Steven Spielberg's Biggest Blockbusters And Bombs

Steven Spielberg's name is synonymous with box office success. As a producer and director, Spielberg's films have earned more than $26 billion worldwide, including the "Steven Spielberg Presents" movies that were promoted with his name above the title ("Back To The Future") and the big hits that borrowed heavily from his style ("Jurassic World"). As a director alone, his movies have earned $10 billion worldwide, putting him atop the all-time directors chart, at nearly double his closest competitors. If Spielberg as a director were a franchise, he'd be behind only the MCU, but he'd be No. 1 if you include the films he produced, too. So yeah, dude's got the touch.

While King Midas could never touch a turkey, "the Bespectacled, Bearded Box Office Bard" (nobody calls him that, but we'll go with it) has made some colossal failures over his half-century cinematic career. For box office blockbusters, we'll keep it simple: We're ranking his hits according to worldwide gross not adjusted for inflation. Inflation plus international box office numbers muddies the waters, so some of his most beloved classics won't make the list. For box office bombs, we'll rank them according to how much we estimate they lost based on the maxim that a movie has to make twice its production budget to make money. What are the highest highs and lowest lows of "the Bespectacled, Bearded Box Office Bard?" (Okay, we'll stop.) Here are Steven Spielberg's biggest box office blockbusters — and biggest box office bombs!

We know what you're thinking: "'Ready Player One?' What!?" Yep, the 2018 sci-fi flick was one of Spielberg's biggest worldwide box office hits despite earning less domestically ($137 million) than "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" ($169 million; $777 million adjusted) did nearly 40 years earlier. How? The international box office. While the domestic take for "Ready Player One" couldn't cover its $150 million budget, it was huge overseas, earning $441 million internationally, 67% of its total box office, for a grand total of $579 million worldwide. 

The biggest market for "Ready Player One" wasn't the U.S., but China, with $222 million. Without China, "Ready Player One" still would have made money (about $79 million, give or take), just a lot less, so it's not fair to say it was saved by China at the box office. For the record, its domestic take wasn't bad, and it placed in the top 25 for 2018 – not bad for a movie in the modern era that was based on a popular book, but not a comic book.

In 2005, Steven Spielberg sought to replicate his most successful year ever, 1993, when "Jurassic Park" made all the money and "Schindler's List" won all the awards. Alas, his reach exceeded his grasp. His prestige awards-season entry, "Munich," lost money, but the legacy of his summer blockbuster, "War of the Worlds," is much more nuanced. While the bleak blockbuster couldn't match the success of "Jurassic Park" (or alien invasion flick "Independence Day"), Spielberg's adaptation of H.G. Wells' 1897 novel made quite a lot of money. "War of the Worlds" had a shockingly modest $132 million budget, proving again that Spielberg isn't just the most successful blockbuster director ever, but one of the most economical, too. 

"War of the Worlds" earned $234 million domestically and $606 million worldwide, making a profit of about $342 million globally, and making it the third highest-grossing film domestically just behind some heavy hitters ("Harry Potter," "Star Wars"). So yes, despite underwhelming critics and boring moviegoers, "War of the Worlds" is one of Spielberg's biggest worldwide hits. However, history has judged the blockbuster differently, as it's mostly forgotten today. Well, except for one notable thing — Tom Cruise's infamous press tour, including his couch-jumping on "The Oprah Winfrey Show." Perhaps had Cruise been a little bit more, uh, subdued, "War of the Worlds" would have made even more money.

Steven Spielberg's 1997 was disappointing when it came to awards-season glory, but that summer was one of his most successful, both behind the camera and in the boardroom. Spielberg produced "Men In Black," the summer's biggest hit domestically ($250 million) and second-biggest hit worldwide ($587 million). And he also directed "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," the summer's second-biggest domestic hit ($229 million) and biggest hit worldwide ($618 million). 

