Ron Howard's Career Peak Prediction Was Hilariously Wrong
Filmmaker Ron Howard once boldly declared when he would create his greatest films. He set a specific timeframe for his directorial zenith, but a look back at his filmography reveals a surprising truth about when his golden era actually occurred. Did his best work come when he expected?
It's a risky move for any director to try and map out their own future, but Ron Howard never shied away from it, once confidently stating he was still a long way from his prime. The big question is, was he on the money? To be fair, planning was in his DNA. Even as a kid on The Andy Griffith Show, people noted he had a director's mind, a remarkable observation given he finished his role as Opie Taylor at just 14. The directing bug didn't truly bite until later, though. By the time he was playing Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, acting was just a stepping stone. His real ambition was to be behind the camera, a dream he realized at 23 when Roger Corman gave him his shot with 1977’s Grand Theft Auto.
The young actor-turned-director was on a fast track, with two hit shows in different decades, dozens of roles alongside screen legends like John Wayne and Henry Fonda, and a feature film to his name. It was a meteoric rise, but in his mind, he was just getting started.
A Turning Point
In a 1994 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Howard was in a reflective state, admitting he was “blindsided” by the reaction to Far and Away. “We believed we had a $100 million movie,” he explained. “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 having directed nine films by that point, including the Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman period drama, he still saw himself as a fairly conventional artist. “I don’t think I’ve pushed any boundaries yet as a director,” he confessed. “I may be a little braver in the future.” As it turns out, he mostly wasn't.
This is when he laid out his timeline, suggesting he’d “always believed that I’d do my best work from age 50 to 65.” He had just turned 40, and this wasn't a new idea for him. His brother Clint had heard it so often that he offered a blunt warning: “He looked at me and said, ‘That means you’re in store for a lot of shitty movies.”
The Prophesied Prime
So, did Howard deliver his finest work between the ages of 50 and 65? That window covers March 2004 to March 2014, and the short answer is... not quite. While Frost/Nixon secured him Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, the rest of the decade was a mixed bag.
His output during this time included Cinderella Man, two of the three Da Vinci movies, the comedy The Dilemma (which he later expressed regret over making), and the racing drama Rush. It was a productive period, but hardly his most creatively fertile stretch.
An Unexpected High Point
Ironically, the decade immediately following his forecast—from age 40 to 50—turned out to be his most impressive run. This period gave us what many consider his best film, Apollo 13, along with his four highest-grossing pictures. Ransom, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and A Beautiful Mind joined Apollo 13 as the only movies he had directed up to that point to cross the $300 million mark at the box office. The latter also earned him his two Academy Awards.
On top of those blockbusters, he also directed a trio of underrated gems: The Paper, EdTV, and The Missing. All things considered, this was easily his most celebrated and successful chapter as a storyteller. Howard hit his stride earlier than he anticipated. And considering his output over the last ten years, it's fair to say he's currently navigating his most challenging phase as a director.