Box Office Star Records > Worldwide > Lifetime Specific Technical Role > Top Worldwide Directors
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 [email protected].
1
| 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) |
| 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
| Best known as a Producer based on credits in that role in 10 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), Cherry ($0 in 2021), The Electric State ($0 in 2024) |
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 | Anthony Russo | $6,834,426,702 | 8 | $854,303,338 |
| 4 | Joe Russo | $6,834,426,702 | 9 | $759,380,745 |
| 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 | $6,334,440,534 | 10 | $633,444,053 |
| 8 | Christopher Nolan | $6,008,264,634 | 13 | $462,174,203 |
| 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 | $4,361,259,902 | 24 | $181,719,163 |
| 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 | $4,141,725,194 | 12 | $345,143,766 |
| 17 | Chris Columbus | $4,092,618,832 | 18 | $227,367,713 |
| 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 | $3,129,383,013 | 3 | $1,043,127,671 |
| 32 | Sam Mendes | $3,118,126,988 | 10 | $311,812,699 |
| 33 | Chris Buck | $3,111,527,967 | 4 | $777,881,992 |
| 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 | $2,420,013,776 | 13 | $186,154,906 |
| 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 | $2,330,415,488 | 22 | $105,927,977 |
| 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 | $2,304,517,165 | 12 | $192,043,097 |
| 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 | $2,180,325,228 | 6 | $363,387,538 |
| 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 | Mike Mitchell | $2,098,346,907 | 9 | $233,149,656 |
| 72 | Martin Campbell | $2,052,397,782 | 14 | $146,599,842 |
| 73 | Ron Clements | $2,050,649,653 | 7 | $292,949,950 |
| 74 | Rob Minkoff | $2,046,979,764 | 10 | $204,697,976 |
| 75 | Andy Wachowski | $2,037,901,522 | 6 | $339,650,254 |
| 76 | Rich Moore | $2,028,264,929 | 3 | $676,088,310 |
| 77 | John Musker | $2,027,044,119 | 6 | $337,840,687 |
| 78 | Louis Leterrier | $2,026,811,735 | 10 | $202,681,174 |
| 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 | $1,756,991,379 | 12 | $146,415,948 |
| 94 | Denis Villeneuve | $1,738,410,222 | 8 | $217,301,278 |
| 95 | Joe Johnston | $1,734,395,893 | 11 | $157,672,354 |
| 96 | Greta Gerwig | $1,732,392,159 | 3 | $577,464,053 |
| 97 | Marc Forster | $1,725,985,076 | 13 | $132,768,083 |
| 98 | Gareth Edwards | $1,694,071,531 | 5 | $338,814,306 |
| 99 | Ang Lee | $1,693,367,944 | 14 | $120,954,853 |
| 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
