Spielberg vs Cameron

Spielberg vs Cameron..who has the best stats?
Spielberg vs Cameron..who has the best stats?

The question is Spielberg vs Cameron ….who is the best?  Steven Spielberg and James Cameron are two of the most successful directors of all time. So I figured it would be fun to compare these two legendary directors.

Combined they have directed 38 movies. Those movies have grossed over $12 billion in adjusted box office in North America and over $25 billion in Worldwide adjusted box office grosses. Their movies have earned 163 Oscar® nominations and 52 Oscar® wins. Those wins include a Best Picture Oscar® for Schindler’s List and Titanic.  Spielberg has two Best Director Oscars® for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan while Cameron won the Best Director Oscar® for Titanic

The following Spielberg vs Cameron table looks at all of their movies.  The tables ranks Spielberg and Cameron movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information.

Harrison Ford in Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Harrison Ford in Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

This Spielberg vs Cameron Table Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort by who directed the movie
  • Sort Spielberg or Cameron movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Spielberg or Cameron movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Spielberg or Cameron movies by how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Spielberg or Cameron movie received.
  • Sort Spielberg or Cameron 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.

Michael Biehn in Cameron's Aliens (1986)
Michael Biehn in Cameron’s Aliens (1986)

Possibly Interesting Stats From Our Spielberg vs Cameron Question

1. Movies directed: Steven Spielberg has directed 28 movies.  James Cameron has directed 10 movies.  Edge goes to Speilberg.

2. Box Office Comparison:  James Cameron movies average $304.03 million in adjusted domestic box office gross and $943.60 million in adjusted worldwide box office.   Steve Spielberg movies average $290.28 million in adjusted domestic box office gross and $545.07 million in adjusted worldwide box office.   Edge goes to Cameron.

3. Critics/Audience Rating:  An average Steven Spielberg has a 77.00% rating…while James Cameron’s movies average 76.42% rating according to critics and audiences.  Slight edge to Spielberg.

4. Oscar® nominations in any category:   Steven Spielberg movies have picked up 118 Oscar® nominations or 4.06 per movie.  James Cameron movies have picked up 41 Oscar® nominations or 4.10 per movie.  Slight edge to Cameron.

5. Oscar® wins in any category:  James Cameron movies have picked up 21 Oscar® wins or 2.10 per movie.  Steven Spielberg movies have picked up 31 Oscar® nominations or 1.10 per movie.  Edge to Cameron.

6. Best Picture Oscar® nominations:  Steven Spielberg has directed 9 movies that received a Best Picture nomination or 31.03% of his movies.  James Cameron has directed 2 movies that received a Best Picture nomination or 20.00% of his movies.  Edge to Spielberg.

7. Best Director Oscar® nominations:  Steven Spielberg has received 7 Best Director nominations….winning twice.  James Cameron has received 2 Best Director nominations….winning once.  Edge to Spielberg.

8.  Average Cogerson Movie Score:  A Steven Spielberg movie has a average Cogerson Movie Score of 63.30.  A James Cameron movie has a average Cogerson Movie Score of 58.95.  Edge to Spielberg.

So those are the stats…who do you think is the best Spielberg or Cameron?  As for me?  Gotta go with Spielberg.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. Golden Globes® are the registered trademark and service mark of the Hollywood Foreign Press.

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103 thoughts on “Spielberg vs Cameron

  1. 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.

    Steven S.:

    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.

    1. Hey Flora…better late than never…lol. I am amazed that you have been able to avoid all of James Cameron’s movies. Some of his movies have been game changing events…for The Abyss he created a technology that allowed people to be heard under water…Avatar changed how 3-D effects done the proper way….Terminator 2 ushered in many computer special effects that had never been seen….I think it would ok to support a fellow Canuck and watch Titanic….just mute the screen when that song comes on…lol.

      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 page

  2. The best movies of Cameron is Avatar and Terminator 2 , the best movies of Spielberg is War of the Worlds .

    James Cameron is Best , Avatar is beautiful but Steven Spielberg is very good , I love the movie War of the Worlds ..

    1. 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.

    1. Thanks for checking out my movie page gh, I agree that it is Spielberg in a close call….the only thing holding Cameron back is his lack of productivity..

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