The 10 highest-grossing filmmakers of all time
While many filmmakers want to achieve critical success with moving narratives told in unique ways, other directors merely want to bring as many bodies into cinemas as possible. That metric of a film’s total gross is a good way to learn of the most popular directors, so we will look at the filmmakers with the biggest box office takings of all time.
Is it any surprise to find the likes of Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan in this exclusive group? Certainly not. King of the Gothic fantasy, Tim Burton, has given us several big-grosses over the years, such as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride, while Nolan has of course delivered Inception, Interstellar and the Dark Knight trilogy.
There are some true blockbuster directors on the list, of course, such as Ridley Scott, who has directed Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator, to name but a few; Michael Bay of The Rock, Transformers, Armageddon and Bad Boys fame also has a spot, and J.J. Abrams, who’s done his fair share of big budget movies, such as Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek and Star Wars: The Force Awakens can also enjoy a position in the chart.
It’s unsurprising to find directors who’ve also taken the lead on several movies in some of cinema’s biggest franchises. We’ve got David Yates, who’d taken the directorial reigns on the last four films in the mainline Harry Potter series (as well as the Fantastic Beasts films) in sixth place, while Peter Jackson of the Lords of the Rings movies is up in fourth.
Arriving into the top three, there’s little surprise. We begin with Joe and Anthony Russo, who began their careers with Welcome to Collinwood and You, Me and Dupree, starring Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson. However, it’s their Marvel films, Captain America and Avengers, that have seen the Russo Brothers break into the top three highest-grossing filmmakers of all time.
The top two make even more sense because they are two absolute titans of the Hollywood blockbuster. In second place, we find James Cameron, who earned a fair few dollars with the early success of science fiction movies like Aliens and The Terminator. Movies such as Avatar and Titanic saw Cameron second in the pile, though, making him a true blockbusting director.
In first place, there could only really be one person for the job couldn’t there, the genuine behemoth of a director Steven Spielberg. Where do we begin with the cinematic legend? Jaws? E.T.? Schindler’s List? Jurassic Park? Saving Private Ryan? All we know is that time and time again, Spielberg has brought in some of the biggest box-office takings in history and will likely continue to do so.
Check out the complete list below.
The 10 highest-grossing filmmakers of all time:
- Steven Spielberg
- James Cameron
- The Russo Brothers
- Peter Jackson
- Michael Bay
- David Yates
- Christopher Nolan
- J.J. Abrams
- Tim Burton
- Ridley Scott
