The 10 Highest-Grossing Movie Directors, Ranked By Box Office

The coveted IMDb’s Top 250 wouldn’t be anything without the directors who made the movies. Those are the daring filmmakers that said, “Nope, this is how it’s going to be, and you folks are gonna love it (hopefully),” and as a result delivered some of the greatest movies ever made and more importantly, saw their project earn a few pennies at the box-office for their troubles. Visiting alien worlds, ancient civilizations or simply applying some good old-fashioned movie magic, directors have taken a variety of avenues that as a result, led audiences in droves to theatres following releases of blockbuster-making hits. But which massive success stories resulted in certain filmmakers becoming the highest-grossing movie directors ever and what was the secret to their success?

After crunching the numbers and inhaling the popcorn, these are the rare few directors who broke the bank thanks to their incredible work. Some delivered a wide variety of movies, while others found themselves a nifty franchise or two and stuck with them to become the mega successes we know them as now. To start things off, we begin with a director whose unmistakable style and love of lens flares had him revive not one but two of the most beloved franchises ever, even if fans might not have liked the results of either.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the world flipped the hell out when it was revealed that the guy behind “Lost” and the “Star Trek” reboot was appointed to return to the “Star Wars” universe with “The Force Awakens.” It was this quiet little indy project that set J.J. Abrams up for becoming one of the top 10 most box-office earners ever, with “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” surprising no one with over $2 billion upon release.

Now admittedly, the results were halved when Abrams headed back to the stars for “The Rise of Skywalker,” which earned over $1 billion at the box office, most likely due to the lower level of popularity that was received for the threequel that muted some characters and somehow allowed Palpatine to return. That being said, with that and his other “Star Wars” movie, along with franchise restarters like “Star Trek” and “Mission Impossible III,” it’s enough to etch Abrams into the top with an impressive over $4 billion at the worldwide box-office. There’s every chance that his numbers could go up with the mystery projects he has planned in the future that has a cast consisting of Glenn Powell, Samuel L. Jackson, Emma McKay, and Jenna Ortega but as expected has absolutely no official plot details as yet.

King of all things kooky and a maestro of making outsider characters the kind for everyone to love, Tim Burton’s filmography is a mixed bag of hits. Sure he might be best known for the likes of “Edward Scissorhands” and cult classics like “Beetlejuice,” but it’s the ones linked to well-known IPs (like so many on this list) that understandably ended up making bank.

As far as his most successful breakthrough outings go, “Batman” is understandably up there as not only a massive hit at the time with $411 million, but a game-changer for comic book movies. After that, there are films that while successful at the box office, haven’t necessarily stood the test of time. Burton’s live-action take on “Alice in Wonderland” while being the only movie in his career to have broken the billion-dollar mark, it could be argued that it sparked the Disney trend of making live-action and CGI versions of classic entries from their treasure trove of films.

This includes the likes of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” which earned just shy of $500 million. We hate to admit it, but it proves that Burton has earned big bucks but just with films that pale in comparison to his earlier works and the originals they’re taking from.

A legendary director whose contributions to film have led to some of the most revered entries in their respective genres, Ridley Scott’s career has been a series of hits and misses, often with the latter becoming the former over time. “Blade Runner” for example, earned a meager $41.8 million at the box office against a production budget of $30 million, only reaching iconic status over the decades that followed its release in 1982 as one of the most influential sci-fi films ever made. It’s only in the latter half of his career that the dollars came truly pouring in.

In the span of Ridley Scott’s 47-year period as a film director, his five most successful films came after 2000. To date his most successful film is the Matt Damon-starring sci-fi “The Martian,” earning over $653 million, and “Gladiator II” killing it at the box office as Scott’s biggest opening weekend ever. Throw that in with every other impressive hit (“Gladiator,” “Hannibal”) and every initial misfire that became fan favorites (“American Gangster,” “Black Hawk Down”) and Ridley Scott has drawn in the collective sum of over $4 billion at the box office. Here’s hoping “Gladiator III” helps bump it up a notch whenever that arrives.

When you’re responsible for three of the best Batman films ever made, it makes sense that anything after those leads to an easy win. Such is the case for Christopher Nolan, who after picking Christian Bale to put on the cape and cowl, created a trilogy that collectively earned over $2 billion worldwide. From then on, any project that had Nolan’s name on was a sure-fire win if it didn’t coincide with a world-halting pandemic.

As it stands, “The Dark Knight Rises” is still Nolan’s most successful film in his career, understandably fuelled by the anticipation of his follow-up to “The Dark Knight,” which is his runner-up and still considered one of the best films ever made. From then on, any film with Nolan’s name next to the word “director” while not quite earning Bat-level bucks still ensured a surefire win from then on. That was until the once-in-a-lifetime event that was Barbenheimer and a resurgence of cinema that the world simply wasn’t prepared for.

Thanks to the internet, Barbenheimer was born as a byproduct of Nolan’s Oscar-winning “Oppenheimer” sharing the same release date as Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” making a double-bill like no other and Nolan’s latest film being just shy of another billion-dollar hit with $976 million. Added to his box-office gross at that point, Christopher Nolan has collectively earned over $6 billion, which is very likely to grow thanks to his mystery Tom Holland and Matt Damon-starring project.

As the old saying goes, stick to what you’re good at. In the case of director David Yates, what he’s really good at is making movies set in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Of all the directors on this list, Yates’ biggest successes have accumulated over $6 billion at the box office with his biggest earner, understandably being “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II” which closed the book on the story of the Boy Who Lived and earned a hefty $929 million in the process. His lowest earner in the franchise was “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” whereas below that it’s the first three chapters of the now nixed “Fantastic Beasts” franchise that stumbled in its delivery after daring to tell a story in the world of Harry Potter without Harry Potter in it.

Regardless of their collective $1.5 billion success, any whispers regarding a return to the Wizarding World have halted, with even its young Dumbledore, Jude Law admitting “I ​​haven’t heard that there’s anything on the horizon” (via Variety). Now with all focus of the Potterverse being on the HBO series, the chances of Yates returning to Hogwarts on the big screen seem unlikely. Well, the magic can’t last forever.

The master of slow-motion disaster and sun-kissed cast members caught in a 360-spin might’ve released some absolute dumpster fires over the years, but the box-office receipts prove that at one point in history, that’s actually what we wanted. Just like David Yates found a win in the world of wands and broomsticks, Michael Bay carved out a corner of Hollywood for himself by way of giant shape-shifting robots.

Of the 10 most successful films in Michael Bay’s career, the top five are “Transformers” movies, for which we only have ourselves to blame. Proving to be a rarity among the list here, Bay’s biggest win is “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” which regardless of its 35% on Rotten Tomatoes, earned over $1.1 billion worldwide. His worst contribution to the franchise according to the review aggregator, “Transformers: The Last Knight” is his fourth most successful film earned $602 million worldwide and is still absolutely nothing to sniff at.

Thankfully, the franchise made out of nuts and bolts aren’t the only films in Bay’s back catalog that have earned him a hefty sum. Besides “Transformers” films, there’s also the likes of “The Island,” “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor” and perhaps one of the greatest action movies of all time, “The Rock.” Not a bad batch, at all. Losers always whine about their best, winners have Sean Connery yelling at Nicolas Cage on a trip to Alcatraz and the world is better for it.

There was a time when Peter Jackson was better known within rings of cult horror fandom, then in 2001 he became the lord of them by way of his daring adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works. Giving us a trilogy for both “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” Jackson’s time in Middle Earth helped him become one of the highest-grossing directors in history and earning over $6.5 billion in his entire career, with most of it understandably being due to elves, hobbits, and preciousses for the most part.

To date, Jackson’s biggest success is his final chapter in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, “The Return of the King” which in 2007, drew in an incredible $1.1 billion worldwide. The hype was reignited once more in 2012, with “The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey,” which earned just over a billion following its release, albeit with not quite the same critical acclaim. A win’s a win, though, and even in a stretched-out story that’s shorter than “The Lord of the Rings” it’s enough to put Jackson in among some of the best.

When Marvel called to assembly Joe and Antony Russo, it paved the way for a massive success that would, for a brief time, turn its most anticipated movie into the most successful movie of all time. Proving themselves to be more than capable of handling the Marvel universe thanks to “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” The Russo Brothers then took on “Captain America: Civil War” which was essentially their trial run handling the Avengers.

By this point, the Russos had already hauled in impressive numbers for the MCU, and with the back-to-back efforts for “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame,” this directing duo saw twice the success to the sum of over $2 billion for each film. As a result, both Joe and Antony Russo have earned a gross of over $6 billion and are guaranteed to get an increase in the next few years.

Thanks to Marvel working damage control following the removal of Jonathan Majors and therefore snapping “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” out of existence, the MCU could be on for another one-two punch of massive box-office proportions with “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.” With an upcoming schedule like that, could we see yet another rematch in theatres happening not between the forces of good and evil, but the most successful filmmaking siblings ever and one man who just loves taking us for a swim in CGI water?

When you’re responsible for three of the biggest films of all time, it makes sense to earn the spot as one of the most successful directors. Of the nine movies James Cameron has ever made, three of them have broken a billion during their release, making you wonder why some filmmakers even bother anymore. Who can blame them, really? When you’re going against a director who has accumulated a whopping $8 billion, that’s tough competition and you know what they say. Come at the king of the world and you best not miss.

Cameron saw unexpected success with “The Terminator,” but made his first billion back in 1995 with the window-steaming, boat-wrecking spectacle “Titanic.” It was the highest-grossing film of all time, a record that would later be broken by himself with “Avatar.” Now admittedly, Cameron’s CGI extravaganza earned a lot more given the immense push made for showing the film on IMAX screens and doing the same again in 2022 with “Avatar: The Way of Water.” Chances are that he’ll probably rake in a similar amount when “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and “Avatar 4” arrive, by which point Cameron will have invented technology so advanced, that Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and the rest of the Na’vi will be able to whip us with their fancy hair braids in our seats and we’ll pay him another billion for the service.

While he may not have the highest-grossing films of all time under his belt anymore, a career of consistent hits has made the master storyteller Steven Spielberg the highest-grossing director in history. He also delivered a collection of now iconic and groundbreaking entries that changed cinema forever in the process. In doing so, the man behind the likes of “Jaws,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” has dragged in over an incredible $10 billion at the worldwide box office, while none of them have actually earned a billion upon their initial release.

The exception sits with the director’s initial trip to “Jurassic Park” which was only after re-release since it opened its gates in 1993. It was only on the film’s 20th anniversary that it finally broke the billion-dollar mark, which it absolutely should given that it’s a T-Rex roaring, kitchen-invading masterpiece. Since then, Spielberg’s most recent and biggest success while in the director’s chair feels quite some time ago now.

In 2008, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” hauled in over $700 million at the box office, presumably before word got out about Shia LaBeouf swinging with monkeys. Since then, Spielberg’s box-office receipts have dwindled with “The Fabelmans” pulling in a heartbreaking $43 million and proving that cinema might be dead after all and it really is all our fault.