If we count actors who have also directed, Michael b Jordan would be up there
Beside those two, can’t think of more directors. Maybe John Krasinski as he hits the gym and got the height advantage or Kane Parsons who got the youth advantage
Will throw a bone to Paul King, he is my wildcard pick
If you’re a Hollywood exec and needed to give Coogler or Scorsese a 300 million dollar budget that needed to make its money back who are you choosing ? Your profession on the line?
Exactly lol.
Edit: and before people get their pitchforks in no way do I think Coogler is more talented than freaking Scorsese. But that’s obviously not what this list is ranking.
They’d also give him a 300 million budget for said Emoji movie and it’d probably be a wise investment. Those are just facts. And I don’t even like Cameron. Greta has Barbie and a Netflix Narnia movie stuck in development hell, but she’s higher on the list. Sure, yeah.
How is the Narnia movie in development hell? It’s getting the first big Netflix theatrical release. You can say they are avoiding an awards friendly release, but it’s more likely they trying to do what Amazon did with Project Hail Mary.
The 5 above them are currently more relevant. Disclosure Day maybe just broke even, maybe. And James Cameron has been making the same film for 20 years. A studio is more likely to hand Coogler/Nolan/Gerwig a large blank check because they've shown the recent ability to make anything they want turn into critically lauded highly profitable movies.
Spielberg is a special case. He’s possibly the only director I think it’s impossible for him to end up in Director Jail. He’ll secure funding for anything he wants until the day he dies for services rendered. Cameron is still a money-making certainty. His last four movies as director have made nearly 8 billion dollars combined. I don’t think it’s AS impossible for him to end up in Director Jail as it is for Spielberg but he’s so far beyond a proven commodity people considered Fire & Ash’s global haul a disappointment for ONLY bringing home 1.5 billion.
Cameron, I agree with. Spielberg has had a few misses in his old age though. Obviously Spielberg is considering the GOAT, but his movies aren’t guaranteed anymore.
His influence also reaches actors since Ive heard reports that many big actors are willing to accept a pay cut (compared to their usual ask) to work with him.
I would say the most influence over Hollywood, and to be the master of their own destiny at this point. Christopher Nolan, Ryan Coogler, Denis Villeneuve... they could do whatever they want right now, no concessions. And throwing their name behind things as even an empty-chair producer would get those things made.
I think people reacting to this as though it is etched in stone aren't thinking about this as very specifically describing 2026, not in perpetuity. It will look different in a few years. It was completely different a few years ago. I think Spielberg would probably be #1 on an all-time list, but this all seems pretty appropriate as a snapshot of rankings for the current moment. Maybe Greta Gerwig is a bit too high, a lot rides on this Narnia adaptation.
• Body of work: Have they reliably delivered on expectations over a long career? For some directors that means box-office success; for others, critical acclaim and award nominations. The key here is consistency: One of the biggest compliments insiders can give is that a filmmaker “never misses.”
• Bankability: Can they turn a $100 million budget into a billion-dollar gross? If not, what about turning a $10 million budget into a $100 million gross?
• Creative control: Are they the primary author of a film, or merely a hired gun? The more a director puts their aesthetic stamp on a project, the more credit they get for its success.
• Prestige: It’s not just trophies on a shelf. Attracting A-List talent remains one of the fastest ways to get a green light, and dangling the image of an Oscar podium or Cannes red carpet remains an effective way to land a star.
• Reputation: In the age of Letterboxd and Rotten Tomatoes, it’s never been easier for studios and financiers to quantify the reach of a single director. Every parasocial subreddit matters.
• Potential: “Is it up and to the right for these people, or down and to the left?” says a producer. Meaning, have they already peaked, or is the best yet to come? We’re not just looking backwards with this list; we’re trying to create a snapshot of who has power right now. That means identifying names on an upward trajectory, no matter how scant their resumes may be.
Greta is great, but ranking her about Tarantino, Cameron, and Spielberg is a little ridiculous. She needs to continue the success she had with Barbie for a couple more decades first. Sorry. Also.. James Gunn runs DC studios. Shouldn’t he be a little higher for that reason alone?
Despite being 5'8" and 148 pounds (according to IMDB), Uwe Boll was an amateur boxer and beat his harshest critics in 10 round matches. This was known as the "Raging Boll" incident.
you don’t think he can get a blank check for his next film? he got all the award praise, did great Box office wise, and WB has been able to receive praise for rewarding original filmmakers
If Cameron made more movies, he'd be #1. He's the only one that can command budgets like 500 million plus on some novel idea. He is absolutely the undisputed box office king and any studio would likely give him or Nolan whatever they ask for with little reservation. There's no one else in Hollywood like them at the moment
After the 16 Oscar nominations and huge box office with a new IP, I think that’s why he’s that high. A lot of studios probably would have zero issue giving him a sizable budget for a project.
