15 Highest-Grossing Movie Composers Of All Time

Steven Spielberg is the highest-grossing director with $10.7 billion in worldwide box office (not adjusted for inflation), with James Cameron right behind at $8.7 billion, basically one “Avatar” movie. The top-grossing actors include Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Zoe Saldana, and Chris Pratt each in the $14 billion range (unadjusted). Pretty darn impressive … but film composers scoff at such meager numbers, probably while twirling their batons.

The highest-earning film composers don’t just match these figures; they far exceed them. Movie composers get their due credit, as their work is frequently one of the most enjoyable and enduring parts of the films we love. But while we talk a lot about composers, it’s not often that the conversation turns to what really matters in Hollywood — the money they make for movie studios. We’re going to change that right now. You have seen their movies. You definitely know their work. Now find out who are the highest-grossing film composers of all time!

When Steven Spielberg needs music for his movies, he calls John Williams. But when the then-octogenarian Williams was feeling unwell — and knee-deep in composing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” — Spielberg hired a new composer for the first time in 30 years. So who did he call for “Bridge of Spies?” Thomas Newman.

Newman grew up in the movie business, as his dad was 20th Century Fox’s longtime head of music, and the elder Newman even gave a young “Johnny” Williams some of his first gigs. While Newman’s work isn’t nearly as memorable as Williams, his box office bona fides put him in the same company. In a five-decade composing career, Newman’s movies have grossed just a hair over $10 billion at the worldwide box office, for a per-film average of $122 million. But it wasn’t a Spielberg movie that earned him his spot. Newman’s a go-to guy for James Bond and Pixar, with his highest-grossing scores being for “Skyfall,” “Finding Dory,” “Finding Nemo,” “Spectre,” and “WALL-E.”

When you think of “Shrek” music, Smash Mouth probably springs to mind. This is 100% appropriate, as their cover of Neil Diamond’s “I’m A Believer” and their own “All Star” are absolute bangers (fight me). However, the person you should also think of is Harry Gregson-Williams. The British composer has penned scores for 55 movies and counting, but the biggest chunk of his $10 billion plus box office earnings come from the fractured fairy tale starring the not-so-jolly green ogre. 

Gregson-Williams’ highest-grossing score belongs to “Shrek 2,” with just under $1 billion, followed by “Shrek The Third” and “Shrek Forever After.” The composer also owes a lot to the “Chronicles of Narnia” films, as well as “The Martian” and “The Meg.” The dude’s oeuvre is diverse, you have to give him that, as is his style, which blends both electronic and orchestral elements, as well as anachronistic instruments, to create immersive cinematic experiences. So to quote Smash Mouth, the dude is an All Star.

You’re probably a big fan of Howard Shore without realizing it. Shore is one of his era’s most celebrated film composers thanks to his magisterial work on Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” films, which naturally take the first six spots on his highest-grossing films. You may be surprised that Shore also scored such distinct films as “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Se7en,” “Ransom,” and “The Departed,” movies that have nothing in common except they’re about crazy people. 

Despite scoring 69 films (nice!), around half of Shore’s total $10.7 billion box office gross comes just from Jackson’s Middle Earth pictures. To be honest, I expected Shore to be higher on this list, but a lot of his movies didn’t even crack $100 million. Besides scoring fantasy epics, Shore also dabbles in the dark arts, as David Cronenberg and David Fincher have him on speed dial, and he was the composer Tim Burton hired when Danny Elfman wasn’t available for “Ed Wood.”

Movie buffs (well, nerds) talk a lot about “Journeymen Directors,” filmmakers who effortlessly bounce from genre to genre without overwhelming the film with their signature style. But we don’t really talk much about “Journeymen Composers.” In some ways every composer has to be a “journeyman,” (unless they always collaborate with the same filmmakers), but none seem to dabble in as many distinct genres as John Debney. 

To whit, his highest-grossing movies are “The Jungle Book,” “The Passion of the Christ,” “Iron Man 2,” “Bruce Almighty,” and “The Greatest Showman.” Throw in “The SpongeBob Movie,” “The Garfield Movie,” “The Hot Chick,” “The Scorpion King,” and “The Princess Diaries.” Oh, and “Yogi Bear,” which I’m shocked to see made $200 worldwide (what were people smoking in 2010?). Debney is a dude who stays busy with 101 movies to his credit for a career box office total of just over $10.7 billion worldwide, averaging $109 million. Debney clearly likes to work, and filmmakers like his work, judging by his diverse oeuvre.

Gun to my head if you asked me to name one Henry Jackman movie I wouldn’t be able to do it (and honestly, I’d probably just think you were confused and meant to say “Hugh Jackman.”). Turns out Henry Jackman’s movies have actually made more than Hugh Jackman’s, though not by much (in blockbuster terms): $11.2 billion to $9.2 billion.

While the English composer doesn’t have a distinct sound to anyone but the most trained ear, he can be counted to deliver a capable blockbuster score, as he proved on “Captain America: Civil War,” “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle,” “Jumanji: The Next Level,” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” He also has worked with The Mouse House (“Big Hero 6,” “Wreck-It Ralph”) and the Monsterverse (“Kong: Skull Island,” “Godzilla x Kong: Supernova”), as well as a handful of Dwayne Johnson movies. With only 38 movies to his credit (the least on this list) and a per-film average of $296 million (the third-highest on this list), we should probably be talking about Henry Jackman a whole lot more.

Canadian composer Christophe Beck isn’t a household name, but if you are a parent with a child under ten you are very familiar with his work. Honestly, if you hear it one more time you may just go insane. You see, Beck scored both “Frozen” and “Frozen II,” though before you ask, no he did not write “Let It Go,” as that distinction belongs to the songwriting husband-and-wife duo Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez.

Beck should probably take the Lopez’s out to a nice dinner, as the $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion worldwide earned by “Frozen” and “Frozen II” respectively make up more than twenty-percent of his $12 billion career earnings (he should invite directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck while he’s at it). Considering Beck has scored 77 films, so much weight falling on just two films is really saying something. In fairness, Beck has scored a few other hits, including “Ant-Man and The Wasp” and “The Hangover Part II.”

James Horner died far too young at just 61, but managed to score an incredible 101 films during his prolific 35-year career. Despite this, just two of his films make up a staggering 36-percent of his career box office earnings, which totaled just shy of $14 billion. You might have heard of them: James Cameron’s “Titanic” with $2.2 billion and “Avatar” with $2.9 billion. Personally, I can’t imagine either film without Horner’s soaring, epic scores, and he was especially instrumental (get it?) to “Titanic,” for which he won an Oscar.

Horner’s blockbuster oeuvre went beyond Cameron, and included “Braveheart,” “Apollo 13,” “Field of Dreams,” and “An American Tail.” Heck, Horner’s hits even went beyond the movies, as he was a successful pop music composer too. He was nominated for an Oscar for writing “Somewhere Out There” from “An American Tail,” which landed number two on the Billboard Top 100 in 1986. Horner also penned the music for “My Heart Will Go,” which won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, went platinum or multi-platinum in several countries, and even topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1998. Horner’s life was short, but his contributions to pop culture were many, including being one of the highest-grossing film composers ever.

If you’re going to hitch your wagon to a blockbuster film franchise, you can’t do much better than the Marvel Cinematic Universe and “The Fast and The Furious.” Brian Tyler has scored every “Fast and Furious” movie since “The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift” in 2006, as well as mega Marvel movies like “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (with Danny Elfman) and “Iron Man 3.” Tyler also wrote the opening theme to “Yellowstone,” but as a TV show that doesn’t count towards his $14.8 billion total.

Basically, Tyler is the man you call for modern action movies, blending fast-paced, DJ-style techniques into his cinematic output, while incorporating everything from EDM to hard rock to jazz. If there’s a “Fast and Furious” main theme, sorry I don’t know it, but that’s not what Tyler is all about. He’s about writing film music that is, well, fast and furious. With 64 movies to his name, five of them grossing more than one billion, Tyler has a per-film average of $243 million.

John Powell proves you don’t need any all-time, record-breaking mega-blockbusters on your resume, you just have to pen a lot of really massive hits. Oh, and write music for family films. That helps. None of Powell’s 56 movies have ever broken one billion at the worldwide box office, but eight of them have made more than half-a-billion dollars, while an amazing 27 earned more than $100 million. 

It helps that Powell is pretty much the go-to dude for non-Disney, family friendly films (which as any parent will tell you, there are a lot of those). Powell scored the “Ice Age,” “Kung Fu Panda,” “How To Train Your Dragon”, and “Happy Feet” movies, as well as co-wrote the score for the original “Shrek” with Henry Gregson-Williams. But before you think Powell is just a “family movie guy,” he also wrote the scores for the three Matt Damon Jason Bourne movies, as well as John Woo’s seminal “Face/Off.” With a range like that, it’s no wonder Powell’s worldwide box office total comes to $14.9 billion.

Alan Silvestri may be your favorite composer and you didn’t even know it. A favorite of director Robert Zemeckis, Silvestri wrote the unforgettable main themes to “Forrest Gump” and “Back To The Future,” as well as worked on the Steven Spielberg-produced “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” and the Spielberg-directed “Ready Player One,” filling in for John Williams. Silvestri would have had a legendary career if he retired thirty years ago, but his biggest blockbuster hit — and perhaps his most famous theme — came when he started working with a little upstart movie company called Marvel Studios.

Silvestri was brought on board “Captain America: The First Avenger” in 2011, and the studio liked his work so much they hired him back for the record-shattering “The Avengers,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame.” In fact, the only “Avengers” movie that didn’t break any records was the one Silvestri didn’t score, “Age of Ultron” (rumor has it then-Marvel President Ike Perlmutter wanted to establish Brian Tyler as Marvel’s in-house composer, but his work was later touched up by Danny Elfman). With a penchant for penning memorable main themes that is second only to John Williams, Silvestri’s films have earned an exceptional $18.8 million worldwide.

James Newtown Howard is a “composer’s composer” who has earned the deep admiration of his peers for his sensitive, masterful, and emotionally resonant scores that both blend in and elevate the movies he works on. While he does boast a few blockbusters on his resume, it’s not nearly as much as some of his composing contemporaries. No, Howard’s secret weapon is he works really hard. All told, Howard has scored 124 movies, averaging just over three films per year since he started his career with 1986’s “8 Million Ways To Die.”

Howard’s incredible output has placed him near the top of our list, despite having only one billion-dollar blockbuster on his resume, “The Dark Knight,” which he shared with co-composer Hans Zimmer. As the sole composer for the “Fantastic Beasts” and “The Hunger Games” movies, Howard has padded his resume with blockbusters of his own. Throw in one-hit wonders like “I Am Legend,” “The Sixth Sense,” “King Kong,” and “Maleficent” (Geoff Zanelli scored the sequel), and you have Howard’s worldwide total of $19.3 billion.

If you told an Oingo Boingo fan back in the 80s that the new wave band’s eccentric founder would be one of the most prolific and profitable film composers ever … well honestly, they might have believed you. Never count out Danny Elfman, a dude who has always marched to the beat of his own drum. And guitar. And piano. And trombone. Elfman started his film scoring career on “Fast Times At Ridgemont High” in 1982, but met his spirit animal in Tim Burton on 1985’s “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure,” forming one of the greatest director-composer collaborations in movie history.

