Editing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (section)

== Reception ==
=== Box office ===
In Italy, the film grossed $6.3&nbsp;million at the time.<ref name="Eliot88">Eliot (2009), p. 88</ref> In the United States and Canada, the film grossed $25.1&nbsp;million.<ref name="GBUMojo">{{cite Box Office Mojo |id=0060196 |title=The Good, the Bad and the Ugly |access-date=17 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117232004/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0060196/ |archive-date=17 January 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> It also grossed {{US$|7.5 million|long=no}} in other international territories,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tashman |first1=George |title=Piedmont's Claim to Fame |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/609251324/ |access-date=21 April 2022 |work=[[Berkeley Gazette]] |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |date=5 May 1978 |page=11 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=21 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220421051311/https://www.newspapers.com/image/609251324/ |url-status=live }}</ref> for a total of {{US$|{{#expr:6.3+25.1+7.5}} million|long=no}} grossed worldwide.

=== Critical response ===
On [[review aggregator]] [[Rotten Tomatoes]], ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' holds an approval rating of 97% based on 77 reviews, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Arguably the greatest of the spaghetti westerns, this epic features a compelling story, memorable performances, breathtaking landscapes, and a haunting score."<ref>{{cite Rotten Tomatoes|id=the_good_the_bad_and_the_ugly|type=m|title=The Good, the Bad and the Ugly|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201110160650/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_good_the_bad_and_the_ugly|archive-date=10 November 2020|url-status=live|access-date=29 December 2021}}</ref> [[Metacritic]], which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100 based on 7 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".<ref>{{cite Metacritic|id=the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly|type=movie|title=The Good, the Bad and the Ugly|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201110160953/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly|archive-date=10 November 2020|url-status=live|access-date=17 January 2021}}</ref>

Upon release, ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' received criticism for its depiction of violence.<ref name="Fritz">{{cite magazine |last=Fritz |first=Ben |title=The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=14 June 2004 }}</ref> Leone explains that "the killings in my films are exaggerated because I wanted to make a [[tongue-in-cheek]] satire on run-of-the-mill westerns... The west was made by violent, uncomplicated men, and it is this strength and simplicity that I try to recapture in my pictures."<ref name="newsmakers">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Sergio Leone |encyclopedia=Newsmakers |publisher=Gale |year=2004 }}</ref> To this day, Leone's effort to reinvigorate the timeworn Western is widely acknowledged.<ref name="Time">{{cite news |last=Schickel |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Schickel |title=The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |work=All-Time 100 Movies |publisher=[[Time Magazine]] |url=http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/0,23220,the_good_the_bad_and_the_ugly,00.html |access-date=16 May 2007 |date=12 February 2005| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070519203957/http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/0,23220,the_good_the_bad_and_the_ugly,00.html| archive-date = 19 May 2007| url-status = dead}}</ref>

Critical opinion of the film on initial release was mixed, as many reviewers at that time looked down on "[[Spaghetti Western]]s". In a negative review in ''[[The New York Times]]'', a critic [[Renata Adler]] said that the film "must be the most expensive, pious and repellent movie in the history of its peculiar genre."<ref>''The New York Times,'' film review, 25 January 1968.</ref> [[Charles Champlin]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' wrote that the "temptation is hereby proved irresistible to call ''The Good, The Bad and the Ugly'', now playing citywide, ''The Bad, The Dull, and the Interminable'', only because it is."<ref name="Eliot8687">Eliot (2009), p. 86–87</ref> [[Roger Ebert]], who later included the film in his list of Great Movies,<ref name="greatmovies">{{cite book |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=The Great Movies II |publisher=Broadway |year=2006 |isbn=0-7679-1986-6}}</ref> retrospectively noted that in his original review he had "described a four-star movie, but only gave it three stars, perhaps because it was a 'Spaghetti Western' and so could not be art."