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

Top Grossing Director at the Domestic Box OfficeBETA


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

This list shows the highest grossing Directors based on the domestic 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 55 films.
Top films contributed to this record: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ($439,454,989 in 1982), Jurassic Park ($415,404,543 in 1993), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($317,101,119 in 2008), Jaws ($273,661,595 in 1975), War of the Worlds ($234,280,354 in 2005), The Lost World: Jurassic Park ($229,086,679 in 1997), Raiders of the Lost Ark ($225,686,079 in 1981), Saving Private Ryan ($216,335,085 in 1998), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ($197,171,806 in 1989), Lincoln ($182,207,973 in 2012)

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  2
James Cameron photo
James Cameron
Best known as a Screenwriter based on credits in that role in 14 films.
Top films contributed to this record: Avatar ($785,221,649 in 2009), Avatar: The Way of Water ($684,075,767 in 2022), Titanic ($674,460,013 in 1997), Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($203,464,105 in 1991), True Lies ($146,282,411 in 1994), Aliens ($85,160,248 in 1986), The Abyss ($54,763,229 in 1989), The Terminator ($38,019,031 in 1984), Ghosts of the Abyss ($17,093,668 in 2003), Aliens of the Deep ($8,968,684 in 2005)

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  3
Christopher Nolan photo
Christopher Nolan
Best known as a Director based on credits in that role in 14 films.
Top films contributed to this record: The Dark Knight ($536,625,724 in 2008), The Dark Knight Rises ($448,139,099 in 2012), Oppenheimer ($330,078,895 in 2023), Inception ($293,662,683 in 2010), Batman Begins ($205,343,774 in 2005), Interstellar ($203,225,563 in 2014), Dunkirk ($190,068,280 in 2017), Insomnia ($67,263,182 in 2002), Tenet ($59,473,550 in 2020), The Prestige ($53,089,891 in 2006)

