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.

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.

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

If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.

(Visited 1 times)

285 thoughts on “John Wayne Movies”

  1. Very detailed page. I know you said you did not include cameos and his B westerns. So I understand why The Greatest Story Ever Told, How The West Was Won and all of his B westerns were not included. But what happened to his Circus World movie? As a kid I used to love this movie. This is indeed a fun page to read.

    Reply

    1. Thanks David G. I wrote this page in 2011…..it has had many many updates over the last 4 years….during all of those updates I never noticed Circus World was not in the rankings. I have not seen that one….but now I am very interested in checking it out. Once again thanks for pointing it out….Circus World is now in the rankings….granted it did not score very well….as it sits in 77th spot.

      Reply

  2. Hi Cogerson. I absolutely adore The Quiet Man! But of course it is a fantasy Ireland that doesn’t really exist haha. Never the less, Maureen O’Hara was always great with Wayne. He was the first movie star I really remember as a kid. Growing up in the 60s and 70s, his movies were still being shown in cinemas. I remember going to see The Undefeated 3 times in the one week. Don’t think it got great reviews but I thought it was fantastic. And of course The Alamo, with the famous death scene.
    Another favourite is Red River, he worked well with Montgomery Cliff. Glad to see you’re going to do a page on him.

    Reply

    1. Hey Chris….you mean Ireland is not like how it was in The Quiet Man?…..I guess it must be like David Lean’s Ryan’s Daughter then. I was so glad that Maureen O’Hara got an Honorary Oscar….here work with Wayne is impressive. The Undefeated is one of my mom’s favorite Wayne movies…so I watched it with her many times growing up. Yep Montgomery Clift is right after I do Bill Murray….Monty will probably be published by the end of the week. Stay tuned…lol.

      Reply

      1. Well I wouldn’t go as far as Ryan’s Daughter haha, it’s too bleak and no humour. Probably somewhere in between. I was delighted that Maureen O’Hara received an honorary Oscar. Though it seemed that the presentation was at the Governor’s Ball and not the main show. In the past, the Honorary Oscar was one of the highlights of the main show, where the recipient was given a standing ovation after clips of their films was shown. I always remember Lawrence Olivier giving a very eloquent thank you speech.
        Getting back to the Duke, I forgot to mention The Shootist, his last movie, and I thought one of his best. A fantastic swan song.

        Reply

        1. Hey Chris……I agree it is somewhat disappointing that they do not give the honorary Oscar winners a chance to shine on the big show anymore. I would rather see a legend like O’Hara get her Oscar than a 6 minute Best Song performance.
          As for the Shootist…..it was the perfect swan song for John Wayne.

          Reply

  3. I watched The Searchers this afternoon on TCM and I thought it was a fantastic movie. I’m surprised Wayne didn’t get nominated as it must have been one of his greatest performances. In fact the film should have been nominated. Growing up Ireland, when you thought of Westerns, you thought of John Wayne. Recently I watched The Three Godfathers, another fantastic show, he really was underrated as an actor.
    Ps. Will you ever do a page on director John Ford? One of the greats.

    Reply

    1. Hey Chris….The Searchers is awesome….ranked as the 3rd best Wayne movie according to critics and audiences. The Searchers did not get ANY Oscar love….what were they thinking? Hunter could have gotten a Supporting Actor nom….as well as Ford and Wayne. So you grew up in Ireland? Very cool….is The Quiet Man one of your favorites too? I am not as much of a fan of 3 Godfathers….but seeing Wayne with a baby is interesting. One day I will do a John Ford page….he will probably be the next director I do. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my Wayne page….hopefully you are using the sort and search buttons on the table…it makes that massive more fun to look at.

      Reply

  5. I grew up during the Vietnam era, was in college. Green Berets was blasted for Wayne’s political views. Also, I heard comments made that it was a Western(cowboys and indisans) disguised as a war movie.

    Reply

    1. @Walter….making a pro-Vietnam movie got many people “up in arms”….but you have to give Wayne credit…..he stuck to his beliefs and made a movie that supported American troops…..as a kid I always thought about the booby trap scenes….they scared the hell out of me.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.