Box Office Analysis: Steven Spielberg

He’s had two movies open over the holidays and while neither broke any records, he’s still Steven Spielberg, the man behind such classics as Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones.

Winner of three Oscars over the course of more than 38 years of directing, writing, producing and even starring, Steven Spielberg is nothing short of a legend. This top 10 is all about the films he directed and because it’s impossible to accurately adjust for inflation international grosses (considering his long career), I’m gonna have to stick to North America only here.

10. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) $350.6 million – Not exactly a favorite of the fans, this 4th Indiana Jones film received good reviews (77% on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest of the series) but was never quite up there with the standards set by the much older previous entries.

9. Saving Private Ryan (1998) $363.2 million – Shakespeare in Love was a good flick, no doubt about it but the Best Picture award in 1999 was pretty much stolen from Saving Private Ryan, the better film that year. I still remember watching the Oscars that night, thinking Steven Spielberg’s film was a shoe-in, yet it lost ending the awards ceremony with five trophies. If you haven’t seen this yet then shame on you.

8. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) $392.3 million – My favorite of the Indy films, The Last Crusade works so well mainly thanks to the great chemistry between stars Sir Sean Connery and Harrison Ford playing father and son (even though there are only 12 years between the two).

7. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) $396.2 million – Arguably the weakest film in this top 10, The Lost World isn’t a bad movie as much as it’s extremely mediocre and forgettable, something unusual for Steven Spielberg. So the dinosaurs are back this time on a different island, unfortunately the magic was all gone.

6. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) $425 million – Out of the old Indy flicks, this one did not age well at all. It’s fun but just way to over the top most of the time. As an added bonus you get to see Steven Spielberg’s real-life wife in here, namely Kate Capshaw playing the female lead. And yes, after more than 20 years they are still together.

5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) $441.2 million – One of my childhood favorites, I always dreamed about replicating that volcano in my living room, just like the one made by Richard Dreyfuss. A groundbreaking movie at the time, still a must see today.

4. Jurassic Park (1993) $684.4 million – This is where CGI in movies really took off and even today those dinosaurs still look great. Seeing Jurassic Park as a child was something incredible for me and while I’ve seen it many many times since then, I still remember that first time, the magic.

3. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) $699.8 million – Coming after two Star Wars movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark raised Harrison Ford to superstardom and made Indiana Jones into one of the most recognized and beloved fictional characters of all time.

2. Jaws (1975) $1,016.9 million – How about this for a second big screen movie. One of the highest grossing films of all time, Jaws inspired many more sequel, parodies and imitators. Haven’t seen this one in many years yet I still remember just about every important scene, a testament to the greatness of Jaws. But then again, how many other films had a huge shark while at the same time a compelling story with characters you care about?

1. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $1,126.3 million – One of the all time classics, E.T. is more than just a movie. In short this is about a boy that finds an alien and tries to help him get back home. This year is the 30th anniversary so it’s hard to believe Universal could miss the opportunity to re-release this in 3D one way or another.

In this last part I usually mention a great movie that missed the top 10 but in Spielberg’s case there are so many. Since I don’t want to forget any (yet I will) I’ll just list what I think are some of his best movies that deserve to be mentioned here in no particular order: Empire of the Sun, Munich, The Terminal, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, Schindler’s List, The Color Purple, Catch Me if You Can as well as his last two movies, The Adventures of Tintin (winner of a Golden Globe) and War Horse, both of which will probably go into my Steven Spielberg collection when out on Blu-ray or DVD.