Steven Spielberg is the most commercially successful director of all time, and his movies have made over $10 billion at the global box office. In a career spanning over 50 years, Spielberg has excelled in a variety of genres, including sci-fi, action, horror, and drama. One common thread in all his creative pursuits has been massive box office success. Spielberg has set the record for the highest-grossing movie of all time on three separate occasions.
According to Spielberg himself, his first-ever movie made a profit of $1. He made Firelight on a $500 budget when he was just 17, and his ticket sales from the one-night showing totaled $501. From these humble beginnings, Spielberg developed a career as a director of box office smashes. This has led the director to create everything from prestige war movies and dramas to action flicks, musicals, and sci-fi releases, like his 2026 movie Disclosure Day.
Spielberg’s highest-grossing movies aren’t necessarily his best, since Schindler’s List, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Catch Me If You Can all fail to crack the top ten, but he has often managed to marry commercial success with critical acclaim.
15
Schindler’s List (1993)
In 1993, Steven Spielberg released two movies that could not have been more different. One was Jurassic Park, which ended up as his highest-grossing movie of all time. That movie was about giant dinosaurs and was a blockbuster extravaganza. The other movie was Schindler’s List, which is a drama about one man saving as many people as he can during the Holocaust in World War II.
While it made less than a third of what Jurassic Park earned at the box office, Schindler’s List still brought in $322.2 million worldwide on a $22 million budget. Schindler’s List remains one of Spielberg’s best critically acclaimed movies, earning seven Oscars, including Best Picture. It was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2004.
14
Indiana Jones And The Temple of Doom (1984)
All but one Indiana Jones film rank among Steven Spielberg’s top 15 highest-grossing movies of all time. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom sits fourth out of the five movies in the franchise, and it had the hardest time making its box office take. The movie was much darker than Raiders of the Lost Ark and was as much a horror adventure as anything, as Indy has to face a cult that worships the Hindu goddess Kali.
Still, the movie made $333 million on a $28 million budget, making it a huge success, even if it didn’t hit the level of the other movies in the series. The movie has gone on to achieve cult classic status, thanks to the darker storyline and great practical effects.
13
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
In 2002, Steven Spielberg directed the movie Catch Me If You Can, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale Jr., a real-life man who became a successful con artist for years before the FBI finally tracked him down. Tom Hanks stars as Carl Hanratty, the agent chasing Abagnale for years. With two major stars in the movie, it was almost guaranteed to be a box office hit.
The movie made $352.1 million on a $52 million budget, proving to be another success story for Spielberg. It also earned two Oscar nominations, one for Christopher Walken (Best Supporting Actor) and one for John Williams (Best Original Score).
12
Minority Report (2002)
In 2002, Steven Spielberg teamed up with Tom Cruise for the first time to direct an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story. This seemed like a no-brainer, and it was a box office and critical success, remaining one of the director’s best films of the 21st century. The story follows Cruise as a police chief named John Anderton who works in a Precrime program, where the police arrest people before they can commit a crime based on three clairvoyant precogs’ visions.
However, when the precogs predict that John will commit a murder in the future, he goes on the run to figure out what is going on. The movie made $358 million on a $102 million budget, and critics praised its sci-fi ideas and Spielberg’s execution. It earned one Oscar nomination and was listed on the New York Times Top 100 Movies of the 21st Century list.
11
The Adventures Of Tintin (2011)
Steven Spielberg’s first animated feature proved that he wasn’t afraid to try new things after already being at the summit of the movie industry for decades. The Adventures of Tintin is a fitting big-screen adaptation for Hergé’s beloved character, recapturing the same sense of grand adventure and intriguing mystery as the comic books. Spielberg takes to the medium of animation like a natural, and the freedom allows him to indulge his desire for action-packed spectacle.
With a budget of $135 million, The Adventures of Tintin delivered a solid box office haul at $373 million, but it might have been expected to do a little better. Animated movies can often struggle if they aren’t from one of the big animation studios, and The Adventures of Tintin‘s motion-capture style might also have been a drawback. If it had been a bigger success, an Adventures of Tintin sequel would probably have been made by now.
10
Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
Raiders of the Lost Ark was Steven Spielberg’s chance to make his own action-adventure movie, both paying respect to the films of David Lean and to the serials Spielberg enjoyed watching as a child. The movie had everything that makes the genre special, with Harrison Ford starring as Indiana Jones, a professor and treasure hunter who wants to save the prized Ark of the Covenant from the Nazis in World War II.
Raiders of the Lost Ark remains widely considered one of Spielberg’s greatest movies, and it is the highlight of the franchise, although it is also only the third highest-grossing movie from the Indiana Jones series at $389 million. Much of that is from the fact that the film was released in 1981, and box office numbers were not as high then, but it remains a film that has stood the test of time.
9
Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989)
If the Indiana Jones franchise had ended with The Last Crusade, as was the original plan, it would have been a perfect trilogy. After the darker tone of Temple of Doom, The Last Crusade moves out of prequel territory and sees Indy once again racing around the world to keep a powerful, ancient treasure out of the hands of the Nazis. One big difference between The Last Crusade and Raiders of the Lost Ark is that the threequel benefits from the comedic performance of Sean Connery as Indy’s father.
At the time, The Last Crusade capped Steven Spielberg’s trilogy with the biggest box office return of any Indiana Jones movie. It made over $100 million more than Raiders of the Lost Ark at $474 million, with Temple of Doom trailing behind in third place. The $48 million budget was also the franchise’s biggest back in 1989. The Last Crusade‘s success was one big reason why the franchise continued in the 21st century, even though the later sequels didn’t quite live up to Indy’s earlier adventures.
8
Jaws (1975)
Jaws was Steven Spielberg’s second movie to get a theatrical release, and it quickly established his reputation as an up-and-coming director worth watching. After 50 years, Jaws remains one of his best movies, mixing his flair for cinematic action with a gripping personal story that most similar thrillers don’t have the patience for. Jaws is known for its blood-soaked thrills and tense music by John Williams, but it’s also about three men from different walks of life who are forced to work together under intense pressure.
Jaws is credited with creating the summer blockbuster. It was the highest-grossing movie of all time for a short while before Star Wars came along, although Spielberg recaptured this title later in his career. With a budget of just $9 million, Jaws was also one of the most profitable movies ever, making $490 million. It inspired an entire subgenre of shark movies, although none of the imitators have ever come close to touching Jaws.
7
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Saving Private Ryan is often mentioned in conversations about the best war movies ever, largely due to the immersive atmosphere that Steven Spielberg’s direction creates. Scenes like the D-Day landing have been praised for their kinetic action, but Spielberg always maintains a focus on his characters, rather than cheap explosive thrills. Saving Private Ryan‘s historical accuracy has also drawn praise from veterans and experts.
Saving Private Ryan‘s budget of $70 million seems quaint by the standards of some modern blockbusters, but there have been many movies with three to four times the budget that have failed to create the same excitement. Saving Private Ryan‘s box office success of $482 million was echoed in its awards-season success. Although Spielberg never made a sequel, his World War II TV shows Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Masters of the Air are spiritual successors well worth watching.
6
War Of The Worlds (2005)
Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise are both used to huge box office success, and their 2005 sci-fi action movie certainly delivered results. Three years after Minority Report made $358 million, Spielberg and Cruise teamed up once again for War of the Worlds, an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ seminal sci-fi novel. The setting is over a hundred years later than Wells’ time, but Spielberg and Cruise capture the same wide-eyed awe of the novel.
Spielberg had made alien movies before War of the Worlds, but E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind are both characterized by their wholesome and optimistic sentiments. War of the Worlds has no room for such sweetness. It’s an action blockbuster that bristles with malevolence and horror. It makes good use of its $132 million budget to bring the tripods to life. It finished with $603 million.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
