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-Executive Producers - 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
| Best known as an Executive Producer based on credits in that role in 55 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) |
2
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) |
3
Anthony Russo
| Best known as a Producer based on credits in that role in 10 films. |
| Top films contributed to this record: Avengers: Endgame ($2,748,242,781 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), Avengers: Doomsday ($0 in 2026), Cherry ($0 in 2021), The Electric State ($0 in 2024) |
Complete List
| Rank | Name | Worldwide Box Office |
Movies | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steven Spielberg | $10,704,179,444 | 37 | $289,302,147 |
| 2 | James Cameron | $8,702,543,077 | 14 | $621,610,220 |
| 3 | Anthony Russo | $6,793,757,198 | 9 | $754,861,911 |
| 4 | Joe Russo | $6,793,757,198 | 10 | $679,375,720 |
| 5 | Peter Jackson | $6,545,983,828 | 15 | $436,398,922 |
| 6 | Michael Bay | $6,495,849,210 | 17 | $382,108,777 |
| 7 | David Yates | $6,332,979,454 | 10 | $633,297,945 |
| 8 | Christopher Nolan | $6,023,034,609 | 13 | $463,310,355 |
| 9 | Tim Burton | $4,866,367,960 | 20 | $243,318,398 |
| 10 | J.J. Abrams | $4,637,580,337 | 7 | $662,511,477 |
| 11 | Ridley Scott | $4,582,897,004 | 31 | $147,835,387 |
| 12 | Robert Zemeckis | $4,366,259,902 | 24 | $181,927,496 |
| 13 | Jon Favreau | $4,334,094,009 | 10 | $433,409,401 |
| 14 | Ron Howard | $4,302,388,821 | 34 | $126,540,848 |
| 15 | Sam Raimi | $4,263,778,129 | 15 | $284,251,875 |
| 16 | Chris Renaud | $4,167,324,636 | 6 | $694,554,106 |
| 17 | James Wan | $4,141,526,453 | 12 | $345,127,204 |
| 18 | Chris Columbus | $4,092,707,318 | 18 | $227,372,629 |
| 19 | Shawn Levy | $4,049,525,616 | 14 | $289,251,830 |
| 20 | Roland Emmerich | $4,015,708,066 | 15 | $267,713,871 |
| 21 | Jon Watts | $3,934,883,628 | 6 | $655,813,938 |
| 22 | Pierre Coffin | $3,710,005,544 | 5 | $742,001,109 |
| 23 | Bryan Singer | $3,708,723,733 | 10 | $370,872,373 |
| 24 | Francis Lawrence | $3,696,539,613 | 12 | $308,044,968 |
| 25 | Gore Verbinski | $3,682,489,019 | 11 | $334,771,729 |
| 26 | George Lucas | $3,468,170,743 | 6 | $578,028,457 |
| 27 | Brad Bird | $3,433,470,811 | 6 | $572,245,135 |
| 28 | Todd Phillips | $3,371,845,227 | 11 | $306,531,384 |
| 29 | Clint Eastwood | $3,337,177,414 | 40 | $83,429,435 |
| 30 | M. Night Shyamalan | $3,245,338,712 | 15 | $216,355,914 |
| 31 | Zack Snyder | $3,170,405,984 | 13 | $243,877,383 |
| 32 | Kyle Balda | $3,127,508,980 | 4 | $781,877,245 |
| 33 | Sam Mendes | $3,118,126,988 | 10 | $311,812,699 |
| 34 | Carlos Saldanha | $3,113,367,203 | 8 | $389,170,900 |
| 35 | Chris Buck | $3,110,865,993 | 4 | $777,716,498 |
| 36 | Bill Condon | $3,046,646,484 | 13 | $234,357,422 |
| 37 | Justin Lin | $3,012,541,769 | 10 | $301,254,177 |
| 38 | Joss Whedon | $2,955,065,480 | 4 | $738,766,370 |
| 39 | Tom McGrath | $2,899,240,500 | 7 | $414,177,214 |
| 40 | Andrew Stanton | $2,776,387,102 | 5 | $555,277,420 |
| 41 | Guy Ritchie | $2,769,606,550 | 18 | $153,867,031 |
| 42 | Jennifer Lee | $2,725,032,133 | 2 | $1,362,516,067 |
| 43 | Rob Marshall | $2,698,628,525 | 7 | $385,518,361 |