With $618 million globally, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" is also one of Spielberg's biggest worldwide hits ever. Surprisingly, it was kind of a disappointment, not only because it wasn't very good, but also because it was a sequel that earned about half what "Jurassic Park" earned, moving the franchise in the wrong direction. Even adjusting the box office for "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" for inflation, its $1 billion is still less than all but one "Jurassic Park" movie, "Jurassic Park III" — this despite earning $72 million in its opening weekend, the biggest of all time. So yes, even when a Spielberg blockbuster underperforms at the box office based on expectations, it's still one of the biggest hits of the year. Must be nice.

Don't let its solid critics' score fool you — the audience score tells the story: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is the most reviled Indiana Jones movie, and maybe one of the most disliked Steven Spielberg movies, period. Surprisingly, it's not Spielberg's least favorite, but that's another story. This is largely a matter of scope, as moviegoers are more likely to despise a mediocre bastardization of something beloved, like Indiana Jones, versus a genuinely bad movie they don't care about, like "1941." 

However, even if moviegoers have largely blown up "Crystal Skull" like a fridge hit with a nuke, they were really excited for it at the time. Consequently, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" made the most money of any Indiana Jones movie, not adjusted for inflation. With $317 million domestically and $786 million worldwide in 2008, "Crystal Skull" was the second biggest hit of the year, second only to "The Dark Knight," and actually earned more than Batman overseas. Not surprisingly, "Crystal Skull" ranks last in the four-film series when adjusted for inflation. But as it stands, the much-maligned adventure is one of Spielberg's biggest box-office hits ever.

When you think "Steven Spielberg," you probably think of the all-time classics he made during his first 10 years. However, while most of these movies rank among the biggest ticket-sellers ever, they don't rank in Spielberg's top six when not adjusted for inflation — "Jaws" ($470 million in 1975; $2.4 billion adjusted); "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" ($340 million in 1977; $1.5 billion adjusted); "Raiders of the Lost Ark" ($367 million in 1981; $1 billion adjusted). There is one notable exception — "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial" ranks near the top both in unadjusted numbers ($792 million worldwide) and when adjusted for inflation ($2.28 billion). 

Word of mouth was the reason for the success of "E.T." Despite his stubby feet, his movie had long legs, staying No. 1 at the weekend box office for a consecutive 16 weeks, a record that is unlikely to ever be broken (though "Titanic" came close in 1997). Not that its opening weekend was wimpy: While $11 million may seem meager today, it was big back in 1981, though it accounted for just 2.7% of the movie's total earnings. Wrap your head around that — a blockbuster's opening weekend only accounting for 2% of its total. The only movie from the modern era that comes close to matching that staying power was "The Greatest Showman," with its $8 million opening weekend accounting for just 5% of its total. Suffice it to say, the success of "E.T." was out of this world.

A Steven Spielberg movie about dinosaurs is a ready-made recipe for box-office success. Throw in a best-selling Michael Crichton novel as the basis and you get "Jurassic Park," the biggest no-brainer since "Gone With The Wind" in 1939. "Jurassic Park" opened to $50 million, the biggest opening weekend of all time by that point, and to date has earned $402 million domestically and $1.045 billion worldwide thanks to re-releases. Its original $912 million global take in 1993 made "Jurassic Park" the highest-grossing movie of all time, at the time, topping Spielberg's own "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial" from 12 years earlier, a feat only matched when James Cameron's "Avatar" topped "Titanic." 

While "Jurassic Park" was eventually eclipsed by "Jurassic World" and "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" on the franchise's all-time list, when adjusted for inflation, "Jurassic Park" earned more than $2 billion worldwide, far more than its sequels. The jury is still out on Spielberg's biggest ticket seller. Domestically, it's "E.T.", while worldwide it's probably "Jaws" (international numbers can be fuzzy). But when it comes to raw, unadjusted grosses, the answer is clear: "Jurassic Park" is the biggest box-office blockbuster of all time for "the Bespectacled, Bearded Box Office Bard."