Neither James Cameron nor Christopher Nolan: this is the highest grossing director in the history of cinema

As it happens with other artistic fields, in cinema there are stars and, furthermore, there are legends. And among the great legends of the history of the seventh art is Steven Spielberg, who still holds the title of being the highest-grossing filmmaker to date, despite the influence of Marvel and the hits from James Cameron.

The director burst onto the cinematic scene and pop culture in the 70s and soon established himself as one of the best audiovisual storytellers, thanks to his talent for telling stories and for knowing the ideal place to put the camera.

He is a living legend in cinema with more than thirty films to his name and a long career behind the camera that includes titles like the iconic Jurassic Park, which grossed 10.7 billion dollars worldwide.

He who started taking his first steps on television after signing a seven-year contract with Universal was still unknown in the early 70s. However, everything changed dramatically in 1975, when Jaws was released in theaters, breaking all possible records by becoming the highest-grossing film in history at that time.

It would be the film that would catapult him to the top at only 28 years old, and after that he began to chain success after success like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) or Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). 

Behind the scenes of 'Jaws'

In 1982, Spielberg repeated the phenomenon of Jaws with the release of the fantasy and science fiction film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. The film had a budget of 10.5 million dollars and once again broke the filmmaker's record. The success lasted for five years, until George Lucas stole the spotlight with Star Wars.

Nevertheless, up to that moment, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial remained at the top of the box office for 16 weeks, grossing over 600 million dollars worldwide. It would remain the highest-grossing film in history until eleven years later, when Spielberg released another box office hit: Jurassic Park.

The adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel was released in 1993 and was an instant success, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time with a worldwide gross of almost a billion dollars.

With this, he would once again surpass himself and it would be the last time he would top the box office, although the rest of his films continued to perform well and have always been well received by the public.

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence