The inventor of the modern blockbuster and Hollywood great populist. Every Spielberg theatrical feature, ranked by critics and audiences.
The full ranking
The inventor of the modern blockbuster and Hollywood great populist. Every Spielberg theatrical feature, ranked by critics and audiences.
Schindler's List (1993)
An opportunist war profiteer spends his fortune buying back eleven hundred lives. Spielberg's Holocaust drama won seven Oscars and stands as his defining achievement.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
A boulder, a bullwhip, and the purest distillation of matinee joy ever engineered. Indiana Jones's first outing remains the action-adventure benchmark four decades on.
Jaws (1975)
The shark that emptied beaches and invented the summer blockbuster. A malfunctioning mechanical prop forced Spielberg to keep the menace offscreen, and the result is perfect.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
A lonely boy, a stranded alien, and a bicycle across the moon. The purest expression of Spielberg's suburban wonder, and for years the highest-grossing film ever made.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Omaha Beach landing redefined what combat could look like on screen, and the mission that follows asks what one life is worth. The standard-bearer for the modern war film.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Sixty-five million years of extinction undone by a theme park's hubris. The T. rex in the rain remains the gold standard for movie spectacle, practical and digital alike.
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
A teenage con man cashes fake checks across America with a weary FBI agent a step behind. Spielberg at his lightest and most charming, with DiCaprio and Hanks in perfect rhythm.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Indy gets a father, and Sean Connery and Harrison Ford bicker their way to the Holy Grail. The warmest entry in the series, and for many its best.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Five notes, a mountain of mashed potatoes, and the mothership over Devils Tower. Spielberg's first alien-contact epic treats wonder as something worth wrecking your life for.
The Fabelmans (2022)
Spielberg turns the camera on his own childhood, his parents' marriage, and the moment movies became his way of seeing. The most personal film of his career.
Ranked across 6 sources: Empire · Every Spielberg Movie Ranked 2023; Paste · Every Spielberg Movie Ranked 2023; Gold Derby · All 33 Spielberg Features Ranked 2024 (updated 2026); IMDb · Ranked by User Rating (June 2026); Letterboxd · Ranked by Member Rating (June 2026); Rotten Tomatoes · Ranked by Critic Rating (2025). Full scoring is on the Methodology tab above.
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