Want to know the best Sam Peckinpah movies? How about the worst Sam Peckinpah movies? Curious about Sam Peckinpah’s box office grosses or which Sam Peckinpah movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Sam Peckinpah 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.
Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984) was an American film director and screenwriter. Peckinpah achieved great prominence following the release of the 1969’s The Wild Bunch. He was known for the visually innovative and explicit depiction of action and violence…showcased in The Wild Bunch. Many of his films were noted for behind-the-scenes battles with producers and crew members.
His IMDb page shows 27 directing credits from 1960-1983. This page ranks 15 Sam Peckinpah movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His television show credits were not included in the table.
Sam Peckinpah 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 Sam Peckinpah movies by the stars of his movies.
- Sort Sam Peckinpah movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Sam Peckinpah movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort Sam Peckinpah movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Sam Peckinpah movie received and how many Oscar® wins each Sam Peckinpah movie won.
- Sort Sam Peckinpah 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 Sam Peckinpahl Table
- One Sam Peckinpah movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 6.66% of his movies listed. The Getaway (1972) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average Sam Peckinpah movie grossed $54.60 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 13 Sam Peckinpah movies are rated as good movies…or 86.66% of his movies. The Wild Bunch (1969) is his highest rated movie while The Osterman Weekend (1983) is his lowest rated movie.
- Two Sam Peckinpah movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 13.13% of his movies.
- Zero Sam Peckinpah movie won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 0.00% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 8 Sam Peckinpah movies scored higher that average….or 53.33 of his movies. The Wild Bunch (1969) got the the highest UMR Score while The Osterman Weekend (1983) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Sam Peckinpah
1. David Samuel “Sam” Peckinpah was born February 21, 1925, in Fresno, California
2. Sam Peckinpah’s Ride The High Country is now considered a classic. However when the movie was first screened for Joseph Vogel (then president of MGM)…Vogel fell asleep during the showing….and at the end of the movie told Peckinpah….”Kid you’ve disgraced me. This is the worst film that’s ever been perpetrated on the American public”. Thinking Vogel got that one wrong.
3. Sam Peckinpah was in constant conflict with movie studios. Peckinpah got fired, got barred from editing, got into fights over revenues, had movies canceled on him, fought with actors and had many of his movies re-edited and destroying his intended movies….pretty much the Terry Gilliam of the 1960s and 1970s.
4. Sam Peckinpah was nominated for 1 Academy Award®: He received a Best Screenplay Oscar® nomination for 1969’s The Wild Bunch.
5. Sam Peckinpah liked to work with the same actors. He worked with Warren Oates 4 times, Ben Johnson 4 times, James Coburn 3 times, Kris Kristofferson 3 times, Steve McQueen 2 times, Jason Robards 2 times and Ali MacGraw 2 times.
6. Sam Peckinpah was married 5 times. His 2nd, 3rd and 5th marriages were to Begoña Palacios. He had 5 children.
7. Sam Peckinpah most famous movie was 1969’s The Wild Bunch. Lee Marvin was originally attached to the movie to play the William Holden role. Marvin pulled out to make Paint Your Wagon. Holden was paid $250,000 for his role in the movie. Ernest Borgnine was paid $120,000. When the movie was previewed 60% of the audience strongly disliked the movie.
8. Many of Sam Peckinpah’s movies performed better international versus domestically. The best example of this is 1978’s Convoy. Convoy earned $76.00 million in North America and over $300 million in worldwide box office grosses.
9. Sam Peckinpah turned down the chance to direct King Kong and Superman. Both turned out to be box office hits…with Superman becoming one of the biggest box office hits ever.
10. While doing the research for this page….I stumbled across an excellent book….. David Weddle’s “If They Move…..Kill ‘Em! The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah”. Book Link.
Check out Sam Peckinpah‘s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
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For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
Only 15 films? That is a surprise. The Wild Bunch is considered a masterpiece, it had to be no.1 on your UMR chart, phew! 🙂
The Getaway nipping at it’s heels at no.2, hmm it’s a classic thriller but there are some who would rate Straw Dogs and Pat Garrett higher in the Peckinpah canon. I suppose they weren’t as popular as The Getaway at the box office and that makes a big difference in the UMR formula.
I’ve seen 11 of the 15 films you’ve listed here, the ones I’ve missed are – Junior Bonner, Cable Hogue, Deadly Companions and the Glory Guys.
Ride the High Country is a great western, one of my favorites. The only Peckinpah film I’ve seen at the cinema is Convoy.
Lots of Peckinpah facts here I did not know, I’m glad he didn’t direct Superman, don’t think he was the right man for the job. Richard Donner found the right tone for that one.
Peckinpah was also an actor, you can spot him in the sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).
Nice work as always Bruce. Voted Up.