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Complete List

Rank Name Domestic
Box Office
Movies Average
1 Steven Spielberg $4,636,662,927 37 $125,315,214
2 James Cameron $2,697,508,805 14 $192,679,200
3 Christopher Nolan $2,412,615,848 14 $172,329,703
4 Michael Bay $2,349,060,734 18 $130,503,374
5 Joe Russo $2,280,821,799 10 $228,082,180
6 Anthony Russo $2,280,821,799 9 $253,424,644
7 Tim Burton $2,251,650,374 20 $112,582,519
8 J.J. Abrams $2,198,878,974 7 $314,125,568
9 Peter Jackson $2,162,574,522 15 $144,171,635
10 Robert Zemeckis $2,127,381,152 25 $85,095,246
11 Ron Howard $2,107,492,567 36 $58,541,460
12 Clint Eastwood $1,991,216,528 40 $49,780,413
13 Ridley Scott $1,943,874,042 32 $60,746,064
14 Sam Raimi $1,940,018,367 16 $121,251,148
15 David Yates $1,891,553,404 10 $189,155,340
16 Shawn Levy $1,888,149,318 16 $118,009,332
17 Jon Favreau $1,887,952,810 10 $188,795,281
18 George Lucas $1,789,190,544 6 $298,198,424
19 Chris Columbus $1,751,557,538 19 $92,187,239
20 Chris Renaud $1,724,287,095 6 $287,381,183
21 Francis Lawrence $1,647,831,838 12 $137,319,320
22 Ryan Coogler $1,558,165,966 5 $311,633,193
23 Jon Watts $1,540,944,562 6 $256,824,094
24 Gore Verbinski $1,529,313,769 12 $127,442,814
25 M. Night Shyamalan $1,470,912,210 16 $91,932,013
26 Todd Phillips $1,431,000,447 11 $130,090,950
27 Brad Bird $1,402,837,707 6 $233,806,285
28 Roland Emmerich $1,368,123,123 15 $91,208,208
29 Bryan Singer $1,358,536,966 10 $135,853,697
30 Zack Snyder $1,319,613,325 13 $101,508,717
31 Richard Donner $1,296,047,859 20 $64,802,393
32 James Wan $1,285,485,165 12 $107,123,764
33 Bill Condon $1,250,466,252 13 $96,189,712
34 Pierre Coffin $1,221,492,160 5 $244,298,432
35 Andrew Stanton $1,163,691,774 5 $232,738,355
36 James Gunn $1,155,311,072 9 $128,367,897
37 Andrew Adamson $1,154,044,965 6 $192,340,828
38 James Mangold $1,149,346,719 13 $88,411,286
39 Brett Ratner $1,141,127,806 12 $95,093,984
40 Steven Soderbergh $1,128,914,799 38 $29,708,284
41 Jay Roach $1,126,880,733 16 $70,430,046
42 Joss Whedon $1,112,207,145 4 $278,051,786
43 Joseph Kosinski $1,110,956,137 6 $185,159,356
44 Conrad Vernon $1,106,588,133 7 $158,084,019
45 Martin Scorsese $1,102,887,314 31 $35,577,010
46 Ivan Reitman $1,100,044,915 15 $73,336,328
47 Dennis Dugan $1,096,202,008 15 $73,080,134
48 Tony Scott $1,091,945,398 16 $68,246,587
49 Rob Marshall $1,086,580,004 7 $155,225,715
50 Barry Sonnenfeld $1,075,149,233 12 $89,595,769
51 Jon Turteltaub $1,052,846,655 13 $80,988,204
52 John Lasseter $1,051,798,233 6 $175,299,706
53 Jon M. Chu $1,047,160,930 14 $74,797,209
54 Colin Trevorrow $1,037,420,766 5 $207,484,153
55 Garry Marshall $1,023,085,661 18 $56,838,092
56 Justin Lin $1,019,230,661 11 $92,657,333
57 Jake Kasdan $1,016,819,667 8 $127,102,458
58 Tyler Perry $1,012,562,012 32 $31,642,563
59 Chris Buck $1,001,168,102 4 $250,292,026
60 Sam Mendes $994,264,034 14 $71,018,860
61 Guy Ritchie $984,371,051 19 $51,809,003
62 Kyle Balda $971,219,765 4 $242,804,941
63 Tom McGrath $970,881,049 7 $138,697,293
64 Joel Schumacher $962,409,757 23 $41,843,902
65 Pete Docter $940,561,454 4 $235,140,364
66 Gareth Edwards $934,750,930 6 $155,791,822
67 Tim Story $922,089,771 21 $43,909,037
68 Peyton Reed $916,410,864 7 $130,915,838
69 Mike Mitchell $900,235,192 9 $100,026,132
70 Carlos Saldanha $897,345,868 8 $112,168,234
71 Tom Shadyac $894,892,308 8 $111,861,539
72 Rob Minkoff $886,169,375 10 $88,616,938
73 Jennifer Lee $878,326,587 2 $439,163,294
74 Rian Johnson $869,107,390 6 $144,851,232
75 Christopher McQuarrie $865,467,229 6 $144,244,538
76 Joe Johnston $864,635,053 11 $78,603,187
77 David Fincher $864,274,467 14 $61,733,891
78 Peter Segal $843,206,980 12 $70,267,248
79 Ron Clements $842,889,830 7 $120,412,833
80 F. Gary Gray $837,019,935 14 $59,787,138
81 Matt Reeves $822,878,410 7 $117,554,059
82 Antoine Fuqua $821,272,125 23 $35,707,484
83 Raja Gosnell $820,457,129 11 $74,587,012
84 Sydney Pollack $819,954,986 18 $45,553,055
85 John Musker $819,284,296 6 $136,547,383
86 Barry Levinson $815,381,574 28 $29,120,771
87 Bobby Farrelly $808,473,827 16 $50,529,614
88 Robert Rodriguez $800,982,309 25 $32,039,292
89 Quentin Tarantino $796,272,220 12 $66,356,018
90 Greta Gerwig $793,839,704 4 $198,459,926
91 Dean DeBlois $781,648,765 5 $156,329,753
92 Wolfgang Petersen $776,217,802 11 $70,565,255
93 Oliver Stone $765,612,122 22 $34,800,551
94 Eric Darnell $764,270,657 5 $152,854,131
95 Peter Farrelly $758,730,940 18 $42,151,719
96 Chris Sanders $757,036,241 5 $151,407,248
97 Paul Greengrass $753,465,880 12 $62,788,823
98 Byron Howard $752,237,385 5 $150,447,477
99 Adam Shankman $751,985,720 11 $68,362,338
100 Mike Nichols $751,550,861 18 $41,752,826

The Domestic Market is defined as the North American movie territory (consisting of the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and Guam).

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

Christopher Nolan: By Photograph by Richard Goldschmidt, www.piqtured.comDerivative by Keraunoscopia [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons