Not all ofSir Ridley Scott’s movies have been huge box office successes,but in a career that spans 50 years, he has had some of the biggest blockbusters in modern film. The great thing about all of Sir Scott’s commercially successful movies is that each one is also a terrific film that adds great depth to the history of moviemaking.The acclaimed filmmaker has directed 31 movies andgrossed over $4.5 billion in total. Yes, that’s billions with a “B”!
You will find the well-known Scott entries likeGladiatorandBlack Hawk Downamong the top 10 highest-grossing films of his career, but there are also a few entries that you may not have thought made as much dough as they didwith the top spot being a sci-fi movie you might not expect. Here is a list of Ridley Scott’s top-earning movies that had the studio executives grinning while they lit up a cigar and poured themselves a good drink knowing the directorial reins were in very good hands.
10’Black Hawk Down' (2001)
$173 million worldwide
Inspired by the tragic true storyof the failed United States Army Ranger special operation mission into Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993, Sir Ridley Scott’s most notable and successful war genre film comes in at number 10. The story of Operation Gothic Serpent during the Battle of Mogadishu is as harrowing as it is spectacular.Scott has not taken on the war genre very often, butBlack Hawk Downis not only his best, but one of the best military cinema experiences ever made.
Black Hawk Downis one of the very rare war films that strikes a wonderful balance of character development with the harried, frenzied, and visceral vicissitudes of modern warfare.Josh HartnettandTom Sizemoreare two soldierswho are tasked with saving as many lives as possible after their assassination attempt goes horribly awry. The realism and horror of a group of Rangers severely outnumbered by angry people and warlords in Somalia are both thrilling and hard to watch.
Black Hawk Down
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9’Kingdom of Heaven' (2005)
$218 million worldwide
Starring an A-list ensemble includingOrlando Bloom,Liam Neeson,Eva Green, andEdward Norton,Kingdom of Heavendid very well at the box office despite not being one of Scott’s more well-known and highly touted movies. Bloom was coming off turns in both theLord of the Ringstrilogy and thePirates of the Caribbeansaga, so he is no stranger to sweeping epics, and that’s exactly whatKingdom of Heavenis.
There have been many movies about the Crusades, but Scott’s version jumps off the screen. After killing a corrupt priest (Michael Sheen), Balian of Ibelin (Orlando Bloom), is still grieving for his wife and has been forced to flee his home. He finds his estranged father, Balian (Liam Neeson), and also shares a unique chemistry with a new love, Sibylla (Green).Scott proves that he can handle any historical erawith this medieval gem, which has a splendid storyinterwoven with riveting action sequences.
Kingdom of Heaven
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8’Alien: Covenant' (2017)
$241 million worldwide
WithAlien: Covenant,Scott doubled down on reclaiming his beloved Xenomorph that he used to make a name for himself withAlienin 1979and 2012’sPrometheus(another high-grossing entry).Alien: Covenantis set years after the crew of the Prometheustried and failed to uncover the connection between humans and the mercurial race of Engineers. As we find out, the Engineers are not what we expected them to be and inAlien: Covenant, we discover what has happened on the same planet when a team of scientists search for an inhabitable new home for thousands of colonists who are in cryostasis.
The real draw in Covenant is the encore performance of Michael Fassbender as the rogue AI droid named David. Having been left alone on a foreign planet for years after the Prometheus failure, David has gone a bit bonkers. He has spent his time attempting to hybridize the Xenomorph with other species and has created a small army of alien bastards who are bloodthirsty and answer only to him.Covenant,while not at the level of its predecessor, is still an underrated gem of an Alien entry for Scott.
Alien: Covenant
Alien Covenant is a sci-fi horror film set in the Aliens franchise and takes place after the events of Prometheus. Bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, members of the colony ship Covenant discover what they consider an uncharted paradise. While there, they meet David, the synthetic survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition. An expedition deeper into the planet soon turns dark and dangerous when a hostile alien life-form forces the crew into a deadly fight for survival.
7’American Gangster' (2007)
$270 million worldwide
It was a clash of titans at the height of their powers when Ridley Scott recruited bothDenzel WashingtonandRussell Crowefor the leads inAmerican Gangster. This entry is a bit of an outlier in that it is Scott doing a specific period piece set in the United States. You could argue that putting Washington and Crowe together at the height of their Hollywood influence would be enough to make a tidy purse, butScott gives American Gangster his patented touch with measured dialogue and a mix of tight and wide shots.
It’s a crisply paced game of cat and mouse between two Hollywood stalwarts that drives this movie. Scott knows he’s going to get outstanding performances from his actors, so he needs to carefully draw a cinematic maze that both the audience and the leads walk through together. In what is a loosely based story, Denzel makes Lucas almost seem sympathetic as a man who comes from nothing to become the most powerful drug dealer in Harlem only to have Crowe’s character, Detective Richie Roberts, get a checkmate on the dashing but dastardly Lucas.
American Gangster
6’Exodus: Gods and Kings' (2014)
$268 million worldwide
Admittedly, seeing this Scott film this high on the list is a bit of a surprise. Ridley’s movies are like pizza, even if they’re “bad,” they’re still good, and on several occasions, great.Always looking for a different period in history to dissect, Scott tackles the biblical story of Moses (Christian Bale) taking from the Book of Exodus as source material.Exodus: Gods and Kingsretells how the great leader of the Jewish people wages war with the tyrannical Pharoah Ramses II (Joel Edgerton) as he and his people flee from Egypt.
