Ron Howard’s Peak: The Director’s Decade He Didn’t See Coming
Ron Howard once claimed his best films would come after 50, but his golden run arrived much earlier. His recent years, though, have left fans wondering where it all went wrong.
Trying to map out your own future is a risky business, especially in the film industry. But Ron Howard, never one to shy away from a bold call, once confidently declared that his best work was still years ahead. The real question is, did things pan out the way he expected?
Howard’s knack for planning ahead started young. Back in his days as Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show, he was already being told he had a director’s brain. Not bad for a kid who finished up on the show at just 14, even if the directing bug didn’t bite until later. By the time he was Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, acting was just a stepping stone. His real ambition was to get behind the camera, and he managed that at 23, thanks to Roger Corman giving him a shot with 1977’s Grand Theft Auto.
Early Ambitions and a Fast Start
By his early twenties, Howard had already chalked up two hit TV series, worked with legends like John Wayne and Henry Fonda, and directed his first feature. It was a meteoric rise, but for Howard, it was just the beginning.
In 1994, reflecting on his career, Howard admitted he was caught off guard by the reaction to Far and Away.
“We believed we had a $100 million movie,”
he said.
“We always scored high at test screenings. Then we got some bad reviews I wasn’t braced for. I think some critics thought, ‘Oh, this is Ron Howard thinking he’s David Lean’. Far and Away, because I’d wanted to make it for so long, felt like a conclusion to the first phase of my career.”
Despite being no rookie—Far and Away was his ninth film as director—Howard was honest about his own work.
“I don’t think I’ve pushed any boundaries yet as a director,”
he admitted.
“I may be a little braver in the future.”
Spoiler alert: that extra bravery never really showed up.
Predictions and a Brother’s Warning
Still, Howard was convinced his best was yet to come.
“I’d always believed that I’d do my best work from age 50 to 65.”
He’d just turned 40 at the time, and he’d been saying it for so long that his brother Clint finally gave him a reality check:
“He looked at me and said, ‘That means you’re in store for a lot of shitty movies.’”
So, did Howard’s golden era arrive as he’d predicted? The years between March 2004 and March 2014 saw him pick up Oscar nominations for Frost/Nixon, and he turned out films like Cinderella Man, two Da Vinci Code instalments, The Dilemma (which he’s since regretted), and Rush. But it wasn’t exactly a purple patch.
The Real High Point
Ironically, the decade he thought would be his warm-up—ages 40 to 50—turned out to be his real sweet spot. That stretch delivered Apollo 13, widely considered his best, and his four biggest box office hits. Ransom, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and A Beautiful Mind all crossed the $300 million mark, with the last one earning him two Oscars. Add in lesser-known gems like The Paper, EdTV, and The Missing, and it’s clear that was his most impressive run.
Howard’s peak came earlier than he’d ever guessed. And looking at his output over the past ten years, it’s fair to say he’s been going through a rough patch as a director.