Hey Steve….our tally competition is growing….but you still get the silver.. Lyle 14, you 11, me 9, Flora 8 and Laurent 7. Actually…Peckinpah’s Oscar nomination gave The Wild Bunch the edge over The Getaway. The Getaway had the box office glory…yet still got some of Peckinpah’s best reviews (8th overall….ok maybe not best…but still pretty solid).
Strange….all 4 of the ones you have missed are ones that I have missed too. I have seen about half of Junior Bonner (back in the 1980s) but have never seen the entire movie. Maybe I should finish that one someday.
Maybe if Sam had done Superman….we would have had a dark superhero movie that Christopher Nolan likes to make…..30 years before The Dark Knight.
As always thanks for sharing your thoughts on our latest movie subject.
Hello Bruce. I’ve seen all of Sam Peckinpah’s films except “Convoy”. “The Wild Bunch”
used to be my favorite but as I get older I find I can’t even bring myself to watch it. I used to be a fan of Peckinpah’s films but not so much anymore. “Ride the High Country” for me is his best film and I like “Junior Bonner”, “The Getaway” and “The Ballad of Cable Hogue”. “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” and “Major Dundee” are both flawed but have great scenes in them. “Cross of Iron” is interesting but still I can no longer bring myself to watch the film because of certain disturbing scenes. I can’t stand “The Killer Elite”, “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” or “The Osterman Weekend”.
Hey Lyle. Congrats you have won the Cogerson Sam Peckinpah Movie Tally contest…your UMR T-shirt is on the way…lol. (You 14, Steve 11, me 9, Flora 8 and Laurent 7). Interesting that you no longer watch The Wild Bunch and Cross of Iron. Orson Welles thought Cross of Iron was the best anti-war movie ever made. It is weird…I always get Cross of Iron and The Big Red One mixed up…which makes no sense…but I always do. I have not seen Pat Garrett in years…but back then I really really disliked it…I wonder if I would appreciate Bob Dylan’s performance now…..I doubt it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Mr. Sam Peckinpah.
Hello Bruce,
I saw only 7 of his movies, but my favorites is Wild Bunch. In France, Sam Peckinpah was a very respected director. And Convoy, for exemple, was not a great success in France, but became a cult movie in the early of the 80’s. I’ve seen it seven times.
Hey Laurent….thanks for the tally count….let’s see…the Cogerson Sam Peckinpah Tally Count….Lyle 14, Steve 11, me 9, Flora 8 and you 7. Convoy was huge overseas….it never gets mentioned here in the states. Alfredo Garcia and Ride the High Country on the movies have become cult classics here in the states.. Glad you have enjoyed that one so much…I will have to check out Convoy in the near future. Thanks for stopping by.
Shocked his movies did not do better at the box office. Looks like Getaway was his only big hit. Shocking. Makes you wonder why he is so famous even today.
Hey Tillie….yep his movies pretty much struggled in theaters….but they have gained fame as more people have discovered them over the years. He was a unique movie maker…thanks for the comment.
Hi, Bruce.
Considering how much Sam Peckinpah was known for violent movies, you will be surprised at how many of his movies I have seen.
I’ve gone into much detail about my viewing of The Wild Bunch for the first and only time.
I have seen Ride the High Country and The Getaway multiple times. It’s a case of loving the actors, in my opinion.
The highest rated movie I have seen is Number 1, The Wild Bunch.
The lowest rated movie I have seen is Number 12, The Deadly Companions. I saw that for Maureen O’Hara.
I have seen 8 of Peckinpah’s movies, more than 50 % of them. See what I mean?
My 3 favourites are:
Ride the High Country
The Getaway
The Deadly Companions
The other movies I have seen but not yet mentioned are, alphabetically:
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
The Cross of Iron
Junior Bonner
Major Dundee
Cheers,
Flora
Actually, I listed the remainders in preference, instead of alphabetically.
Oh, well.
You are forgiven….lol. Nobody’s perfekt.
February 16, 2016 at 6:30 pm Edit
Hey Flora.
1. Well…you might not have enjoyed The Wild Bunch….but it did get you to cross the 50% mark with regards to seeing his movies.
2. You might have me beat…let me see….I am at 9….but my ninth is Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid…I know I have seen it….but I remember almost nothing about other than Bob Dylan being terrible in the movie.
3. So the Deadly Companions…made your Top 3…..that is pretty much his forgotten film….I will have to check out….as I like Maureen O’Hara.
4. I also liked The Getaway and Ride The High Country…Ride The High Country was a great way for Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott to finish their careers.
5. I have been wanting to see Major Dundee for a very longtime….so it is at the top of my movies to watch….when it comes to Peckinpah movies….though now Deadly Companions is moving up to.
Thanks for your thoughts on Mr. Peckinpah……it is always greatly appreciated.