Want to know the best Ron Howard movies? How about the worst Ron Howard movies? Curious about Ron Howard’s box office grosses or which Ron Howard movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Ron Howard 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.
For over 60 years Ron Howard has had one of the greatest entertainment careers ever. He has had great success on television and in movies as both an actor and as a director. I have been fascinated by his career since the mid 1970s. I remember coming home from school everyday and watching a re-run of The Andy Griffith Show and on Tuesday nights at 8 o’clock I would watch a new episode of Happy Days. Of course both shows starred Ron Howard. Howard played Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith show from 1960-1968 and he played Richie Cunningham on Happy Days from 1974-1984.
As a movie actor, Ron Howard appeared in 11 motion pictures from 1959 -1979. In 1976 he starred in Roger Corman’s Eat My Dust. Eat My Dust had a budget of $300,000 and returned a profit of over 5.2 million dollars. After that success, Corman wanted to make another movie with Howard. Howard only agreed to make 1977’s Grand Theft Auto if he was allowed to direct the film. So at the age of 23 Ron Howard started his directing career. Once he caught the directing bug, Howard decided he wanted to spend the rest of his career behind the camera rather than in front of the camera.
Over the next five years he finished his role on the Happy Days series and directed numerous tv movies. His most notable tv movie that he directed was 1980’s Skyward starring the legendary Bette Davis. In 1982 he got his second chance to direct a movie for the big screen. Night Shift became a hit and Howard’s directing career never looked back.
His IMDb page shows over 134 acting and directing credits since 1956. This page will rank Ron Howard movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances and video shorts were not included in the rankings.
Ron Howard Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Ron Howard 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 Ron Howard movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort Ron Howard movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Ron Howard movies by yearly domestic box office rank
- Sort Ron Howard 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 Ron Howard movie received.
- Sort Ron Howard 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.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Ron Howard
1. Let’s say you decide to watch all of Ron Howard’s Happy Days and The Andy Griffith Show episodes in one sitting…..it will only take you a 192 hours or 8 days non-stop to watch all 380 episodes.
2. Ron Howard uses his family members in all most of his movies. You can usually spot his father Rance Howard and brother Clint very easily. Spotting his wife, Cheryl, is a little harder but she is there too.
3. Talk about bad timing…..on the morning the Oscar® nominations came out for the 1995 movies….Apollo 13 received 9 nominations but no nomination for Howard as Best Director. Within hours of the announcements he was back on the set of his current movie, Ransom starring Mel Gibson…..Meanwhile Gibson arrived on set having just receiving the news that he got numerous Oscar® nominations for Braveheart…including his surprise nomination for Best Director.
4. Ron Howard has received two acting Golden Globe® nominations.…he won Best Actor in a comedy series for the 1978 season of Happy Days… he was also nominated as Best Supporting Actor in 1976 for The Shootist.
5. Ron Howard and business partner Brian Glazer formed Imagine Entertainment. Imagine Entertainment has produced such movies as Friday Night Lights and 8 Mile. Imagine also produced the television shows…..24, Felicity, Arrested Development and my daughter’s favorite show…Curious George.
6. Ron Howard has been married one time in his life. In 1975 he wed his high-school sweetheart, Cheryl Alley. They have four children, oldest daughter Bryce, twin daughters Jocelyn and Paige and son Reed. His daughter’s middle names indicate where they were conceived. Bryce was conceived in Dallas, Texas so her full name is Bryce Dallas Howard. While the twins were conceived at the Carlyle Hotel…so they are Jocelyn Carlyle Howard and Paige Carlyle Howard.
7. Ron Howard attended high school with actress Rene Russo. They later would make the movie Ransom together.
8. Ron Howard and Tom Hanks have been working together for almost 30 years. The first time they worked together was when Hanks appeared on Happy Days in 1982. They have made 4 movies together. Those 4 movies are Splash, Apollo 13, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons.
9. When casting Willow, Ron Howard gave Gavan O’Herlihy the part of Airk Thaughbaer. Gavan played Ron Howard’s older brother Chuck on the first season of Happy Days. Chuck Cunningham(or the missing Cunningham) was never mentioned again after season one…….but at least Ron did not forgot his older brother.
10. Check out Ron Howard‘ career compared to current and classic actors. 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.
Just wanted to take a minute and list some of the television shows that Ron Howard has appeared on during his career. Checking out the names of the shows he appeared on, is like reading an encyclopedia of television history. Twilight Zone (1959), Dennis the Menace (1959-1960), The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968), The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1961), Dr. Kildare (1964), The Fugitive (1964), The Big Valley (1965), Gomer Pyle (1966), I, Spy (1966), Mayberry, R.F.D. (1968), Gunsmoke (1969), Lassie (1970), M.A.S.H. (1973), Happy Days (1974-1984), The Waltons (1974), Laverne and Shirley (1976-1979) and Arrested Development (2003-2006, 2013).
Ron Howard is a good director. I enjoyed Splash, Cocoon, Willow, Backdraft, Apollo 13 and a couple of others.
And it’s fun trying to spot his brother Clint in each film, which isn’t hard with a face like his (ooh!). That photo of Clint from Star Trek is a classic, the amazing thing is he still looks like that. 🙂
If I had to pick a favourite I’ll probably go with Cocoon, because it’s sci-fi and it doesn’t star Tom Hanks (ooh again).
Of his recent films I did enjoy Frost/Nixon.