| 44 | James Gunn | $2,697,225,862 | 9 | $299,691,762 |
| 45 | Colin Trevorrow | $2,684,288,396 | 5 | $536,857,679 |
| 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 | Kaige Chen | $2,464,673,134 | 13 | $189,590,241 |
| 50 | James Mangold | $2,422,568,177 | 13 | $186,351,398 |
| 51 | Eric Darnell | $2,422,562,005 | 5 | $484,512,401 |
| 52 | Barry Sonnenfeld | $2,422,304,038 | 12 | $201,858,670 |
| 53 | Dante Lam | $2,380,552,706 | 10 | $238,055,271 |
| 54 | Ryan Coogler | $2,379,259,854 | 5 | $475,851,971 |
| 55 | Tsui Hark | $2,362,472,740 | 13 | $181,728,672 |
| 56 | Steven Soderbergh | $2,348,529,820 | 37 | $63,473,779 |
| 57 | Zhang Yimou | $2,329,488,862 | 22 | $105,885,857 |
| 58 | Martin Scorsese | $2,310,139,475 | 31 | $74,520,628 |
| 59 | Mike Mitchell | $2,283,774,947 | 9 | $253,752,772 |
| 60 | Christopher McQuarrie | $2,272,561,989 | 6 | $378,760,332 |
| 61 | Jon Turteltaub | $2,268,741,427 | 12 | $189,061,786 |
| 62 | Pete Docter | $2,262,326,653 | 4 | $565,581,663 |
| 63 | F. Gary Gray | $2,251,283,018 | 14 | $160,805,930 |
| 64 | Richard Donner | $2,186,600,304 | 19 | $115,084,227 |
| 65 | Joseph Kosinski | $2,175,979,415 | 6 | $362,663,236 |
| 66 | Matt Reeves | $2,171,416,325 | 7 | $310,202,332 |
| 67 | Tony Scott | $2,164,614,680 | 16 | $135,288,418 |
| 68 | Peyton Reed | $2,163,267,194 | 7 | $309,038,171 |
| 69 | Jake Kasdan | $2,162,688,535 | 8 | $270,336,067 |
| 70 | Brett Ratner | $2,153,851,289 | 12 | $179,487,607 |
| 71 | Byron Howard | $2,142,514,821 | 4 | $535,628,705 |
| 72 | David Fincher | $2,108,761,743 | 12 | $175,730,145 |
| 73 | David Leitch | $2,064,954,037 | 7 | $294,993,434 |
| 74 | Martin Campbell | $2,052,397,782 | 15 | $136,826,519 |
| 75 | Ron Clements | $2,049,548,357 | 7 | $292,792,622 |
| 76 | Rob Minkoff | $2,049,160,322 | 10 | $204,916,032 |
| 77 | Andy Wachowski | $2,037,901,522 | 6 | $339,650,254 |
| 78 | Louis Leterrier | $2,026,790,713 | 11 | $184,253,701 |
| 79 | Rich Moore | $2,026,680,121 | 3 | $675,560,040 |
| 80 | John Musker | $2,025,942,823 | 6 | $337,657,137 |
| 81 | Kenneth Branagh | $1,972,820,423 | 22 | $89,673,656 |
| 82 | Quentin Tarantino | $1,970,988,077 | 12 | $164,249,006 |
| 83 | Raja Gosnell | $1,895,767,721 | 11 | $172,342,520 |
| 84 | Lee Unkrich | $1,865,281,243 | 2 | $932,640,622 |
| 85 | Chen Sicheng | $1,863,942,730 | 7 | $266,277,533 |
| 86 | Wolfgang Petersen | $1,825,579,002 | 11 | $165,961,727 |
| 87 | Rian Johnson | $1,825,190,218 | 6 | $304,198,370 |
| 88 | Ivan Reitman | $1,818,207,562 | 15 | $121,213,837 |
| 89 | Denis Villeneuve | $1,818,089,514 | 9 | $202,009,946 |
| 90 | Dennis Dugan | $1,799,980,124 | 15 | $119,998,675 |
| 91 | Jay Roach | $1,798,699,200 | 15 | $119,913,280 |
| 92 | Mike Newell | $1,765,479,454 | 17 | $103,851,733 |
| 93 | Garry Marshall | $1,765,337,519 | 18 | $98,074,307 |
| 94 | Taika Waititi | $1,757,029,728 | 11 | $159,729,975 |
| 95 | Greta Gerwig | $1,745,897,751 | 3 | $581,965,917 |
| 96 | Joe Johnston | $1,734,395,893 | 11 | $157,672,354 |
| 97 | Marc Forster | $1,732,971,983 | 13 | $133,305,537 |
| 98 | Kelsey Mann | $1,696,369,179 | 1 | $1,696,369,179 |
| 99 | Gareth Edwards | $1,694,071,531 | 6 | $282,345,255 |
| 100 | Ang Lee | $1,693,367,944 | 14 | $120,954,853 |
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
