The movies that made Steven Spielberg the highest-grossing director of all time
The success and artistry of a director can be measured in many different methods. There’s audience reception to a film, how many award nominations and wins it gathers, and whether it remains iconic in pop culture years after release. In addition, the box office is also a major decipherer of cinematic success, as filmmakers look to ticket sales to symbolise their imprint in Hollywood history. One filmmaker who has aced all of these methods is Steven Spielberg, who not only has pop culture staples in his filmography but is cited as the highest-grossing director.
Spielberg also has credits in the movie business as an executive and successful producer. The director has 51 films in his filmography, featuring some of American cinema’s most iconic and commercially successful efforts topping box office revenue. These releases stretch out over five decades, remaining quintessential box office hits in film history.
A Spielberg work is undoubtedly defined by its box office status, sometimes overriding any stylistic trademarks or reoccurring thematic concepts. The director’s name is synonymous with big studio productions and high-grossing movies, residing in contemporary film as a pivotal and defining Hollywood icon. A Spielberg production is quick to go big and take risks, even if it means dealing with some frustrating and untameable mechanics and props. However, these obstacles tend to result in the filmmaker’s most iconic and successful works, with the audiences being blown away by the visuals.
One of his films that exemplify this approach is Jurassic Park, the 1993 science-fiction action film that thrilled and scared audiences with its realistic portrayals of dinosaurs. This Spielberg classic follows a team of genetic scientists who have created a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. However, things soon turn for the worst following a shutdown of security. Jurassic Park grossed over $1billion at the box office against a $63million budget in what is a tremendous box office achievement.
Another high-grossing classic from Spielberg is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, released in 1982 and starring Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton and Drew Barrymore. This iconic American film, narrating a boy’s friendship with a stranded alien, holds some timeless and globally recognised imagery to support the director’s creativity. Furthermore, it earned $79.9million at the box office against a $10.5million budget.
Jaws, released in 1975, offers a trilogy of Spielberg’s highest-grossing and most iconic works. This compelling horror-thriller narrates a small beach town being terrorised by a human-eating great white shark, prompting a band of men to go out hunting. Jaws is the blueprint for the summer blockbuster and is cited as one of the scariest movies ever made due to its unsettling realistic scenario. Spielberg’s vision of a horror film took a budget of $9million and turned into a box office profit of $476.5million.
The director avoided involvement in every less successful Jaws sequel that followed. He told The Express: “[I didn’t come back for the Jaws sequels] because making the first movie was a nightmare. There were endless problems with the shark and it was an impossible shoot. I thought my career was over because no one had ever taken a movie 100 days over schedule”. So scarred by the movie, he added that, despite the success of the revolutionary film, he “never wanted to go near the water again”.
Other iconic Spielberg features that have fed into his stance as the highest-grossing director include Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, an adventure action sequel starring Harrison Ford that grossed $474.2million from a $48million budget when it was released in 1989. In addition, the 2018 release Ready Player One is a more modern example, earning $585million at the box office.
Steven Spielberg’s highest-grossing movies:
- $1,029,153,882 – (Jurassic Park, 1993)
- $792,910,554 – (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1986)
- $786,636,033 – (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, 2008)
- $618,638,999 – (The Lost World: Jurassic Park, 1997)
- $591,745,532 – (War of the Worlds, 2005)
- $582,890,172 – (Ready Player One, 2018)
- $482,349,603 – (Saving Private Ryan, 1998)
- $474,310,887 – (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 1989)
- $471,203,004 – (Jaws, 1975)
- $390,133,212 – (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981)
