Ethan Coen Movies

Want to know the best Ethan Coen movies?  How about the worst Ethan Coen movies?  Curious about Ethan Coen box office grosses or which Ethan Coen movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Ethan Coen 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.

I have been a fan of Joel and Ethan Coen ever since I discovered Blood Simple back in the mid 1980s. At the time I worked at a video store and I would recommend Blood Simple to the customers.  When they returned the movie….50% loved the movie and 50% hated the movie…there was no middle ground.  Many of the ones that hated the movie, told me they would never ever watch another movie that I recommended.

Turns out….that over the years that 50/50 breakdown would be how I looked at the Coen brother’s movies.  I think about half of their movies are all-time classics…while I think the other half of their movies are ones that I did not like at all.  One thing that has not changed over the years…is the fact that any Coen brother’s movie is a must see movie for me.  My personal favorite Coen brother movies are Miller’s Crossing, The Hudsucker Proxy and Fargo.

Ethan Coen (1957-) and his older brother Joel Coen (1954-) are American directors, writers, producers and editors.  Both brothers have won 4 Oscars®.  Three of their more popular movies are True Grit, No Country For Old Men and The Big Lebowski (for some reason I am one of the few that does not like this movie). So far there have been 17 Coen brothers movies. This page will rank those 17 Coen Brothers Movies movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.

Albert Finney in 1990's Miller's Crossing
Albert Finney in 1990’s Miller’s Crossing

Ethan Coen 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 Ethan Coen Movies by stars of his movies
  • Sort Ethan Coen Movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Ethan Coen Movies by worldwide domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Ethan Coen 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 Ethan Movies received.
  • Sort Ethan 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 Ethan Coen Movies Table

  1. One Ethan Coen movie (True Grit)  crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 5.55% of their movies listed. True Grit (2010 is easily their biggest box office hit).
  2. An average Ethan Coen movie grosses $43.12 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  17 Ethan Coen movies are rated as good movies…or 94.44% of his movies.  No Country for Old Men (2007) is their highest rated movie while Ladykillers (2004) is lowest rated movie.
  4. Nine Ethan Coen movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 50.00% of their movies.
  5. Two Ethan Coen movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 11.11% of their movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00.  13 Ethan Coen movies scored higher that average….or 72.22% of his movies.  True Grit (2010 got the the highest UMR Score while The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)) got the lowest UMR Score.
Peter Stormare and Steve Buscemi in 1996's Fargo
Peter Stormare and Steve Buscemi in 1996’s Fargo

Possibly Interesting Facts About Joel and Ethan Coen

1. Joel and Ethan Coen were born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Their mom was an art historian at St.Cloud University while their dad was an economist at the University of Minnesota.

2. As children Joel and Ethan Coen, remade movies they had seen on television using a Vititar Super 8 camera.  Now those would be some interesting movies to watch!

3. One of Joel Coen’s big breaks  was working as an assisant film editor on the classic horror movie, The Evil Dead.  He became friends with the director of The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi.  At one point Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Frances McDormand, Holly Hunter and Sam Raimi shared an apartment.

4. Their first movie was 1984’s Blood Simple.  Blood Simple would set the precendent for future Coen brother movies….it  was loved by critics and Hollywood folks yet did not generate much box office success. With the exception of True Grit almost every Coen movie has fallen into that category.

5. Blood Simple has the greatest DVD commentary ever!  The commentary is provided by fictional film historian, Kenneth Loring.  The commentary was scripted by the Coen brothers….I am not even sure if anything true is said in the entire commentary.

6. The Coen brothers each have 13 Oscar® nominations and 4 Oscar® wins.  They won 3 Oscars® for No Country For Old Men and 1 Oscar® for Fargo.  12 of the 13 nominations were shared.  Joel’s 13th nomination was for directing Fargo…while Ethan’s 13th nomination was for producing Fargo.

7. Joel Coen has been married to actress Frances McDorman since 1984. They have one son.  Ethan is married to film editor Tricia Cooke…they have two children.

8. The Coen brothers edit their own films.  However if you look at the credits you will see the editor listed as Roderick Jaynes….that is the pseudonym they use to hide this fact.

9. The Coen brothers like to use the same actors repeatedly in their movies.  Steve Buscemi (6 movies), Frances McDormand (6 movies), Jon Polito (5 movies), John Goodman (5 movies) and George Clooney (4 movies…that includes their next movie)…seem to be their favorites.

10. Check out Joel Coen’s movie career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

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