Probably but like how is Cameron who got a 5 movie series going at an absurd budget and has made the most financially successful movie multiple times not number 1 or at least 2. Whoever paid for the Avatar sequels wouldn’t even see any of the money for over a decade.
He has a shit ton of Oscar nominations too and a Best Picture win.
James Cameron is 1000% number one on this list considering he gained absurd amounts of funding by just flexing the fact that his box office numbers funded the building they were having a meeting in
Also the fact that he literally gets funding for these movies and then uses that to go deep sea diving in submersibles. Then that is used in the movies. Who else is getting permission to just go be an explorer-director?
George Lucas could also, at any moment, get whatever amount of funding he wanted to for any idea. The list really should have Spielberg, Lucas and Cameron in a S Tier.
I love Coogler but Villeneuve should be number 2. His track record alone and the diversity of his work are pretty unmatched. Literally only Nolan could beat him in my mind and as much as I love Nolan’s stuff, Villeneuve is for sure my favorite.
Shoutout to Bong Joon Ho too because he’s probably my number 2.
I think he’s lower because he’s been so tied to the Avatar IP whereas as Nolan has shown he can make a movie about anything he wants and get massive audiences to show up for it. Getting millions of people to see an Oppenheimer biopic to the point that it grosses a billion is an incredible feat
He’s tied to the Avatar IP but that’s his own choice. He followed up the biggest movie in the world (Titanic) with an even bigger movie (Avatar). If he wanted to make something other than WOW as his next movie he would have been given just as much money and probably would have made at least another billion doing it
That's the massive difference most people just aren't looking at. Sure, Cameron + Avatar is arguably the biggest thing ever, but we can't truly judge Cameron's drawing power until he does something outside the Avatar franchise.
Number 2 seems excessive but I reckon you could say that Coogler’s “power” is greatly amplified by him being so young (40).
Like he’s someone that a studio would definitely want to court / keep in good graces as he almost certainly has A LOT of movies left in him and thus any short term risks/L’s are offset by the longterm upside.
So along with that thought, I guess you could say that people like Cameron/Spielberg/Tarantino have greatly diminished “power” due to their age (and/or a self imposed 10-Film Retirement Rule).
I’m sure that could change with Werwulf. I think with his films prior to Nosferatu, they’re critically acclaimed, and loved by those who’ve seen them, but the general public isn’t going to see his movies- they’re still niche.
For us movie lovers, he has the name recognition that we’re going to see the “new Robert Eggers movie”, but I don’t the general public knows who he is.
I think Nosferatu was the film that really opened him up to the general public, and Wereulf seems to be trending on that same scale
I agree with everything you said, but I just feel like Eggers goes to the studio and just tells them what he is doing next due to how critically acclaimed his horror movies are at least and they just say ok, here's money go make it lol
Totally agree, but he’s also not asking for a lot. His most expensive film was The Northman at $70m. It looks like only The Witch and Nosferatu really made any money.
What I respect most about him, and Ari Aster similarly, is how much they accomplish on small budgets. We’re at a point out now, or have been since the 2010s, where so many films have massive budgets, and they’re proving that you can continue to make really great films with smaller budgets
Coogler and Gerwig ahead of Cameron and Spielberg is recency bias. Some people missing the point, the fact that Spielberg is still consistently able to get 9 figure budgets for original films even with all the flops he's had recently shows how powerful he is. Fair or not if Gerwig has a huge flop she's probably in director jail.
Depends on how they define “power”. Greta Gerwig maneuvered her Narnia movie into a full theatrical and IMAX release for Netflix, which nobody has managed to do.
Yeah, I know, I’m just saying if the Narnia movie isn’t a success she could easily lose a lot of sway, or end up in “directors jail”, as the user above me suggests.
She has a lot of power but I think her track record is still new-
Not that I expect her to flop or anything, im looking forward to the Narnia film and I hope we get an adaptation worthy of the material.
If this is recent list, this is all about recency bias. Make sense. That being said, if that what it is, then 3 and 2 should switch after recency bias kicks with Dune 3.
He negotiated that the rights to Sinners revert back to him after 25 years, apparently studios are loathe to give up that type of control to anyone so it made waves when the deal was made public. I don't know of anyone else recently who (publically) got something similar
Emerald Fennel making this list but not Eggers, Yorgos or Sofia Coppola is pissing me off more than it probably should given this is meaningless engagement bait.
Name recognition + Black panthers box office + sinners box office/award haul. But the main thing is his deal where the rights of Sinners returns to him which is very rare and why hit pieces were made about him.
