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 56 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 ($583,490,172 in 2018), Jaws ($497,165,413 in 1975), Saving Private Ryan ($485,035,085 in 1998), 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 15 films. |
| Top films contributed to this record: Avatar ($2,923,706,026 in 2009), Avatar: The Way of Water ($2,322,902,023 in 2022), Titanic ($2,223,048,786 in 1997), Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($515,344,899 in 1991), True Lies ($365,300,000 in 1994), Aliens ($183,291,256 in 1986), The Terminator ($78,019,031 in 1984), The Abyss ($54,793,997 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 13 films. |
| Top films contributed to this record: Avengers: Endgame ($2,717,503,922 in 2019), Avengers: Infinity War ($2,048,158,241 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 2025) |
Complete List
| Rank | Name | Worldwide Box Office |
Movies | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steven Spielberg | $10,722,123,483 | 37 | $289,787,121 |
| 2 | James Cameron | $8,707,914,015 | 14 | $621,993,858 |
| 3 | Anthony Russo | $6,762,816,826 | 9 | $751,424,092 |
| 4 | Joe Russo | $6,762,816,826 | 10 | $676,281,683 |
| 5 | Peter Jackson | $6,553,621,652 | 16 | $409,601,353 |
| 6 | Michael Bay | $6,495,839,639 | 17 | $382,108,214 |
| 7 | David Yates | $6,354,627,148 | 10 | $635,462,715 |
| 8 | Christopher Nolan | $6,046,381,227 | 14 | $431,884,373 |
| 9 | Ridley Scott | $5,043,525,588 | 32 | $157,610,175 |
| 10 | Tim Burton | $4,876,242,675 | 20 | $243,812,134 |
| 11 | J.J. Abrams | $4,637,580,337 | 7 | $662,511,477 |
| 12 | Robert Zemeckis | $4,396,288,538 | 25 | $175,851,542 |
| 13 | Jon Favreau | $4,336,018,074 | 10 | $433,601,807 |
| 14 | Ron Howard | $4,310,835,830 | 36 | $119,745,440 |
| 15 | Sam Raimi | $4,266,568,715 | 16 | $266,660,545 |
| 16 | Chris Renaud | $4,176,449,267 | 6 | $696,074,878 |
| 17 | James Wan | $4,174,708,796 | 12 | $347,892,400 |
| 18 | Chris Columbus | $4,092,285,485 | 20 | $204,614,274 |
| 19 | Shawn Levy | $4,050,867,277 | 16 | $253,179,205 |
| 20 | Roland Emmerich | $4,015,708,066 | 15 | $267,713,871 |
| 21 | Jon Watts | $3,934,883,628 | 6 | $655,813,938 |
| 22 | Francis Lawrence | $3,758,130,588 | 12 | $313,177,549 |
| 23 | Pierre Coffin | $3,710,005,544 | 5 | $742,001,109 |
| 24 | Bryan Singer | $3,708,723,733 | 10 | $370,872,373 |
| 25 | Gore Verbinski | $3,679,473,328 | 12 | $306,622,777 |
| 26 | George Lucas | $3,522,061,896 | 6 | $587,010,316 |
| 27 | Brad Bird | $3,433,846,498 | 6 | $572,307,750 |
| 28 | Todd Phillips | $3,393,161,492 | 11 | $308,469,227 |
| 29 | Clint Eastwood | $3,370,912,544 | 40 | $84,272,814 |
| 30 | James Gunn | $3,315,546,456 | 10 | $331,554,646 |
| 31 | M. Night Shyamalan | $3,246,538,712 | 16 | $202,908,670 |
| 32 | Zack Snyder | $3,177,750,173 | 14 | $226,982,155 |
| 33 | Kyle Balda | $3,127,787,910 | 4 | $781,946,978 |
| 34 | Carlos Saldanha | $3,113,643,992 | 8 | $389,205,499 |
| 35 | Sam Mendes | $3,112,775,307 | 14 | $222,341,093 |
| 36 | Chris Buck | $3,104,257,376 | 4 | $776,064,344 |
| 37 | Byron Howard | $3,077,273,051 | 5 | $615,454,610 |
| 38 | Bill Condon | $3,038,601,947 | 13 | $233,738,611 |
| 39 | Justin Lin | $3,012,761,684 | 12 | $251,063,474 |
| 40 | Rich Moore | $2,962,305,130 | 4 | $740,576,283 |
| 41 | Joss Whedon | $2,955,065,480 | 4 | $738,766,370 |
| 42 | Tom McGrath | $2,899,240,500 | 7 | $414,177,214 |
| 43 | Christopher McQuarrie | $2,863,278,525 | 6 | $477,213,088 |
| 44 | Joseph Kosinski | $2,796,028,482 | 7 | $399,432,640 |
| 45 | Andrew Stanton | $2,776,387,102 | 5 | $555,277,420 |
| 46 | Guy Ritchie | $2,776,314,651 | 19 | $146,121,824 |
| 47 | Ryan Coogler | $2,752,780,711 | 6 | $458,796,785 |
| 48 | Jennifer Lee | $2,720,906,734 | 2 | $1,360,453,367 |
| 49 | Rob Marshall | $2,698,628,525 | 7 | $385,518,361 |
| 50 | Colin Trevorrow | $2,684,288,396 | 5 | $536,857,679 |
| 51 | Jon M. Chu | $2,635,197,835 | 15 | $175,679,856 |
| 52 | Andrew Adamson | $2,599,341,852 | 6 | $433,223,642 |
| 53 | James Mangold | $2,562,995,870 | 14 | $183,071,134 |
| 54 | Gareth Edwards | $2,562,931,859 | 6 | $427,155,310 |
| 55 | Conrad Vernon | $2,523,773,300 | 7 | $360,539,043 |
| 56 | John Lasseter | $2,476,854,659 | 6 | $412,809,110 |
| 57 | Eric Darnell | $2,422,562,005 | 5 | $484,512,401 |
| 58 | Barry Sonnenfeld | $2,422,285,663 | 12 | $201,857,139 |
| 59 | Steven Soderbergh | $2,403,861,971 | 38 | $63,259,526 |
| 60 | Kaige Chen | $2,370,532,720 | 15 | $158,035,515 |
| 61 | Jake Kasdan | $2,345,805,050 | 9 | $260,645,006 |
| 62 | Richard Donner | $2,311,746,564 | 20 | $115,587,328 |
| 63 | Martin Scorsese | $2,310,263,292 | 31 | $74,524,622 |
| 64 | Mike Mitchell | $2,285,956,322 | 9 | $253,995,147 |
| 65 | Zhang Yimou | $2,278,080,318 | 23 | $99,046,970 |
| 66 | Jon Turteltaub | $2,270,717,341 | 13 | $174,670,565 |
| 67 | Dean DeBlois | $2,266,129,986 | 5 | $453,225,997 |
| 68 | Pete Docter | $2,260,485,197 | 4 | $565,121,299 |
| 69 | F. Gary Gray | $2,204,758,336 | 14 | $157,482,738 |
| 70 | Tony Scott | $2,187,914,680 | 16 | $136,744,668 |
| 71 | Chen Sicheng | $2,185,551,352 | 8 | $273,193,919 |
| 72 | Matt Reeves | $2,177,978,749 | 7 | $311,139,821 |
| 73 | Peyton Reed | $2,175,703,071 | 7 | $310,814,724 |
| 74 | Tsui Hark | $2,173,791,025 | 16 | $135,861,939 |
| 75 | Brett Ratner | $2,153,851,289 | 14 | $153,846,521 |
| 76 | Dante Lam | $2,141,527,777 | 10 | $214,152,778 |
| 77 | David Fincher | $2,109,544,173 | 14 | $150,681,727 |
| 78 | David Leitch | $2,065,249,525 | 10 | $206,524,953 |
| 79 | Ron Clements | $2,054,873,568 | 7 | $293,553,367 |
| 80 | Martin Campbell | $2,053,425,774 | 17 | $120,789,751 |
| 81 | Rob Minkoff | $2,049,160,322 | 10 | $204,916,032 |
| 82 | Andy Wachowski | $2,040,609,186 | 6 | $340,101,531 |
| 83 | Louis Leterrier | $2,026,598,542 | 11 | $184,236,231 |
| 84 | John Musker | $2,024,172,710 | 6 | $337,362,118 |
| 85 | Zi Jiao (饺子) | $2,001,155,094 | 1 | $2,001,155,094 |
| 86 | Kenneth Branagh | $1,981,317,636 | 23 | $86,144,245 |
| 87 | Quentin Tarantino | $1,974,417,025 | 13 | $151,878,233 |
| 88 | Raja Gosnell | $1,895,767,721 | 11 | $172,342,520 |
| 89 | Lee Unkrich | $1,865,015,358 | 3 | $621,671,786 |
| 90 | Jay Roach | $1,850,615,833 | 16 | $115,663,490 |
| 91 | Ruben Fleischer | $1,845,207,678 | 8 | $230,650,960 |
| 92 | Rian Johnson | $1,827,690,218 | 6 | $304,615,036 |
| 93 | Denis Villeneuve | $1,825,621,018 | 11 | $165,965,547 |
| 94 | Wolfgang Petersen | $1,825,579,002 | 11 | $165,961,727 |
| 95 | Ivan Reitman | $1,818,207,562 | 15 | $121,213,837 |
| 96 | Dennis Dugan | $1,800,417,909 | 15 | $120,027,861 |
| 97 | Mike Newell | $1,766,102,056 | 17 | $103,888,356 |
| 98 | Garry Marshall | $1,765,337,519 | 18 | $98,074,307 |
| 99 | Taika Waititi | $1,756,949,224 | 11 | $159,722,657 |
| 100 | Chris Sanders | $1,755,092,671 | 5 | $351,018,534 |
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
