Billion Dollar Grossing Directors Who Are Not “Brand Names”

According to Box Office Mojo, there are 87 directors whose collective films have earned over a billion dollars worldwide, yet many of these directors live in obscurity while others have become celebrities thanks to their film careers. The so-called “brand name” filmmakers have a large following and are generally household names: Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, James Cameron, Tim Burton, Michael Bay, Quentin Tarantino, and so forth. Some directors who only have a few movies to their names are marketed as commodities, such as J.J. Abrams, Bryan Singer, Jon Favreau, and Judd Apatow, while others like Bret Ratner, McG, Zack Snyder, M. Night Shyamalan, and David Yates have to live down a perceived bad reputation among fans. “Brand name” directors might have distinctive visual styles, had fame previous to becoming directors, or have become infamous due to the films they made. In all cases, their names have become known as much as their films or are synonymous with a genre of film.

What’s the difference between a “brand name” director and one who is successful yet remains mostly anonymous? One litmus test is in the advertisements for an upcoming movie–if it screams the director’s name, then they’re cashing in on the fact that everyone knows this person, but if it just says “from the director of [insert previous hit movie here],” then the director has yet to reach celebrity status despite his or her box office success. During the movies, their names flash by on screen (usually twice) and are promptly forgotten by the audience. By looking at these directors and their filmology, it is surprising what movies have contributed to a billion dollars earned in ticket sales around the world.

Betty Thomas

$1,011,461,528 worldwide gross box office receipts*

$563,321,488 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Andrew Davis

$1,011,461,528 worldwide gross box office receipts

$571,811,414 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Adam Shankman

$1,050,194,839 worldwide gross box office receipts

$804,662,000 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Andy Tennant

$1,057,246,027 worldwide gross box office receipts

$786,322,800 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Peter Segal

$1,085,700,314 worldwide gross box office receipts

$774,428,153 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

David Silverman

$1,128,870,346 worldwide gross box office receipts

$635,351,700 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Phillip Noyce

$1,133,442,151 worldwide gross box office receipts

$522,061,568 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Nancy Meyers

$1,157,187,942 worldwide gross box office receipts

$715,894,500 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

.

Justin Lin

$1,169,129,669 worldwide gross box office receipts

$473,183,000 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Edward Zwick

$1,227,358,789 worldwide gross box office receipts

$463,213,015 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Kelly Asbury

$1,236,369,967 worldwide gross box office receipts

$614,474,034 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Pete Docter

$1,256,709,341 worldwide gross box office receipts

$660,553,600 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Michael Apted

$1,262,602,036 worldwide gross box office receipts

$568,918,446 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Mike Mitchell

$1,285,182,106 worldwide gross box office receipts

$512,402,513 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Eric Darnell

$1,308,338,888 worldwide gross box office receipts

$584,043,000 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

.

Jan DeBont

$1,343,244,274 worldwide gross box office receipts

$568,649,082 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Chris Miller

(Not to be confused with the director of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street)

$1,347,918,666 worldwide gross box office receipts

$516,542,100 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Rob Cohen

$1,352,883,090 worldwide gross box office receipts

$812,026,200 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Tom McGrath

$1,458,466,790 worldwide gross box office receipts

$577,870,400 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

.

Chris Weitz

$1,521,040,539 worldwide gross box office receipts

$529,995,300 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Stephen Sommers

$1,530,213,382 worldwide gross box office receipts

$971,068,100 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Dennis Dugan

$1,541,960,650 worldwide gross box office receipts

$1,202,846,900 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Joe Johnston

$1,565,854,352 worldwide gross box office receipts

$1,170,332,400 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Rob Marshall

$1,566,890,302 worldwide gross box office receipts

$545,042,900 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Raja Gosnell

$1,579,784,400 worldwide gross box office receipts

$929,912,200 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Tom Shadyac

$1,598,108,021 worldwide gross box office receipts

$1,359,079,700 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Jay Roach

$1,618,741,562 worldwide gross box office receipts

$1,369,577,300 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Andrew Stanton

$1,644,659,185 worldwide gross box office receipts

$738,419,000 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

John Carter (still playing in the theaters as of date of publication)
WALL-E
Finding Nemo

.

Todd Phillips

$1,662,146,756 worldwide gross box office receipts

$967,447,200 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Jon Turteltaub

$1,682,533,409 worldwide gross box office receipts

$1,193,298,000 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Rob Minkoff

$1,735,088,372 worldwide gross box office receipts

$1,148,998,300 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Mike Newell

$1,813,022,353 worldwide gross box office receipts

$777,366,000 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Martin Campbell

$1,899,192,701 worldwide gross box office receipts

$924,407,200 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Shawn Levy

$1,938,917,818 worldwide gross box office receipts

$1,070,177,300 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Andrew Adamson

$2,568,926,659 worldwide gross box office receipts

$1,434,786,600 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

Carlos Saldanha

$2,670,686,201 worldwide gross box office receipts

$973,682,400 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

.

