William Goldman Movies

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

When I think about my favorite movies of all time, I find it amazing that William Goldman was involved in many of those movies.  William Goldman (1931-2018) has been described as one of the late twentieth century’s most popular storytellers.   Not familiar with the name William Goldman?  Well let me list some of my favorite movies:  1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1976’s  All The President’s Men, 1977’s A Bridge Too Far, 1987’s The Princess Bride and 1990’s Misery.  William Goldman wrote the screenplay for all of these movies.  Over the last eight years I have written about actors, actresses, directors and different genres of movies.   This is my first movie page to look at the career of a writer…..so starting with one of the best…..here is my William Goldman movie page.

William Goldman’s IMDb page shows 31 writing credits from 1963-2015. This page will rank 25 William Goldman movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.  His television roles, cameos, shorts, and straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings.

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in 1976’s All The President’s Men

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

William Goldman 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 William Goldman movies by the stars of his movies.
  • Sort William Goldman movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort William Goldman movies by yearly domestic box office rank
  • Sort William Goldman 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 William Goldman movie received.
  • Sort William Goldman 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 William Goldman Table

  1. Ten William Goldman movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 40.00% of his movies listed.  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) is his biggest hit.
  2. An average William Goldman movie earned $119.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  15 of William Goldman movies are rated as good movies…or 60.00 % of his movies.  The Princess Bride (1987) is his highest rated movie while The Chamber (1996) is his lowest rated movie.
  4. Eight William Goldman movies have been nominated for at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…or 32.00 of his movies
  5. Four William Goldman movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 16.00% of his movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00.  13 William Goldman movies scored higher that average….or 52.00% of his movies. All the President’s Men (1976) got the the highest UMR Score while Heat (1986) got the lowest UMR Score.

1977’s A Bridge Too Far had an all-star cast.

Possibly Interesting Facts About William Goldman

1. William Goldman was born in Chicago, Illinois.

2. William Goldman is the younger brother of James Goldman.  James Goldman won an Oscar® for his screenplay for 1968’s The Lion in Winter.

3. William Goldman was nominated and won two Oscars®.  He won Best Screenplay Oscars® for 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and 1976’s All The President’s Men.

4. William Goldman and James Goldman used to share an apartment in New York with a third person.  The third person was composer John Kander.  John Kander has 251 IMDb credits and has two Oscar® nominations.

5. William Goldman was married to Ilene Jones from 1961 until their divorce in 1991.  They have two daughters.

6. William Goldman has written many non-fiction books.  The three books I seem to re-read on a regular basis are:  1983’s Adventures in the Screen Trade  2000’s Which Lie Did I Tell?  and 2001’s The Big Picture: Who Killed Hollywood?.  All of these books are very informative and very interesting.

7. William Goldman has many famous quotes about Hollywood.  My favorite two:  “Nobody knows anything” and “Understand this: all the sleaze you’ve heard about Hollywood? All the illiterate scumbags who scuttle down the corridors of power? They are there, all right, and worse than you can imagine”.

8.  William Goldman turned down the opportunity to write the screenplays for 1972’s The Godfather and 1978’s Superman.

9.  Robert Redford starred in 20% of William Goldman’s movies.  Redford starred in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Hot Rock, The Great Waldo Pepper, All The President’s Men and A Bridge Too Far.

10. Check out William Goldman‘s career compared to current and classic movie personnel.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.  Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press. 

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51 thoughts on “William Goldman Movies

  1. I was thinking about William Goldman last night….this morning I looked up the date of his passing…and realized we are already closing on a year (November 16th) since he died. Now I am missing him and his clever thoughts on Hollywood. He used to publish a article about the politics behind the Oscar nominations. November is when the “official” award season starts. Sad that he is not here to see 2019’s fireworks. Rest in Peace Mr. William Goldman.

  2. I saw 13, including 10 of top 15. ten and favorites: butch Cassidy and the sundance kid, all the presidents men. 10 not a favourite marathon man. nines: princess bride( a favourite), harper, a bridge too far, absolute power. hidden gems: hearts in atlantis(an 8), chaplin(an 8). hope to follow Peterson#41 and see misery and magic. the Goldman brothers were incredible screenplay writers. princess bride is a ten except for billy crystals over the top shtick (and I love billy crystal).

    1. Hey bob cox…..thanks for sharing thoughts on Mr. Goldman…sorry it took so long to respond. Butch and All The President’s Men are two of my Top 100 movies of all time. A Bridge Too Far is also on that list …so I am glad to see you give them 10s. I agree with you about Billy Crystal in The Princess Bride. I saw that one in theaters a couple of times….and his “hilarious” role did not get many laughs from the audiences I watched the movie with. Good feedback.

  3. After Stan Lee’s death more sad news…. RIP William Goldman. I read his book ‘Adventures in the Screen Trade’ decades ago, it featured his famous quote – “Nobody Knows Anything.”

    A Bridge Too Far is my favorite of the films on the chart with Marathon Man in 2nd place but I also enjoyed Butch Cassidy and Maverick.

    1. Hey Steve. Glad to see A Bridge Too Far and Butch and Sundance so highly rated in the Lensman world. I think I have most of his behind the movie making world books that he wrote. He used to do an Oscar prediction article that was similar to the Brutally Honest pages you have shared at Oscar time. He really called them like he saw them. He will be missed. Thanks for sharing your Goldman thoughts.

  4. Top 10 William Goldman Movies
    1 – Harper (1966)

    2 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

    3 – The Stepford Wives (1975)

    4 – Marathon Man (1976)

    5 – All the President’s Men (1976)

    6 – Magic (1978)

    7 – The Princess Bride (1987)

    8 – Misery (1990)

    9 – Chaplin (1992)

    10 – The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)

    1. Hey Peterson#41…..thanks for sharing this Top 10…..with the exceptions of A Bridge Too Far and Maverick most of our Top 10s are close. All lists are made to be argued with….lol.

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