Box Office Star Records > Worldwide > Lifetime Specific Technical Role > Top Worldwide Directors

Top Grossing Director at the Worldwide Box OfficeBETA


See also: Top Domestic Directors - Top International Directors - Top Worldwide Art Directors - Top Worldwide Assistant Directors - Top Worldwide Assistant Editors - Top Worldwide Associate Producers - Top Worldwide Casting Directors - Top Worldwide Cinematographers - Top Worldwide Co-Producers - Top Worldwide Composers - Top Worldwide Costume Designers - Top Worldwide Costume Supervisors - Top Worldwide Dialogue Editors - Top Worldwide Editors - Top Worldwide Executive Producers - Top Worldwide Line Producers - Top Worldwide Make-up and Hair Designers - Top Worldwide Music Editors - Top Worldwide Music Supervisors - Top Worldwide Producers - Top Worldwide Production Designers - Top Worldwide Re-recording Mixers - Top Worldwide Screenwriters - Top Worldwide Second Unit Directors - Top Worldwide Set Decorators - Top Worldwide Set Designers - Top Worldwide Sound Designers - Top Worldwide Sound Editors - Top Worldwide Sound Effects Editors - Top Worldwide Sound Mixers - Top Worldwide Story Creators - Top Worldwide Stunt Coordinators - Top Worldwide Supervising Sound Editors - Top Worldwide Unit Production Managers - Top Worldwide Visual Effects Supervisors

This list shows the highest grossing Directors based on the worldwide box office of the movies they worked on.

Since we are still actively researching technical roles, we consider this chart to be in beta mode. The table includes data for movies in The Numbers database. While we make every effort to collect all available data, there are inevitably omissions and errors. Please help us by sending corrections to corrections@the-numbers.com.

  1
Steven Spielberg photo
Steven Spielberg
Best known as an Executive Producer based on credits in that role in 54 films.
Top films contributed to this record: Jurassic Park ($1,058,454,230 in 1993), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ($797,307,407 in 1982), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($786,635,413 in 2008), The Lost World: Jurassic Park ($618,638,999 in 1997), War of the Worlds ($606,836,535 in 2005), Ready Player One ($579,055,653 in 2018), Saving Private Ryan ($485,035,085 in 1998), Jaws ($483,655,893 in 1975), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ($474,171,806 in 1989), The Adventures of Tintin ($373,993,951 in 2011)

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  2
James Cameron photo
James Cameron
Best known as a Director based on credits in that role in 14 films.
Top films contributed to this record: Avatar ($2,923,706,026 in 2009), Avatar: The Way of Water ($2,317,514,386 in 2022), Titanic ($2,223,048,786 in 1997), Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($515,361,524 in 1991), True Lies ($365,300,000 in 1994), Aliens ($183,291,893 in 1986), The Terminator ($78,019,031 in 1984), The Abyss ($54,793,434 in 1989), Ghosts of the Abyss ($28,742,313 in 2003), Aliens of the Deep ($12,765,684 in 2005)

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  3
Joe Russo
Best known as a Producer based on credits in that role in 11 films.
Top films contributed to this record: Avengers: Endgame ($2,788,912,285 in 2019), Avengers: Infinity War ($2,048,359,754 in 2018), Captain America: Civil War ($1,151,899,586 in 2016), Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($714,401,889 in 2014), You, Me and Dupree ($130,402,010 in 2006), The Gray Man ($451,178 in 2022), The Au Pair ($0 in 2019), Cherry ($0 in 2021), The Electric State ($0 in 2024)

