Westerns are one of the most instantly recognizable movie genres on the planet.
If you show someone a picture of John Wayne or a cowboy riding off into the sunset, they’ll immediately understand that those images belong to the domain of Who Shot Liberty Valance and High Noon.
However, the Western is also one of the more restrictive genres at the worldwide box office.
Only 13 Westerns in history have ever cracked the $100 million mark worldwide.
This is due to a slew of factors, including the fact that the biggest Westerns in history were released in the 1940s and 1950s when ticket prices were cheaper and box office records weren’t as comprehensively kept.
However, it’s also due to the Western genre just not being as universally appealing to international moviegoers as other types of escapist cinema.
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