The first director to gross over $10 billion worldwide
Only seven directors in history have achieved the milestone of grossing over $5 billion worldwide across their careers. In ascending order, the list includes Christopher Nolan, buoyed by the immense success of his Dark Knight trilogy; David Yates, who helmed the final four Harry Potter films; Peter Jackson, the visionary behind the Lord of the Rings series; Michael Bay, whose Transformers franchise inexplicably continues to draw massive audiences; The Russo brothers, propelled to the top tier by their Avengers entries; James Cameron, whose Avatar films both exceeded $2bn each; and the unparalleled Steven Spielberg, the highest-grossing director of all time.
Of course, Spielberg is top. It was always going to be him. However, what’s most interesting is just how far ahead of the pack he is. Cameron, who’s in second place, sits on a total worldwide gross of $8,800,999,527. As for Spielberg, his total is $10,753,945,763, making him the only director in history to surpass the $10bn mark. He is almost an entire $2bn ahead of his nearest rival.
The Amblin man achieved this impressive feat in 2018 with the release of Ready Player One. His adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel raked in over $600 million and was Spielberg’s biggest financial hit in quite some time. At the time, his nearest competitor was Peter Jackson, who was on a measly $6bn lifetime gross. It took Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, to significantly close the gap.
The movie that has done the most heavy lifting for its director is Jurassic Park. For a time, it was the highest-grossing movie ever made and is the only Spielberg production to crack the $1bn mark. His next most lucrative project is ET the Extra-Terrestrial, which sits on a relatively modest $793m. In terms of franchises, Spielberg’s biggest is ‘Indiana Jones’. His four Indy movies all performed well in theatres, with the most successful being Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which just goes to show that profit isn’t always a sign of quality.
That’s one of the many impressive things about Spielberg’s rise to the top. Apart from the whip-wielding archaeologist, his filmography doesn’t contain a massive franchise, unlike his nearest rivals (with the exception maybe of Nolan). He made movies that became franchises, but he always knew when to step away before things went sour. His output consists mainly of original ideas or one-off adaptations. ET, War of the Worlds, Saving Private Ryan, and Minority Report, these types of films are the backbone of the director’s legacy, not CGI superheroes or big robots smashing into each other.
You could argue that Spielberg has an unfair advantage, as he’s the oldest director of the seven and has produced the most movies, but that would be doing him a serious disservice. His ability to create compelling stories quickly and consistently is what sets him apart from everyone else. This is the guy who put out Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List in the same year. Who else could have possibly made two completely different yet equally as impactful movies in such a short space of time?
Even as his 80th birthday draws closer, Spielberg continues to make incredible films that people will gladly pay money to see. There is every chance that, with two more Avatar movies on the way, James Cameron will surpass his total one day, but that would be a real shame. Cameron’s films are technically impressive but lack the soul and spark of Spielberg. He has built an incredible legacy of making movies magical, a feeling that is utterly priceless.