Bale and Edgerton both take a bit of a leap and put their trust in Scott to tell the ancient story with aplomb and accuracy.While Scott doesn’t take directly from the Bible, his character development is powerful and consistent with everything we know and have read about both historical figures.Scott decides to spiff up the Old Testament story with a sleeker and shinier wardrobe but never strays from the important thrust.
Exodus: Gods and Kings
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5’Robin Hood' (2010)
$322 million worldwide
Scott teamed up with Russel Crowe yet again for their adaptation of the storied thief who robs the rich to give to the poor.Robin Hood has had more iterationsthan we can remember in the last half-century, and there were high hopes for this one with a top-notch director and an A-list actor who he had proven to have undeniable chemistry with.While it managed to rake in almost a third of a billion dollars at the box office, it may not be the best collaboration between the two and is definitely not in a league withGladiator.
Crowe does bring the most rugged version yet of Robin of Locksley to the big screen, and the law of “even mediocre Ridley Scott movies are still pretty good” still applies to his take on the classic tale. Even with the greatCate Blanchettin the role of Lady Marian and an affableOscar Issacalso shouldering the load as Prince John, another take on the noble thief has to have something very special about it to stand out from the rest. The acting is fantastic, but it sometimes feels like audiences have seen this story before (because they have).
Robin Hood
4’Hannibal' (2001)
$353 million worldwide
Sir Ridley Scott lured Sir Anthony Hopkins back to reprise his role as the erudite but deranged cannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter inHannibal. Much was expected of the new iteration of the Oscar-winning filmThe Silence of the Lambs, and while the film wasn’t as critically lauded as the original, the draw of Hopkins as the diabolical psychopath was enough to land as one of Scott’s most commercially successful films. Hopkins delivers the goods, but over a decade removed from the original and without the dynamic chemistry he shared withco-starJodie Fosteras Clarice Starling, it was almost a no-win situation.
Hannibalis an example of how confident Scott is as a director. To take on a sequel that had set the bar so incredibly high would be enough to scare most filmmakers away, but he welcomed the almost quixotic challenge ofliving up to the Oscar-winningJonathan Demmemovie. Hopkins and Julianne Moore are some serious talents, but how can you top amovie that won the “big four” Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress in 1990?
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3’Prometheus' (2012)
$403 million worldwide
Prometheuswas a critical moviefor fans of Ridley Scott’s prowess as a director of the Sci-fi genre. After several lacklusterAliensequels and crossovers - aside from the splendid 1986 follow-upAliens -he reclaimed his franchise with one of the most thought-provoking and beautifully shot films of the 21st century. With an A-list ensemble cast that includesNoomi Rapace,Michael Fassbender,Charlize Theron,Idris Elba, andDanny McBride, theambitious film about the search for answers to the creation of humankind is a brilliant epic and is still underrated.
Rapace delivers her usual knockout performance asDr. Elizabeth Shaw, a scientist who is leading a team of researchers on what they believe may reveal an explanation of the creation of the human race. She brings her solid brand of physicality to the lead, while huge stars like Fassbender, Theron, and Elba buttress a well-rounded cast in a most welcome return to blissful Sci-fi form for Scott and theAlienfranchise.
Prometheus
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2’Gladiator' (2000)
$503 million worldwide
After making a name for himself in the Sci-fi genre, Scott turned around and delivered a home run with his Oscar-winning tour de forceGladiator. Maximus Decimus Meridius’s (Russell Crowe) hero’s journey is one for the ages and the first of several films in which he would collaborate with the Aussie star.The breadth and pure scope of Scott’s foray into historical fiction is awesome to behold and will always be regarded as one of his best and most remembered accomplishments.
This story is the ultimate good versus evil with both sides executed to complete perfection. Maximus’s fall and rise again from slavery to topple the Roman ruling class is arguably the greatest action film of the century if not longer.Not to be overlooked is the deliciously twisted performance ofJoaquin Phoenixas Commodus, the overlooked black sheep of the Roman royal family who will do whatever it takes to put Maximus in his place and rule Rome with an iron fist.
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1’The Martian' (2015)
$630 million worldwide
It is fitting that the number one highest-earning Ridley Scott film is a fantastic Sci-fi entry. The man who set the standard forthrilling movies in outer spacehas dedicated the better part of the last dozen years to reestablishing himself as the godfather of the genre. From 2012 to 2021, he madePrometheus,The Martian,Alien: Covenant, and episodes ofRaised by Wolves, an acclaimed series that aired two seasons on HBOMAX from 2020-2021. The director takes “lost in space” to an edge-of-your-seat new level with2015’s intrepid and smart movie about a man stranded on the Red Planetand is a well-deserved anchor for the number one spot.
Matt Damon has never been better as Mark Watney,a botanist who gets marooned on Marsafter the rest of his crew barely escapes and believes he is dead. Left alone on a strange planet, Watney survives with a keen understanding of agriculture and science. Scott’s direction brings a perfect balance of Watney’s pure desperation and the measured urgency of the engineers on Earth who are trying to bring him home.