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Complete List

Rank Name Worldwide
Box Office
Movies Average
1 Steven Spielberg $10,696,894,028 36 $297,135,945
2 James Cameron $8,702,543,077 14 $621,610,220
3 Joe Russo $6,834,426,702 9 $759,380,745
4 Anthony Russo $6,834,426,702 8 $854,303,338
5 Peter Jackson $6,537,860,134 15 $435,857,342
6 Michael Bay $6,495,849,210 16 $405,990,576
7 David Yates $6,340,979,010 10 $634,097,901
8 Christopher Nolan $6,006,048,890 13 $462,003,761
9 J.J. Abrams $4,648,965,502 7 $664,137,929
10 Ridley Scott $4,579,621,381 31 $147,729,722
11 Tim Burton $4,421,244,060 20 $221,062,203
12 Robert Zemeckis $4,361,242,442 23 $189,619,237
13 Jon Favreau $4,320,769,204 10 $432,076,920
14 Ron Howard $4,302,396,624 33 $130,375,655
15 Sam Raimi $4,260,564,038 15 $284,037,603
16 James Wan $4,141,761,299 12 $345,146,775
17 Chris Columbus $4,092,633,000 18 $227,368,500
18 Roland Emmerich $4,015,735,736 15 $267,715,716
19 Jon Watts $3,920,740,686 6 $653,456,781
20 Pierre Coffin $3,710,005,544 4 $927,501,386
21 Bryan Singer $3,708,723,733 10 $370,872,373
22 Gore Verbinski $3,682,489,019 11 $334,771,729
23 Francis Lawrence $3,674,829,051 10 $367,482,905
24 George Lucas $3,448,700,011 6 $574,783,335
25 Brad Bird $3,433,470,811 6 $572,245,135
26 Clint Eastwood $3,332,177,414 40 $83,304,435
27 Chris Renaud $3,203,484,672 6 $533,914,112
28 Todd Phillips $3,170,795,120 11 $288,254,102
29 Zack Snyder $3,170,405,984 13 $243,877,383
30 M. Night Shyamalan $3,162,861,431 15 $210,857,429
31 Kyle Balda $3,130,832,932 3 $1,043,610,977
32 Sam Mendes $3,118,126,988 10 $311,812,699
33 Chris Buck $3,111,458,422 4 $777,864,606
34 Carlos Saldanha $3,087,109,529 8 $385,888,691
35 Bill Condon $3,046,646,484 13 $234,357,422
36 Justin Lin $3,012,542,211 10 $301,254,221
37 Joss Whedon $2,955,065,480 4 $738,766,370
38 Tom McGrath $2,899,240,500 7 $414,177,214
39 Andrew Stanton $2,776,387,102 4 $694,096,776
40 Guy Ritchie $2,742,351,328 18 $152,352,852
41 Jennifer Lee $2,726,199,174 2 $1,363,099,587
42 Shawn Levy $2,713,190,880 14 $193,799,349
43 Rob Marshall $2,700,641,816 7 $385,805,974
44 James Gunn $2,697,225,862 9 $299,691,762
45 Colin Trevorrow $2,683,188,396 5 $536,637,679
46 Andrew Adamson $2,600,599,368 6 $433,433,228
47 Conrad Vernon $2,525,379,226 7 $360,768,461
48 John Lasseter $2,466,673,153 6 $411,112,192
49 Eric Darnell $2,422,562,005 5 $484,512,401
50 Barry Sonnenfeld $2,422,304,038 12 $201,858,670
51 James Mangold $2,420,167,096 13 $186,166,700
52 Ryan Coogler $2,381,597,092 4 $595,399,273
53 Steven Soderbergh $2,348,529,820 36 $65,236,939
54 Zhang Yimou $2,328,840,325 22 $105,856,378
55 Tsui Hark $2,322,260,632 13 $178,635,433
56 Martin Scorsese $2,310,297,007 31 $74,525,710
57 Kaige Chen $2,305,017,315 12 $192,084,776
58 Christopher McQuarrie $2,272,561,989 6 $378,760,332
59 Jon Turteltaub $2,268,741,427 11 $206,249,221
60 Pete Docter $2,262,536,631 4 $565,634,158
61 F. Gary Gray $2,251,283,018 14 $160,805,930
62 Richard Donner $2,186,600,304 19 $115,084,227
63 Joseph Kosinski $2,180,780,490 6 $363,463,415
64 Matt Reeves $2,171,416,325 7 $310,202,332
65 Peyton Reed $2,163,267,194 7 $309,038,171
66 Jake Kasdan $2,162,688,535 8 $270,336,067
67 Brett Ratner $2,153,851,289 12 $179,487,607
68 Byron Howard $2,143,959,357 4 $535,989,839
69 Tony Scott $2,109,624,605 16 $131,851,538
70 David Fincher $2,108,793,989 12 $175,732,832
71 Martin Campbell $2,052,397,782 14 $146,599,842
72 Ron Clements $2,050,649,653 7 $292,949,950
73 Rob Minkoff $2,046,979,764 10 $204,697,976
74 Andy Wachowski $2,037,901,522 6 $339,650,254
75 Rich Moore $2,028,264,929 3 $676,088,310
76 John Musker $2,027,044,119 6 $337,840,687
77 Louis Leterrier $2,026,811,735 10 $202,681,174
78 Mike Mitchell $2,019,469,381 9 $224,385,487
79 Kenneth Branagh $1,972,044,037 21 $93,906,859
80 Quentin Tarantino $1,970,988,239 12 $164,249,020
81 Raja Gosnell $1,895,767,721 11 $172,342,520
82 David Leitch $1,883,975,682 7 $269,139,383
83 Lee Unkrich $1,865,393,892 2 $932,696,946
84 Dante Lam $1,837,161,171 9 $204,129,019
85 Rian Johnson $1,834,244,288 6 $305,707,381
86 Wolfgang Petersen $1,825,552,541 11 $165,959,322
87 Chen Sicheng $1,822,012,765 6 $303,668,794
88 Ivan Reitman $1,818,207,562 15 $121,213,837
89 Dennis Dugan $1,799,980,124 15 $119,998,675
90 Jay Roach $1,798,699,200 14 $128,478,514
91 Mike Newell $1,765,625,490 17 $103,860,323
92 Garry Marshall $1,765,337,519 18 $98,074,307
93 Taika Waititi $1,756,982,591 12 $146,415,216
94 Joe Johnston $1,734,395,893 11 $157,672,354
95 Greta Gerwig $1,732,392,159 3 $577,464,053
96 Marc Forster $1,725,985,076 13 $132,768,083
97 Gareth Edwards $1,694,071,531 5 $338,814,306
98 Ang Lee $1,693,367,944 14 $120,954,853
99 Denis Villeneuve $1,688,831,460 8 $211,103,933
100 Rob Letterman $1,666,324,849 7 $238,046,407

This table is updated daily to reflect the latest studio reports.

Note: This chart is not adjusted for inflation.

Image attributions

Steven Spielberg: By Romain DUBOIS (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (creativecommons.org)], via Wikimedia Commons

James Cameron: Angela George [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons