The 50 Highest Grossing Film Directors of All Time

M. Night Shyamalan’s films explore the supernatural with plot twists that surprise audiences. He directed and appeared in the thrillers “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs,” his biggest box-office successes.

Tate Taylor plumbed the horror and mystery genres with films such as “Ma” and “The Girl on the Train.” Taylor and Octavia Spencer, who worked together on “Ma,” also collaborated on “The Help,” a movie about Black housekeepers in Mississippi in the 1960s, which won Spencer a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Quentin Tarantino has made some of the most provocative and disturbing films of the past 30 years, among them “Reservoir Dogs,” “Django Unchained,” and the Kill Bill movies. His “Pulp Fiction,” a 1994 film noir, was one of the seminal films of the 1990s.

Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Álvarez‘s home-invasion thriller “Don’t Breathe,” is his highest-rated and most profitable film to date. The film spawned a sequel. He also directed and wrote the screenplay for “Evil Dead.”

Jay Chandrasekhar’s films are long on silliness and short on critical appeal, but they resonate with audiences. He’s directed the Super Troopers franchise movies, and the first one holds the highest return on investment. He also directed the reboot of “The Dukes of Hazzard.”