Many great directors don’t see their best movies reflected in their box office statistics. How much money a movie makes is rarely a good indicator of its quality, because there are many different factors which influence box office returns. Films in big franchises have an audience waiting for them, as do popular actors. Directors rarely have the same kind of pull, so they are often reliant on these other factors to drive up the financial potential of their movies. A film’s reviews will only affect its box office returns to a certain extent.
Although the best directors have plenty of comparable movies, only one can claim the top spot as their highest-grossing movie ever. This leads to some odd trivia when the highest-grossing movies don’t line up with the best or most influential. Directors who join a big franchise for one or two movies are much more likely to make more profitable movies with pre-existing characters, even if these blockbusters don’t always reflect their best work. Great movies and profitable movies are often two completely different things, and it’s interesting to see a director’s filmography through a financial lens.
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10 Christopher Nolan
The Dark Knight Rise ($1.08 billion)
Oppenheimer was a box office triumph, but it fell just short of Christopher Nolan’s highest-grossing movie so far, The Dark Knight Rises. Oppenheimer is an early Oscar favorite, but it isn’t the only one of Nolan’s movies which surpasses The Dark Knight Rises. The second movie in Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight, is one of the most influential and thrilling superhero movies of all time, and The Dark Knight Rises lives in its shadow. Dunkirk, Inception, Interstellar and Memento are all arguably better than The Dark Knight Rises too.
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9 Guy Ritchie
Aladdin ($1.05 billion)
Guy Ritchie is best known for action thrillers, especially his idiosyncratic British gangster movies. Snatch, The Gentlemen, and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are much more in line with his public image than Aladdin. The box office appeal of Will Smith and the use of beloved Disney characters were enough to push the live-action remake over $1 billion, but Aladdin still divided critics. After Aladdin, Ritchie went back to the action genre, and his upcoming war movie, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, further proves that Aladdin was an unusual departure.
8 Spike Lee
Inside Man ($184.4 million)
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington have worked together on four different movies. Malcolm X is probably the best of the bunch, but Spike Lee’s highest-grossing movie is the 2006 heist thriller Inside Man. Washington plays a detective who comes face-to-face with an intelligent bank robber, and he tries to figure out the man’s mysterious plan. It’s a fun and twisty heist movie, but it doesn’t compare to Spike Lee’s seminal low-budget work, with movies such as Do the Right Thing and She’s Gotta Have It doing a lot with perceptive dialogue and creative storytelling.
7 Stanley Kubrick
Eyes Wide Shut ($104.2 million)
Stanley Kubrick is one of the most revolutionary directors of all time, shaking up a variety of different genres, but Eyes Wide Shut is not usually considered alongside his best movies. The psychological drama starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman remains just as divisive over two decades later, while classics such as The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and 2001: A Space Odyssey are revered. Kubrick’s legacy was never about box office success. If he had made more movies, he would have achieved more impressive statistics, but Eyes Wide Shut was his first project for 12 years.
6 Martin Scorsese
The Wolf of Wall Street ($389.8 million)
The Wolf of Wall Street has memorable quotes, great physical comedy, and lavish parties. For many other directors it would represent the pinnacle of their careers, but it’s a testament to Martin Scorsese’s remarkable filmography that it barely enters the conversation of his best movies. The director of Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Raging Bull has no shortage of classics to choose from, but The Wolf of Wall Street is a fun movie with popular actors, so it isn’t much of a surprise to see it at the top of Scorsese’s box office statistics.
5 Guillermo Del Toro
Pacific Rim ($411 million)
Pacific Rim is a big-budget sci-fi blockbuster, ready-made for box office success, but Guillermo del Toro has many superior movies. If awards-season success is anything to go by, then The Shape of Water should be considered del Toro’s best, having won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director. Pan’s Labyrinth is another critical triumph, using fable and horror to allegorize General Franco’s brutal fascist regime in Spain. More recently, del Toro directed Pinocchio, a brilliant stop-motion animation showcasing his versatility. Pacific Rim is an exciting popcorn-flick, but it lacks the artistic finesse of del Toro’s more personal works.
4 Ridley Scott
The Martian ($653.6 million)
Matt Damon puts on a brilliant one-man show in The Martian. He isn’t the only character, but he is trapped alone on Mars, millions of miles from the nearest human. It’s an exciting sci-fi premise with a great sense of humor, earning Ridley Scott his biggest box office success. With a career spanning almost 50 years, there are plenty of brilliant Ridley Scott movies to pick from, but the debate over his all-time best usually boils down to Alien and Blade Runner, although Gladiator and Thelma and Louise show the director’s impressive range.
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3 Quentin Tarantino
Django Unchained ($449.8 million)
Quentin Tarantino has been remarkably consistent in terms of quality, but Pulp Fiction is usually considered his greatest movie. Pulp Fiction paid homage to the American cinematic tradition, while concurrently presaging the next two decades of filmmaking. Tarantino’s stylized dialogue and circular plot line have been imitated often, but never surpassed. Tarantino’s upcoming film The Movie Critic will be his last, if he sticks to his word, but it could struggle to outperform Django Unchained at the box office. The Western combines bankable stars and riotous action with a sense of fun, making it a sensational big-screen experience.
2 Adam McKay
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues ($172.2 million)
Adam McKay first built a reputation as a great comedy director, working with Will Ferrell and other hilarious heavyweights on movies such as Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and The Other Guys. Later in his career he became just as well-respected in a completely different genre, with The Big Short and Vice unravelling real-world scandals with biting wit. His highest-grossing film is Anchorman 2, which is neither as critically-acclaimed as The Big Short or as funny as the first Anchorman. Both Anchorman movies have hilarious moments, but the original eclipses its sequel.
1 Chloé Zhao
Eternals ($401.7 million)
Moving from small-budget movies straight to the MCU, Chloé Zhao’s box office numbers were bound to shoot into the stratosphere. Despite a star-studded ensemble cast, Eternals only delivered modest returns by the high standards of the MCU. Still, a box office take of over $400 million dwarfs Zhao’s previous best, the $38 million which Nomadland made. Nomadland won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director, and it also earned Frances McDormand a Best Actress award. By contrast, Eternals received mixed reviews, and fell far below the expectations of the MCU.