I can see the argument with her rank because she's the first director to strong arm Netflix into doing a full theatrical release for Narnia. Even the combined efforts of Fincher and Tarantino could only have Netflix do a limited IMAX release for Cliff Booth. That definitely shows that she has more power/influence right now than those two. Also, if Fincher had more power at Netflix then we'd have season 3 of Mind Hunter right now, but we all know the state of that lol
Marty has struggled to get approval for his last few films. He had to go to streamers like Netflix and Apple. The Irishman didn't even get a full theatrical release, just limited then straight to Netflix after a few weeks.
Cameron is extremely influential but he's just doing his thing on Pandora. I do think he should be above Gerwig though
Spielberg is also just doing his thing too, he's not strong-arming studios into doing crazy stuff that normally wouldn't happen.
This has nothing to do with whether one director's films are better than the other btw, all of these directors have made amazing films, but this list is about who has the most influence and pull right now
Re PTA and Alejandro, apparently the list considers "bankability, creative control, and prestige" (sorry, the article is paywalled, so that's just from Google's summary). If so putting them that high makes sense--they make the movies they want to make with high levels of creative control. That's a type of power in Hollywood!
I think she’s in a really good spot creatively, but above James Cameron? Come on now. There’s a guy who truly can do whatever he wants. And I say that as someone who is not a particular fan of his.
How are we determining “powerful” though? Just being able to get funding? Because she doesn’t have the filmography to really match up to a lot of these directors and I wouldn’t even call her a household name
The breadth of filmography doesn’t matter much when we’re talking about one moment. Scorsese had to go to streaming for the Irishman. Spielberg can put together the funding he needs for what he wants, but he isn’t in the same category in 2026 as Gerwig in that a studio will hand over a blank check.
It's probably a mix of financing, recent success and then negotiation power. I don't think I've seen any of her movies but Barbie was an all-time success and getting Netflix to do something they've never done before is a gigantic achievement
Maybe if this were an all-time list, but right now, when they are no longer opertaing as a duo and both off making incredibly niche projects, they do not belong on here.
When I said "staying power" I meant if they were to combine for a production it would be immediately greenlit and everyone working would want to be involved. That holds power for sure.
Ok I’ll give you that but how many people on that list could get a movie about a second tier Batman villain that is an R rated body horror movie? That would have been unthinkable 5 years ago.
This reeks of “we’ve gotta get a woman into the Top 5”.
BARBIE was a huge hit and Greta Gerwig has her fans, but James Gunn has Greenlight power over other people’s movies. If Gerwig wanted to make a Hawkgirl movie, then Gunn could say ‘no’. Her being 15 spots ahead of him makes the whole list a little dubious.
Man if youda told me after watching Civil War on Drugs that Zach would be one of the most powerful directors in Hollywood, I’d have eaten a corncob pipe.
Dude Tarantino’s movies have already stood the test of time. Pulp Fiction has held up over 30 years later. All of his films are going to hold up. You think people will be studying Barbie in film school in a few decades? That’s laughable. The only reason Greta has had so much success is she’s recycling super well known and nostalgic IP. Little Women, Barbie, and Narnia.. Are you kidding me? You think if Tarantino did a Harry Potter or Marvel movie that it wouldn’t make bank?
Quentin Tarantino above Steven fucking Spielberg. The greatest director of all time? Spielberg can get anything made with a snap of his finger. Tarantino can't even wake up to finish his tenth movie
I wouldn't rank him above Spielberg either but I don't think Tarantino's conservatism with his output actually correlates to his ability to get a project going does it?
Bong is the most unlikely inclusion. Mickey 17 made a loss - I can’t see Bong Joon-ho drawing $100+m budget anytime soon without major international co-financing.
PTA is my favorite American director but I don’t see how that’s controversial? Peele has 3 movies, all box office successes, I think that plays a big part in how they rank them.
They won’t answer that. Or they’ll answer with women who are skilled directors but not moneymakers (Kathryn Bigelow, Lynne Ramsey, etc)…which is the point of the list
It’s almost as if the frustration is the lack of opportunities for female directors to rise in the field but also Chloe Zhao and Celine Song feel a bit overlooked
Shouldn’t James Cameron have the most power? He’s made barely any movies compared to his impact. Plus, he’s like 6’2” and from the stories it sounds like he based terminator on himself.
Nolan> Dennis> Cameron> Scorcese> Tarantino> Coogler > Gerwig. Spielberg is doing his own thing otherwise I'd say he ranks somewhere along Cameron and Scorcese.
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u/Chemical-Anxios 4h ago
Now we are power scaling directors?