Top Grossing Directors
by ethangentle | created - 1 week ago | updated - 1 week ago | PublicWhich one of these top 25 Highest Grossing Directors is your favorite? Discuss Here in the IMDb Community Forums
1. Steven Spielberg
Producer | Schindler's List
One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...
His Movies Have Grossed $10 Billion Worldwide
2. Anthony Russo
Director | Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Anthony Russo was born on February 3, 1970 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA as Anthony J. Russo. He is a producer and director, known for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
His Movies Have Grossed $6.8 Billion Worldwide
3. Peter Jackson
Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Peter Jackson was born as an only child in a small coast-side town in New Zealand in 1961. When a friend of his parents bought him a super 8 movie camera (because she saw how much he enjoyed taking photos), the then eight-year-old Peter instantly grabbed the thing to start recording his own movies,...
His Movies Have Grossed $6.5 Billion Worldwide
4. Michael Bay
Producer | Armageddon
A graduate of Wesleyan University, Michael Bay spent his 20s working on advertisements and music videos. His first projects after film school were in the music video business. He created music videos for Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Lionel Richie, Wilson Phillips, Donny Osmond and Divinyls. His work won...
His Movies Have Grossed $6.4 Billion Worldwide
5. James Cameron
Writer | Avatar
James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his ...
His Movies Have Grossed $6.2 Billion Worldwide
6. David Yates
Director | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
David Yates was born on October 8, 1963 in St. Helens, Merseyside, England. He is a director and producer, known for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and The Legend of Tarzan (2016).
His Movies Have Grossed $5.9 Billion Worldwide
7. Christopher Nolan
Writer | Tenet
Best known for his cerebral, often nonlinear, storytelling, acclaimed writer-director Christopher Nolan was born on July 30, 1970, in London, England. Over the course of 15 years of filmmaking, Nolan has gone from low-budget independent films to working on some of the biggest blockbusters ever made.
...
His Movies Have Grossed $4.9 Billion Worldwide
8. J.J. Abrams
Producer | Lost
Jeffrey Jacob Abrams was born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, the son of TV producer parents. Abrams planned on going to dental school, but decided to study film at Sarah Lawrence College. At 15, he wrote the music for Don Dohler's Nightbeast (1982). In his senior year, he and Jill ...
His Movies Have Grossed $4.6 Billion Worldwide
9. Tim Burton
Producer | Edward Scissorhands
Timothy Walter Burton was born in Burbank, California, to Jean Rae (Erickson), who owned a cat-themed gift shop, and William Reed Burton, who worked for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department. He spent most of his childhood as a recluse, drawing cartoons, and watching old movies (he was ...
His Movies Have Grossed $4.4 Billion Worldwide
10. Robert Zemeckis
Writer | Back to the Future
A whiz-kid with special effects, Robert is from the Spielberg camp of film-making (Steven Spielberg produced many of his films). Usually working with writing partner Bob Gale, Robert's earlier films show he has a talent for zany comedy (Romancing the Stone (1984), 1941 (1979)) and special effect ...
His Movies Have Grossed $4.3 Billion Worldwide
11. Jon Favreau
Producer | Chef
Initially an indie film favorite, actor Jon Favreau has progressed to strong mainstream visibility into the millennium and, after nearly two decades in the business, is still enjoying character stardom as well as earning notice as a writer/producer/director.
The amiable, husky-framed actor with the ...
His Movies Have Grossed $4.3 Billion Worldwide
12. Ron Howard
Actor | Arrested Development
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this generation's most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) to the hit comedies Parenthood (1989) and Splash (1984), he has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films.
Howard ...
His Movies Have Grossed $4.3 Billion Worldwide
13. Ridley Scott
Producer | The Martian
Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear (then County Durham). His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him ...
His Movies Have Grossed $4.1 Billion Worldwide
14. Chris Columbus
Producer | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Born in Pennsylvania and raised in Ohio, Chris Columbus was first inspired to make movies after seeing "The Godfather" at age 15. After enrolling at NYU film school, he sold his first screenplay (never produced) while a sophomore there. After graduation Columbus tried to sell his fourth script, "...
His Movies Have Grossed $4 Billion Worldwide
15. Roland Emmerich
Writer | Independence Day
Roland Emmerich is a German film director and producer of blockbuster films like The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Godzilla (1998), Independence Day (1996) and The Patriot (2000). Before fame, he originally wanted to be a production designer, but decided to be a director, after watching the original ...
His Movies Have Grossed $3.9 Billion Worldwide
16. Bryan Singer
Director | X-Men
Bryan Singer was born on September 17, 1965 in New York City, New York, USA as Bryan Jay Singer. He is a producer and director, known for X-Men (2000), The Usual Suspects (1995) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).
His Movies Have Grossed $3.7 Billion Worldwide
17. Pierre Coffin
Director | Despicable Me 2
Pierre Coffin was born on March 15, 1967 in France. He is a director and writer, known for Despicable Me 2 (2013), Minions (2015) and Despicable Me 3 (2017).
His Movies Have Grossed $3.7 Billion Worldwide
18. Gore Verbinski
Director | Rango
Gore Verbinski, one of American cinema's most inventive directors who was a punk-rock guitarist as a teenager and had to sell his guitar to buy his first camera, is now the director of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) which made the industry record for highest opening weekend of ...
His Movies Have Grossed $3.6 Billion Worldwide
19. James Wan
Producer | The Conjuring 2
James Wan (born 26 February 1977) is an Australian film producer, screenwriter and film director of Malaysian Chinese descent. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw (2004) and creating Billy the puppet. Wan has also directed Dead Silence (2007), Death Sentence (2007), Insidious (2010)...
His Movies Have Grossed $3.6 Billion Worldwide
20. George Lucas
Writer | Star Wars
George Walton Lucas, Jr. was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, California. His father was a stationery store owner and he had three siblings. During his late teen years, he went to Thomas Downey High School and was very much interested in drag racing. He planned to become a professional racecar ...
His Movies Have Grossed $3.4 Billion Worldwide
21. Brad Bird
Writer | The Incredibles
Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird is an American director, screenwriter, animator, producer and occasional voice actor, known for both animated and live-action films. Bird was born in Kalispell, Montana, the youngest of four children of Marjorie A. (née Cross) and Philip Cullen Bird. His father worked in...
His Movies Have Grossed $3.4 Billion Worldwide
22. Francis Lawrence
Director | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Francis Lawrence was born on March 26, 1971 in Vienna, Austria. He is a director and producer, known for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), I Am Legend (2007) and Constantine (2005).
His Movies Have Grossed $3.3 Billion Worldwide
23. Clint Eastwood
Actor | Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, the son of Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood, a housewife turned IBM operator. He had a comfortable, middle-class upbringing in nearby Piedmont. At school ...
His Movies Have Grossed $3.3 Billion Worldwide
24. Sam Raimi
Director | Spider-Man
Highly inventive U.S. film director/producer/writer/actor Sam Raimi first came to the attention of film fans with the savage, yet darkly humorous, low-budget horror film, The Evil Dead (1981). From his childhood, Raimi was a fan of the cinema and, before he was ten-years-old, he was out making ...
His Movies Have Grossed $3.3 Billion Worldwide
25. Chris Renaud
Actor | Despicable Me 2
Director Chris Renaud has established himself as a heavyweight in the world of animation following the phenomenal box office success of recent movies Despicable Me (2010), Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012) and Despicable Me 2 (2013). Along with Pierre Coffin and Eric Guillon, he also co-created the ...
His Movies Have Grossed $3.2 Billion Worldwide
Tell Your Friends