Despite his avant-garde origins, Elfman soon broke big as a blockbuster composer with the record-breaking “Ghostbusters II” and “Batman” in the same month. Elfman has never looked back since. With a monumental 105 movies to his name, Elfman’s films have amassed an amazing $21.5 billion. While his contributions to “Avengers: Age of Ultron” count towards his total, his biggest solo score was Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland,” followed by his work with Sam Raimi on the three “Spider-Man” movies and “Dr. Strange in The Multiverse of Madness.” From the underground to the mainstream, nobody does it quite like Danny Elfman.

Many call Michael Giacchino the next John Williams, so it’s no wonder Williams passed him the literal baton for “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” While that may be a bit premature, there’s no denying Giacchino is set to soon surpass his composing idol, at least when accounting for inflation. Films featuring Giacchino’s scores have racked up a sensational $21.9 billion dollars, but that’s not even his most impressive stat. Giacchino has scored just shy of 50 films, making his per-film average an astounding $497.9 million, more than $200 million more than the next-in-line John Williams with $361 million.

Giacchino came bursting out of the gate with “The Incredibles,” one of his most memorable themes, and the highest-grossing debut on this list with $631 million worldwide. But he was just getting started. Giacchino has since composed the MCU “Spider-Man” trilogy, the “Jurassic World” trilogy, a bevy of Pixar flicks (“The Incredibles 2,” “Inside Out,” “Coco,” “Cars 2” and “Up,” for which he won an Oscar), superhero spectacles (“The Batman,” “Doctor Strange”), “Mission: Impossible” movies, “Star Trek” films, and a few “Planet of the Apes” pics too. While not all of the movies have been good, Giacchino’s music always has been, which is why he’s one of the few composers of his generation to become a household name among film fans.

“Jaws.” “Star Wars.” “Superman.” “Indiana Jones.” “Home Alone.” “Jurassic Park.” “Harry Potter.” Each of these distinct, universally beloved film franchises feature themes composed by the maestro, John Williams. We can debate whether or not he is “the best” composer (Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, Akira Ifukube, and Maurice Jarre would like a word), but there’s no disputing he has composed more memorable themes than anyone who has ever made a living scoring films. 

The best way to convey his greatness is to imagine a world without him. “Jaws” would not be as menacing without his two-note motif. “Star Wars” would have been hokey without his soaring orchestral grandeur. “Superman” wouldn’t seem as heroic, “Indiana Jones” wouldn’t sound as adventurous, and “Harry Potter” wouldn’t be as magical. There’s a reason these franchises still use his themes decades later: they’re timeless. Frankly, fans wouldn’t accept anything else (which is why his themes are included in his box office totals, even if he didn’t score every sequel).

If we adjusted for inflation, it’s likely this would be no contest. As is, Williams’ work has still amassed $28.9 billion across 84 films, starting with 1966’s “Penelope.” Additionally, Williams has earned 54 Academy Award nominations (the most of any person ever), and five wins, plus a host of lifetime achievement awards from just about every organization there is. And he’s still going strong at north of 90 years old. There are many film composers. There’s only one John Williams.

Hans Zimmer is the sound of modern movies. He’s debatably even more influential than John Williams, as contemporary composers focus less on composing memorable character themes and more on creating “sonic worlds,” blurring the line between film scoring and sound design. Which isn’t to say Zimmer doesn’t compose main themes (e.g. “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Wonder Woman”). Rather, he blends orchestral arrangements with electronic music to create a fused sound that doesn’t embody individual characters or themes, but builds tension and evokes emotion. It’d be wrong to say Zimmer’s style isn’t inimitable, as composers both on this list and off have successfully imitated him since he debuted with “Rain Man” in 1988. There’s a reason: it’s what filmmakers want.

Filmmakers also want to make money, and Zimmer’s movies certainly have, racking up more than $36 billion worldwide, about $7 billion more than John Williams at number two (unadjusted for inflation). It must be mentioned that many Hollywood composers hire trusted “ghost composers” to actually write the music using their signature style under strict guidelines, and Zimmer is the most notorious for this. So there’s no telling how many scores he actually wrote, but there’s also no denying his style sells tickets, which is why Hans Zimmer is the highest-grossing movie composer of all time.