. You are starting to catch up to me….my tally is now 61…..one of my best totals for any actor or actress. The Flying Leathnecks is a good one…Ryan and Wayne made for good opponents in that one.

      Reply

  5. I’ve enjoyed reading your page and I have 35 of the Dukes films on BluRay and 110 on DVD, but 2 of the films listed DARK COMMAND and THE SPOILERS did receive Oscar Nominations for Best Art Direction (Both films) and Best Score (Dark Command) but what an excellent page. And John Wayne’s so called worse films is better that most films I try to stomach nowadays. Thank You so much for your page.

    Reply

    1. Hey Roy….thanks for the catch on those two movies…I have included the corrections…as well as adding in a 85th Wayne movie to the page…as New Frontier is now in the table. Now I need to fix my Randolph Scott and Marlene Dietrich pages. Thanks for the nice words about my page….pretty cool that you commented on his 109th birthday. Happy birthday Mr. John Wayne.

      Reply

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