Hey Steve….yep spotting Clint is fun….but way too easy…..spotting Rance is a little harder but still easy…spotting the wife Cheryl or the kids….not that is the challenge…as they usually do not have many if any lines.
I remember when a Ron Howard directed movie was a big deal….it seems after the Oscar win….his movies have become just another movie…..it started with The Missing…..and even Robert Langdon movies have been disappointing as well….oh wait they starred Tom Hanks so you might not be familiar with those movies….as always ..your comments are greatly appreciated.
Very impressive Cogerson. Oh, and Ron Howard is pretty good also. His resume is outstanding and I could name famous Hollywood people all day and not get to his name. hmmm
Hey mckbirdbks….I would say Ron Howard and Kurt Russell are two Hollywood stars that have been around for a combined 100 years that many people forget just how long their careers have been….I liked when the two of these guys worked together on Backdraft which was over 100 years ago. I can tell you that three classic actors are lined up for Cogerson hubs very soon. Thanks as always for stopping by.
mckbirdbks-I was surprised that he vaulted past Sidney in the pulse / no pulse combination, but on the other hand it has been a long time since he posted a page on a director, living or dead…
Hey Flora….true Ron Howard passed Sidney for the 99th hub….I have been gathering information for my 100th hub….when I realized I did not really have anything for the 99th hub….so I picked Howard over Sidney because Howard’s information is readily available…while Sidney is going to require lots of research. I think if I would have started doing hub pages in 2004…Howard would have been done much earlier….but I would say his last ten years of work have been somewhat disappointing since he won his Oscar….and looking at his future projects…they did not look promising either….but he has time to bounce back.
Cogerson; Great Piece, nice coverage on Ronny!
Yo, You didn’t mention his greatest production Bryce Dallas Howard, his hot daughter. She played the blonde cutey in the last Spiderman, and she was just in “The Help” Cogerson; Great Piece!
Hey Daniel….thanks for reading my latest hub….I briefly mention Bryce Dallas Howard in Possibly Interesting Fact #6….but I did not mention her career as an actress….if continues appearing in movies…she will get her own hub…..thanks for the comments.
I’m quite familiar with Clint Howard’s role Balik on Star Trek. 🙂 A good addition to the hub as he appears in all of his brother’s directed films.
As you probably expect coming from me, I am very familiar with his early acting career. I love The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days. Although there are some TV guest spots I haven’t seen with Ronny/Ron Howard, Ronny Howard the big screen actor I’ve seen most of his career-at least in terms of must-see films.
Just this weekend I saw him on The Twilight Zone.
As a movie actor, Howard movies I’ve seen are, in alphabetical order:
American Grafitti-love the music and early roles by later stars
The Courtship of Eddie’s Father-sweet
Eat My Dust
Grand Theft auto-I just don’t have the same interest in cars that he has. But fun.
The Music Man-my favourite Howard film of all time that I watch at least once a year
The Shootist-full of movie legends
That’s 55 % of his career.
The Journey is high on my to see list. I don’t think I want to see Village of the Giants.
As a Director, my percentage of his films seen is less than as an actor. I have seen 6 of them at only 29%.
The films I’ve seen in Movie Score order are:
A Beautiful Mind-great thriller
Apollo 13
Cocoon – Don Ameche and other greats late in their careers-this is my favourite of his directing career
Splash-this was the first Howard-directed film I saw
Far and Away-I will never get back the time I spent watching this movie
Grand Theft auto-already mentioned.
Hey Flora….are you as amazed as I am about the shows he appeared on in the 1960s and 1970s….it is almost like his agent or his father tried to only get him on the best of the best…I wonder how much he even remembers about being on some of them….and I did not even include The Danny Thomas Show….or The Red Buttons Show.
As for Ron Howard the movie star….you have me beat there…as I have only seen 3 of the 11….although I have seen many parts of the Music Man….but not enough to consider it a watched movie on my list…Music Man was one of my grandmother’s favorite movies.
As for Ron Howard the director….I am 21 for 21…having just gotten through the dreadful The Dilemma last week…very disappointing. As for ones you have not seen I would highly recommend Parenthood and Backdraft…both excellent movies with huge casts. Thanks for checking out my page #99…it as always is greatly appreciated.
What an impressive multi-talented guy! From Opie to Richie I was a fan! Come on he was Fonzie’s BFF, now that’s cool!I didn’t know he used his family members in his movies. I guess now would be a good time for me to tell him I’m his long lost sister! Still married to his high-school sweetheart, I didn’t know that either! Fantastic hub! I bet Ron would appreciate reading this if he could find time in between ALL his jobs! I really enjoyed page #99 cogerson! Voted UP and sharing!
Hey Sunshine625….wow that was quick….I have a bad habit of trying to find my mistakes after publishing…usually I can fix most of the mistakes before the first comment….but you beat me to the punch…congrats on that.
And now about your comment….Ron Howard is indeed a multi-talented guy…..I have admired his career for as long as I can remember….I think it is fascinating to see all the tv shows he appeared on…lots of history….then he got to act with some screen legends….and now he is becoming a legendary director…I do not think you could write a better script….and it is all true…I appreciate the comments and the compliments.
Hey Sunshine625….having just gone through all my movie pages…counting comments….I can tell you that this was indeed the first time you got the lead spot…congrats…your gift will be sent out tomorrow.
I received my gift!!! Thank you for the newsletter interview cogerson :)) That was my gift, right?! If not I’ll gladly accept another!!