Want to know the best Ma and Pa Kettle movies? How about the worst Ma and Pa Kettle movies? Curious about Ma and Pa Kettle box office grosses or which Ma and Pa Kettle movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Ma and Pa Kettle 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.
This Ma and Pa Kettle page comes from Dan. Dan suggested this page on our Request Hotline many moons ago….so going with the approach better late than never…here you go….a Ma and Pa Kettle movie page. Originally based on real-life farming neighbors in Washington state, United States,[1] Ma and Pa Kettle were created by Betty MacDonald in whose 1945 best-selling novel, The Egg and I, they appeared. The success of the novel spawned the 1947 film The Egg and I starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray, also co-starring Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle.
After the audiences’ positive reaction to the Kettles in The Egg and I, Universal Studios produced nine more films, with Marjorie Main reprising her role in all and Percy Kilbride reprising his in seven. The films grossed over $1.1 BILLION in adjusted domestic box office grosses. Ma and Pa Kettle saved Universal from bankruptcy.
Ma and Pa Kettle Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Ma and Pa Kettle Movies Can Be Sorted 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 Ma and Pa Kettle movies by who played Ma and Pa
- Sort Ma and Pa Kettle movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Ma and Pa Kettle movies by domestic box office rank by year
- Sort Ma and Pa Kettle movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort Ma and Pa Kettle 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.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Ma and Pa Kettle Table
- Six Ma and Pa Kettle movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 60.00% of their movies listed. The Egg and I (1947) was their biggest box office ht when looking at adjusted domestic box office gross.
- An average Ma and Pa Kettle movie grosses $123.20 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 10 Ma and Pa Kettle movies are rated as good movies…or 100.00% of their movies. The Egg and I (1947) is their highest-rated movie while Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955) was their lowest-rated movie.
- Only one Ma and Pa Kettle movie earned an Oscar® nomination…..and that was for Marjorie Main as Best Supporting Actress in 1947’s The Egg and I.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 60.00. 10 Ma and Pa Kettle movies scored higher than that average….or 100.00% of their movies. The Egg and I (1947) got the the highest UMR Score while Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955) got the lowest UMR Score.
Check out Ma and Pa Kettle movies career compared to other performers/groups. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
GOOD MORNING BRUCE
1 The adjusted grosses that you have provided are mostly quite impressive for what were small-scale movies apart from The Egg and I. Figures on Wikipedia suggest that a typical budget for a Kettle movie was about one tenth of its actual domestic rental so that even the lowest grosser on your table must have been profitable for Universal. As you say the series kept Universal financially afloat, and Kilbride and Main got into Quigley on five consecutive years from 1951-1955 in positions ranging from 13th to 25th.
2 In the fifties I liked the popular comedy stars of the time such as Martin & Lewis Abbott & Costello, The Bowery Boys, Ma Pa Kettle and Francis the talking mule. You have covered all of those with the exception of The Bowery Boys and Francis. I am not sure what success you would have in chasing down stats for The Bowery Boys but Wikipedia is one source that gives rentals for 5 of the Francis films.
3 There were 7 of the latter, 6 starring Donald O’Connor and 1 starring Joe Yule Jr. Chill Wills the Duke’s old mate from The Alamo (1960) was the voice of Francis in the 6 O’Connor ones. You might want to consider at some stage a Francis page. The first Francis movie in 1950 was the 11th highest grossing film in the US that year.
Hey Bob
1. Thanks for checking out our updated Ma and Pa page.
2. The updated numbers show a better picture of just how popular they were.
3. Cool stats about Quigley….I was not aware they did so well in those polls.
4. You are right The Bowery Boys might be difficult to do… but it sounds like Francis will be much easier.
5. I have been wanting to do a Thin Man page….so maybe I will do both at the same time.
Thanks for sharing your movie thoughts. ?
Good double bill. Don’t forget to bill Francis above Myrna !
Hey Bob. I will make sure I do that…..lol
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Hello Bruce,
I had to smile when I saw your giving Miss Main and Mr. Kilbride Top starring status on The Egg and I. While their supporting parts in this movie were prominent, of course, I do believe the main attraction apart from the popularity of the book were Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray 🙂
Anyway, the “spinoff” series featuring Ma and Pa Kattle certainly belonged to them. Just for the record- of the above listed films I have only seen one…have a guess 🙂
Without a doubt the success of The Egg and I was largely due to the Colbert/MacMurray pairing….but Ma and Pa helped it some…lol.
I’m assuming that the Ma and Pa Kettles series was posted before the SORRY I WAS WRONG post. Should this be corrected?
Hey Kevin…yep…when you looked at the page…it had not been updated….but now…the update has occurred.
Great job. Actually the Ma and Pa Kettle movies are pretty accessible. You can get all 10 films, the Ma and Pa Kettle collection on Amazon for $14.99 or $9.19 if you have Amazon Prime which I don’t. I bought them for about $9.99 a year ago or so from them.
Hey Dan….thanks for the info on the Ma and Pa Kettle collection. Hope you enjoyed your requested page.
Have to confess Bruce I haven’t seen any of the Ma and Pa Kettle movies. I’ve heard of them though. Not sure if they even turned up on British TV. An interesting page on a subject I know next to nothing about. I’ve heard of The Egg and I, didn’t know it was a Pa and Ma Kettle movie.
I am right there with you….as I have seen one of their 10 movies…their first one….The Egg And I, which was a huge hit. Ma and Pa saved the studio with the next 9 movies. With Hollywood remaking everything these days…I wonder if Ma and Pa will get a reboot too. As always thanks for stopping by. By the tally count was Flora 2, me 1 and you 0. Not a good showing for either of us.
I’ve wondered that also
Loved that show
Hey Anonymous….thanks for the comment and the visit.