Lee Unkrich

$2,941,447,665 worldwide gross box office receipts

$1,577,462,900 domestic gross box office receipts adjusted for ticket price inflation

Films directed:

BRAND NAME DIRECTORS NOT LISTED:

The following “brand name” directors all have earned over a billion (in some cases two or three billion) in worldwide box office:

Steven Spielberg
James Cameron
Michael Bay
David Yates
Robert Zemeckis
Chris Columbus
Peter Jackson
Ron Howard
Gore Verbinski
Tim Burton
George Lucas
Roland Emmerich
Sam Raimi
Christopher Nolan
Ridley Scott
Clint Eastwood
John Lasseter
M. Night Shyamalan
Tony Scott
Brad Bird
Richard Donner
Steven Soderbergh
Brett Ratner
Ivan Reitman
David Fincher
Wolfgang Petersen
Garry Marshall
Martin Scorsese
Andrew & Larry (a.k.a. Lana) Wachowski
Barry Sonnenfeld
Jon Favreau
Joel Schumacher
Bryan Singer
Barry Levinson
The Farrelly Brothers
Oliver Stone
John McTiernan
John Woo
Guy Ritchie
Sylvester Stallone
Brian De Palma
McG
Robert Rodriguez
Sydney Pollack
Mike Nichols
J.J. Abrams
Renny Harlin
Michael Mann
Paul Verhoeven

NOTE: Woody Allen barely missed this list with an estimated worldwide gross of $920,000,000, but data on several of his films is missing, so it is possible that he also broke a billion dollars and would therefore be number 50.

*All dollar figures were taken from Boxofficemojo.com. Worldwide grosses were determined from adding unadjusted domestic grosses with worldwide grosses provided. Not all motion pictures had worldwide figures.

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The Numbers: The World’s a Stage (filmophilia.com)

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6 comments on “Billion Dollar Grossing Directors Who Are Not “Brand Names””

ruth April 10, 2012 at 3:40 pm Reply

VERY interesting and informative post, Jamie! I think you’re right that a lot of these folks aren’t household names, though cinephiles probably recognize them. I think Todd Philips are becoming more well-known now, and the Pixar directors like Unkrich and Stanton are probably not going to reach ‘brand-name’ status as it’s hard to escape that Pixar umbrella. Like you said in the comment above, people go see the next Pixar film, regardless of the director. It’s amazing how lopsided the amount of male to female filmmakers, oh speaking of which, I think Nancy Meyers are quite well-known amongst female moviegoers, but maybe ’cause there are so few female directors out there.
- Jamie Helton April 10, 2012 at 5:03 pm Reply
  
  Thanks, Ruth. I was actually hoping Kathryn Bigelow would be on the list, but her movies just haven’t made a whole ton of money. Penny Marshall is another woman who I expected to be up there, but she hasn’t had a hit in a long time, so inflation has kept her down. Another noticeable disconnect is that on this list there is only one Asian director and no black directors. It gets worse if you add in the list at the bottom of the article of brand name directors, but at least there are two more Asians (M. Night Shyamalan and John Woo–sorry, Spike Lee).
  - ruth April 10, 2012 at 9:10 pm Reply
    
    Well, after seeing what made up the demographics of the Academy (AMPAS), it’s clear that Hollywood is still very much dominated by white males. Yeah, I was quite surprised to see Justin Lin on the list, but wow people do love those Fast & Furious movies!
MikeyMo April 8, 2012 at 5:03 am Reply

I think that a lot of these directors not being brand names, though I recognized a lot of them, is because they don’t place a real mark on movies. They are workhorses and serve a producer or a studio instead of being authors trying to tell a story. They don’t write their own stories, develop their characters next to nothing outside of the script and have no vision whatsoever. All they can do is direct a movie, finish it on time and within the budget and in the end that’s what counts for studios. Take Raja Gosnell for instance; all the man does is create kids movies with talking animals. But is there one moment in Scooby Doo or Beverly hills Chihuahua you thought: wow the director really did a great job here?
People like Michael bay have a certain way of filming, Paul Verhoeven always generates a lot of controversy, Spielberg is just a pretty good director. There are some directors here who directed CG-movies but when you direct those you basically always are overshadowed by company names like Disney and Dreamworks.
- Jamie Helton April 8, 2012 at 1:33 pm Reply
  
  Yep, absolutely. People go to see the next Pixar film, not the next Lee Unkrich film (though John Lasseter is definitely the name synonymous with Pixar). It’s like Robert Stevenson, who directed a ton of Disney films (including “Mary Poppins”), but I doubt if anyone recognizes him as a director. His name was overshadowed by the studio, and most people probably thought Walt himself directed the films Stevenson helmed. And yes, the “workhorse” directors are definitely ones that can deliver the movie the studios want, but rarely have an artistic vision that marks their movies as their own.
Lady Luck Productions » Billion Dollar Grossing Directors Who Are Not “Brand Names … April 7, 2012 at 11:21 pm Reply

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