Want to know the best Steven Spielberg movies? How about the worst Steven Spielberg movies? Curious about Steven Spielberg’s box office grosses or which Steven Spielberg movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Steven Spielberg movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
My first memory of Steven Spielberg? It was June 12th 1981. On that Friday morning, my father told me we were going to see a movie that was opening that I had never heard of before. My father could tell that I was not really interested. So he tried to get me excited about the movie. He said, “Look this movie is by the guy that made Star Wars and the guy that made Close Encounters. They got together and made a movie, it is supposed to be pretty good.” So we got ready and headed to an early afternoon showing of this movie.
When Raiders of the Lost Ark ended, I was convinced I had seen the greatest movie ever made. I went back that night to watch the movie a second time with some of my friends. Watching it the second time I really paid attention to the opening credits. Starring Harrison Ford (“hey that’s Han Solo”), story by George Lucas (“the Star Wars guy“), and directed by Steven Spielberg. I went to bed that night thinking, there is lots to learn about movies. Over thirty years later and I still go to bed thinking there is lots to learn about movies.
Steven Spielberg (1946-) has to be the most successful director of all time. He has had it all. Blockbuster movie after blockbuster movie. Critical darling after critical darling. Oscar® winning movie after Oscar® winning movie. His IMDb page shows 55 directing credits from 1959-2016. This page will rank 30 Steven Spielberg movies from Best to Worst in seven different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, video games and documentaries were not included in the rankings.
Steven Spielberg Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Year
Movie (Year)
Rating
S
Year Movie (Year) Rating S
1993
Schindler's List (1993)
AA Best Picture Win
AA Best Director Win
1998
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Win
1981
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Nom
1975
Jaws (1975)
AA Best Picture Nom
Director
1982
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Nom
2012
Lincoln (2012)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Nom
1985
The Color Purple (1985)
AA Best Picture Nom
1977
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
AA Best Director Nom
2002
Minority Report (2002)
1989
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Director
1993
Jurassic Park (1993)
2002
Catch Me if You Can (2002)
1984
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
2005
War of the Worlds (2005)
2008
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Director
2015
Bridge of Spies (2015)
AA Best Picture Nom
2018
Ready Player One (2018)
1997
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
2001
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
2011
War Horse (2011)
AA Best Picture Nom
2017
The Post (2017)
AA Best Picture Nom
Director
1991
Hook (1991)
2005
Munich (2005)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Nom
2021
West Side Story (2021)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Nom
2011
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
1997
Amistad (1997)
2004
The Terminal (2004)
2022
The Fabelmans (2022)
AA Best Picture Nom
AA Best Director Nom
1987
Empire of the Sun (1987)
1989
Always (1989)
2016
The BFG (2016)
1974
The Sugarland Express (1974)
1983
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
1979
1941 (1979)
1964
Firelight (1964)
Director
Steven Spielberg Movies Can Be Ranked 7 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Steven Spielberg movies by the stars of the movies.
- Sort Steven Spielberg movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Steven Spielberg movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Steven Spielberg movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and Oscar® wins each Steven Spielberg movie received.
- Sort Steven Spielberg movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
| CreditRank | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Review % | Oscar Nom / Win | S | UMR Score | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CreditRank | Movie (Year) | UMR Co-Star Links | Actual B.O. Domestic (mil) | Adj. B.O. Domestic (mil) | Adj. B.O. Worldwide (mil) | B.O. Rank by Year | Review % | Oscar Nom / Win | S | UMR Score |
| 2 | Schindler's List (1993) AA Best Picture Win AA Best Director Win |
Liam Neeson | 96.10 | 250.1 | 836.6 | 9 | 94 | 12 / 07 | 100.0 | |
| 1 | Saving Private Ryan (1998) AA Best Picture Nom AA Best Director Win |
Tom Hanks & Matt Damon |
214.50 | 493.1 | 1,102.9 | 1 | 93 | 11 / 05 | 99.8 | |
| 3 | Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) AA Best Picture Nom AA Best Director Nom |
Harrison Ford & Karen Allen |
246.20 | 954.5 | 1,504.3 | 1 | 92 | 08 / 04 | 99.7 | |
| 4 | Jaws (1975) AA Best Picture Nom Director |
Robert Shaw & Roy Scheider |
262.50 | 1,380.4 | 2,488.1 | 1 | 93 | 04 / 03 | 99.7 | |
| 5 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) AA Best Picture Nom AA Best Director Nom |
Henry Thomas & Drew Barrymore |
416.70 | 1,527.9 | 2,839.8 | 1 | 87 | 09 / 04 | 99.7 | |
| 6 | Lincoln (2012) AA Best Picture Nom AA Best Director Nom |
Daniel Day-Lewis & Sally Field |
182.20 | 246.8 | 372.8 | 13 | 89 | 12 / 02 | 99.6 | |
| 7 | The Color Purple (1985) AA Best Picture Nom |
Danny Glover & Whoopi Goldberg |
94.20 | 286.0 | 431.7 | 4 | 87 | 11 / 00 | 99.5 | |
| 8 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) AA Best Director Nom |
Richard Dreyfuss | 124.40 | 601.3 | 1,431.3 | 3 | 91 | 08 / 01 | 99.4 | |
| 9 | Minority Report (2002) | Tom Cruise | 132.10 | 245.5 | 666.1 | 17 | 88 | 01 / 00 | 98.7 | |
| 10 | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Director |
Harrison Ford & Sean Connery |
196.20 | 532.7 | 1,284.8 | 2 | 84 | 03 / 01 | 98.7 | |
| 12 | Jurassic Park (1993) | Jeff Goldblum | 381.10 | 992.2 | 2,624.1 | 1 | 81 | 03 / 03 | 98.5 | |
| 11 | Catch Me if You Can (2002) | Leonardo DiCaprio & Tom Hanks |
164.60 | 306.0 | 654.4 | 11 | 86 | 02 / 00 | 98.5 | |
| 14 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) | Harrison Ford | 179.90 | 577.1 | 1,068.7 | 3 | 76 | 02 / 01 | 97.2 | |
| 15 | War of the Worlds (2005) | Tom Cruise | 234.30 | 394.6 | 996.7 | 4 | 73 | 03 / 00 | 96.6 | |
| 15 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) Director |
Harrison Ford & Cate Blanchett |
317.10 | 476.1 | 1,181.0 | 3 | 68 | 00 / 00 | 94.8 | |
| 16 | Bridge of Spies (2015) AA Best Picture Nom |
Tom Hanks & Mark Rylance |
72.30 | 92.5 | 211.6 | 39 | 88 | 06 / 01 | 94.1 | |
| 18 | Ready Player One (2018) | Tye Sheridan | 135.80 | 160.7 | 686.0 | 24 | 78 | 01 / 00 | 94.1 | |
| 17 | The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) | Jeff Goldblum & Julianne Moore |
229.10 | 538.0 | 1,452.9 | 3 | 59 | 01 / 00 | 92.4 | |
| 20 | A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) | Jude Law & Meryl Streep |
78.60 | 150.0 | 450.1 | 28 | 72 | 02 / 00 | 91.9 | |
| 21 | War Horse (2011) AA Best Picture Nom |
Benedict Cumberbatch | 79.90 | 108.6 | 241.4 | 41 | 74 | 06 / 00 | 91.0 | |
| 22 | The Post (2017) AA Best Picture Nom Director |
Tom Hanks & Meryl Streep |
81.90 | 98.4 | 209.7 | 39 | 78 | 02 / 00 | 90.3 | |
| 22 | Hook (1991) | Robin Williams & Dustin Hoffman |
119.70 | 306.4 | 770.4 | 6 | 49 | 05 / 00 | 89.9 | |
| 23 | Munich (2005) AA Best Picture Nom AA Best Director Nom |
Eric Bana & Daniel Craig |
47.40 | 79.8 | 219.6 | 62 | 80 | 05 / 00 | 89.7 | |
| 24 | West Side Story (2021) AA Best Picture Nom AA Best Director Nom |
Rita Moreno | 38.50 | 40.8 | 78.6 | 34 | 86 | 07 / 01 | 88.7 | |
| 25 | The Adventures of Tintin (2011) | Daniel Craig | 77.60 | 105.5 | 508.4 | 44 | 76 | 01 / 00 | 87.7 | |
| 26 | Amistad (1997) | Matthew McConaughey & Morgan Freeman |
44.20 | 103.9 | 153.4 | 48 | 73 | 04 / 00 | 87.5 | |
| 27 | The Terminal (2004) | Tom Hanks & Zoe Sald |
77.90 | 135.2 | 380.9 | 35 | 64 | 00 / 00 | 86.6 | |
| 27 | The Fabelmans (2022) AA Best Picture Nom AA Best Director Nom |
Michelle Williams | 17.30 | 17.8 | 42.7 | 57 | 87 | 07 / 00 | 85.6 | |
| 28 | Empire of the Sun (1987) | Christian Bale | 22.20 | 61.3 | 182.6 | 52 | 76 | 06 / 00 | 83.5 | |
| 29 | Always (1989) | Richard Dreyfuss & John Goodman |
43.90 | 119.1 | 201.3 | 29 | 60 | 00 / 00 | 81.9 | |
| 31 | The BFG (2016) | Mark Rylance | 55.50 | 69.1 | 228.5 | 60 | 71 | 00 / 00 | 79.3 | |
| 30 | The Sugarland Express (1974) | Goldie Hawn | 7.50 | 43.2 | 43.2 | 54 | 78 | 00 / 00 | 78.7 | |
| 32 | Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) | John Lithgow | 29.50 | 100.8 | 145.3 | 24 | 60 | 00 / 00 | 78.5 | |
| 33 | 1941 (1979) | John Candy & Warren Oates |
31.80 | 136.4 | 397.1 | 27 | 43 | 03 / 00 | 75.7 | |
| 35 | Firelight (1964) Director |
Robert Robyn | 0.00 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 166 | 59 | 00 / 00 | 27.2 |
Possibly Interesting Facts About Steven Spielberg
1. Steven Spielberg (1972-) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2. Steven Spielberg has been nominated for 15 Oscars® in different categories in his career. He has won 3 Oscars®. Two for directing…Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). His third Oscar® win was for producing Schindler’s List (1993).
3. Steven Spielberg has been nominated for 7 Best Director Oscars® and 11 Best Director Golden Globes®. He has two Golden Globe® wins….Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).
4. Steven Spielberg has been married two times. His first marriage was to actress Amy Irving (1985-1989)…they have one child. His second marriage was to actress Kate Capshaw (1991-)…they have 5 children.
5. Steven Spielberg has many other IMDb credits. Currently he has 150 producing credits, 21 writing credits, 12 acting credits and 8 editor credits.
6. When looking at adjusted worldwide box office grosses….Spielberg has an incredible 6 movies that have grossed over 1 BILLION. Three of those six are actually pushing the 2 billion mark. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993) and Jaws (1975).
7. Of the 28 Steven Spielberg directed movies…they have earned an incredible 112 Oscars® nominations. That is an average of 4.00 nominations per movie.
8. Of the 28 Steven Spielberg directed movies…..they have won 31 Oscars®.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
So you don’t recommend me trying to find Audrey Hepburn’s last movie then? That was my primary reason for being interested in Always.
You are very welcome Flora
Well, I suppose since your latest movie page dealt with Steven’s potential successors – none of whom measured up – I suppose I should stop by here.
Well. I am not sure how to break this to you. I have never seen a single James Cameron film. I looked over the list. Not one. Really.
And looking over the titles to see which ones I could see me renting, and well. None of them interest me. Titanic I boycotted because everyone in school loved the film while my friends wanted to be unique. Plus, we hated the song.
Yet that is the only theme/genre that might have interested me. Aliens? No. Science Fiction? No. Avatar? I don’t even know the point of that. Arnold action movies? No. (I have seen some of his- Arnold’s – comedies, though.) Weird titles I hadn’t heard of? No.
Yes, I know he is Canadian. There are lots of others originally from Canada. Cameron is *not* my cup of tea.
I am not a fan of blockbusters, and S.S. has made a career out of them. As such, it is pointless going over top ten, or percentage of all his films, or favourites. But unlike Cameron, I’ve seen some of his films and am interested in some I’ve not seen. So…..
I am most familiar with his TV movie Duel starring Bruce Dern and for which no one warned me about the huge spiders that would appear. Despite the spiders, it is one of Dad’s favourite films of all times. And S.S. directed the priemiere episode of Columbo starring Jack Cassidy (David’s father) as the killer. Cassidy played the killer three times. Yeah, Columbo.
Oh, yes. This is Steven’s movie hub, not television’s hub….
Movies I have seen, in movie score order:
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Catch Me if You Can …hmmm. a spy film with co-starring roles to Martin Sheen and Christopher Walken…hmmm.
Hook
Amistad..oh, Oscar history lesson
1941
The Twilight Zone: The movie…well, it is the twilight zone
Hmmm….regarding some of the famous S.S. titles I haven’t seen:
I’ve explained how I’ve managed to not see E.T. yet.
There are several films that I haven’t seen that I have no interest in seeing…
war films…dinosaur attack films…Cruise films post-Mission Impossible…remakes of classic films which should have been left alone…and disturbing films with much too admire but difficult to watch (Schindler’s list) which I’ll not see ever.
I would like to see for sure, alphabetically:
Always
Empire of the sun
I may eventually see on TV, alphabetically, since they are admirable films though not my genre:
Close encounters on the Third Kind
The Color Purple – I read this in grade 12 and likely would avoid otherwise as it is also very difficult material.
As for Steven Spielberg…of the ones you have not seen….I would recommend Empire of the Sun(Christian Bale is awesome in the lead role), Close Encounters(Dreyfuss is outstanding), and E.T.(I am sure your friend has seen it by now….lol). I have not seen The Color Purple or Amistad but other than those two movies I think I have seen all the rest of his movies. I would say you are not missing much by not seeing A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Always or War of the Worlds. Thanks for stopping by and checking out this movie pages…which I noticed is missing S.S. last two movies…War Horse and Tin Tin…I am such a slacker.
Wow great he is my fav director:)i like Christhopher Nolan as well:)
Hey gurkha-soldier…thanks for the visit….glad you like my movie page…I enjoy Christopher Nolan myself.
the best movies of Spielberg is War of the Worlds . Steven Spielberg is very good , I love the movie War of the Worlds ..
Hey Steven Cameron…nice name…lol. Thanks for the votes….I was somewhat disappointed in War of the Worlds…the first half of the movie was awesome…the final quarter was very disappointing….thanks for stopping by and for the comments.
So many of Spielberg’s movies have wit, clever little cameos, memorable set-pieces and great entertainment value. I’m currently compiling my own top 100 favourite movies list and provisionally Spielberg has 7 entries – no other director has more than 3. Enough said.
Good work Cogerson. I will refer back regularly to this page.
Hey Greensleeves…I agree Spielberg would be my winner as well….just the quantity of movies….gives him the edge over Cameron….either way this list is a great list of great movies…they have and will be referenced for a very long time…..I look forward to your Top 100 list….it should be a good one…thanks for stopping by.