25 Blockbuster Directors Who Went Back To Small Movies

Andrew Adamson

The Blockbuster: The wintry fantasy based on the first of C.S. Lewis’ much-loved childhood classic, The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe was a worldwide smash with a $745 million global haul.

Shared Elements: The wartime conditions experienced by the children in each movie finds them transported, via literature and a wardrobe, into fantastical worlds within their imaginations.

Catherine Hardwicke

The Blockbuster: The first Twilight introduced the world to the porcelain charms of vamp Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and the object of his forbidden desire, sullen teen, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart.)

Bill Condon

The Blockbuster: The Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn: Parts 1 and 2. The teen-vamp epic double-parter that drew to a close the traumatic pubescent experiences of moody teen, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart.)

Richard Donner

The Blockbuster: Bringing Shane Black’s snappy script to life, Lethal Weapon ’s tag team of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as two incompatible cops reinvigorated ‘80s action comedy.

Stephen Sommers

The Blockbuster: A family-friendly reboot, The Mummy raided Universal’s back catalogue and revamped its swaddled villain for this enjoyable old-school adventure which netted $415 million worldwide.

Joel Schumacher

The Blockbuster: The one where the caped superheroes had nipple protecters, Batman & Robin was Warner Bros’s final stab at the Batman franchise, dropping Val Kilmer and roping in George Clooney for what Schumacher himself dubbed “a cartoon.”

Alfonso Cuaron

The Blockbuster: The third entry in the series, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban merged the brighter, sunnier aspects of the first two films, steering the magical goings-on toward darker waters as another person adds Harry to his kill list.

Martin Brest

The Blockbuster: Beverly Hills Cop , the movie that transported comedian Eddie Murphy from the stages of the stand-up circuit to affluent Beverly Hills as loudmouth cop, Axel Foley. Determined to hunt his friend’s killer, the Detroit detective’s wisecracking nature kickstarted the buddy-cop genre.

William Friedkin

The Blockbuster: The 1973 horror smash that had audiences vomiting in the aisles, and priests called in to soothe the panicking masses, The Exorcist proved that an 18 certificate has bugger all sway on the box office when you’ve got a possessed pre-teen mouthing off like a sailor.

George Roy Hill

The Blockbuster: The Redford and Newman western classic, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid bagged the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for its kinda real-life depiction of two outlaws heading to the greener, more criminal-friendly pastures of Bolivia.

Jon Favreau

The Blockbuster: Marvel’s first out of the gate, Iron Man and its sequel crushed it at the box office, with their funny comic book actioner that threw Robert Downey Jr. back into the public sphere.

William Wyler

The Blockbuster: Historical epic, Ben-Hur , chronicling the life of a Jewish prince (Charlton Heston) who is forced into slavery only to plot his revenge, was at the time the most expensive movie ever produced. The gamble paid off - Ben-Hur bagged 11 Academy Awards.

John G. Avildsen

The Blockbuster: The movie that put Sylvester Stallone on the map, boxing drama Rocky had the heart, the brawn and the brains to become one of the biggest hits of 1976. Winning the Best Picture Oscar, it also landed Avildsen the Best Director statuette.

Tim Burton

The Blockbuster: Twenty five years old this year, the first big-screen Batman outing cast Michael Keaton in the titular role for Burton’s schlocky comic book adaptation.

Ivan Reitman

The Blockbuster: The Ghostbusters turned being a science nerd into a truly cool profession, with two geeks, one joker and Winston bringing the ass whuppin’ to ghosts and demons before Paranormal Activity ’s Toby was out of nappies.

Mike Newell

The Blockbuster: Taking the chalice (or should we say goblet?) from Alfonso Cuaron, Newell continued the Potter saga with Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire , his entry into the canon. Highlights include the Quidditch World Cup and a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson.

Steven Soderbergh

The Blockbuster: The star-studded ensemble, Ocean’s 11 , remade the Rat Pack classic into a glossy casino heist spearheaded by Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and his crew of multi-skilled comrades.

Ron Howard

The Blockbuster: Dan Brown’s page-turner The Da Vinci Code , brought that age-old pondering “Who was Jesus, really... in himself?” to the big screen in an racy adventure mix of Time Team and Indiana Jones.

Chris Columbus

The Blockbuster: The first two entries into the Harry Potter series, Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber Of Secrets , kickstarted Potter mania sending the entire globe into hysteria over the child wizard’s dalliances with all things magic.

Sam Raimi

The Blockbuster: The first Spider-Man film series, Raimi’s adaptations of the Marvel comic fave netted a cool $2.5 billion at the box office, and paved the way for a surge of superhero trilogies.

Michael Bay

The Blockbuster: Autobots, Decepticons, Shia LaBeouf attracting women out of his league: it’s the Transformers trilogy. One the biggest and brashest summer franchises, it doesn’t matter if you didn’t get the story because, oooh explosions.

Ridley Scott

The Blockbuster: Black Hawk Down was Scott’s take on the Battle Of Mogadishu during the 1993 Somalian conflict. Following a brigade of U.S. soldiers attempting to capture a warlord, it took certain historical liberties to benefit the plot but still raked in $173 million worldwide.

Steven Spielberg

The Blockbuster: Spielberg’s ambitious disaster remake of War Of The Worlds pitted Tom Cruise’s everyman against swarms of extraterrestrials attempting to fly their flag on Earth.

Peter Jackson

The Blockbuster: The Middle-Earth trilogy based on J.R. Hartley’s... wait, no J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic fantasy series, The Lord Of The Rings busted blocks and transformed millions across the globe into fully-fledged fans of Frodo and co.

Joss Whedon

The Blockbuster: Marvel’s superhero behemoth, The Avengers . The lynchpin for their entire cinematic universe raked in a colossal box office haul and satisfied the comic aficionados to boot.

Gem Seddon is GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.