A Pair Of Marvel Writers Are The Highest Grossing Screenwriters In Hollywood History (With A Catch)

Hollywood has a lot of go-to screenwriters when it comes to its biggest blockbusters. Some writers, it seems, just have a knack for conceiving of the exact kind of rousing, crowd-pleasing entertainment that mass audiences love (and that studios love to invest in). Most major blockbusters tend to hire teams of screenwriters, even though only a few are credited. And while most of the biggest blockbuster writers share their work with many others, they always seem to be present when money is being made.

Attentive filmgoers might immediately recognize names like Ehren Kruger, the screenwriter behind super-hits like "The Ring," three "Transformers" sequels, "Top Gun: Maverick," and "F1." Per The Numbers, his films have, collectively, earned over $6.2 billion at the global box office.

Meanwhile, animation fans might mention Andrew Stanton, who's written multiple Pixar movies, including the "Toy Story" films. His movies have grossed almost $5.66 billion theatrically. Or perhaps they would point to the screenwriting team of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, who've penned the "Kung Fu Panda" films, the "SpongeBob SquarePants" movies, and the "Trolls" movies. Their movies have earned nearly $4.25 billion. 

Of the blockbuster writers, though, none may be more famous than David Koepp, the writer of "Death Becomes Her," "Jurassic Park," "Mission: Impossible," "Spider-Man," and piles of others. His films have netted $7.51 billion. 

Just nosing out Koepp in terms of their grosses, however, is the duo of Christopher Marcus and Stephen McFeely. The pair have had a hand in penning seven of the highest-grossing films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They also scripted the three extant "Chronicles of Narnia" movies released from 2005 to 2010, all of which were successful. Collectively, their films have earned almost $9.29 billion, making them the highest-grossing screenwriters in history ... at least at the domestic box office.

Markus and McFeely's story is simple enough. After meeting and becoming collaborators during their college days, they began selling scripts (albeit un-produced ones) by the late 1990s. Their first major project finally came in 2004, when they wrote "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" for HBO Films. That was high-profile enough to get them a gig penning an adaptation of C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." The big-budget fantasy epic then became a proper blockbuster, and the pair were officially Hollywood successes. 

The duo ultimately penned two more "Narnia" movies, both of which were similarly quite lucrative. Markus and McFeely could clearly be trusted to handle costly enterprises. After writing their third "Narnia" film, they were hired by Marvel Studios to pen 2011's "Captain America: The First Avenger." After that, they were off to the races, having a hand in the scripts for "Thor: The Dark World," "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," "Captain America: Civil War," "Avengers: Infinity War," and "Avengers: Endgame." McFeely is also co-penning the upcoming "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars," with Markus focusing on running the Russo Brothers' AGBO production company in the meantime (per IndieWire).

Speaking of which, the Russos have directed all of Markus and McFeely's MCU films since "The Dark World," in addition to collaborating with them on Netflix's costly-but-critically-derided "The Gray Man" and "The Electric State." Indeed, Marvel movies and/or Russo Brothers films seem to be what Markus and McFeely devote their careers to exclusively now (which, of course, has been very lucrative for them). But with the MCU having waned in popularity since 2019, only time will tell what projects Markus and McFeely will be working on after their next two "Avengers" movies.

Unsurprisingly, while Markus & McFeely rule the domestic box office (with their films having grossed $3.18 billion), James Cameron rules the global market. Because Cameron writes the movies he directs, and because his films have mostly been giant hits, he's grossed $9.37 billion to date. In addition to writing the "Avatar" movies, "Titanic," the first two "Terminator" films, "Aliens," "True Lies," and "The Abyss," Cameron is also a credited writer on the blockbuster "Rambo: First Blood Part II" and the international hit "Alita: Battle Angel."

Steve Kloves is just below Cameron and Markus & McFeely, as he was the primary writer of the super-popular "Harry Potter" movies (he scripted them all except for "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and the first two "Fantastic Beasts" films). Kloves also worked on "The Amazing Spider-Man" and less action-packed movies like "The Fabulous Baker Boys" and "Wonder Boys." In total, his films have raked in $7.92 billion.

As mentioned, Stanton and Kruger are also in the top-20 highest-grossing screenwriters of all time, as are another prolific Marvel team: Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. McKenna and Sommers wrote a notable animated film ("The LEGO Batman Movie") before moving onto the MCU with the "Spider-Man" movies. Their 2021 film "Spider-Man: No Way Home" made $1.9 billion just by itself. They also wrote the sequel "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," which made nearly a billion dollars. Overall, McKenna's films have made $5.86 billion while Sommers' movies have earned just slightly less with $5.83 billion.

And then there's Christopher Nolan, who, like Cameron, writes his own films and earns piles of cash each time (even with "Tenet," which opened during the COVID-19 lockdowns). Nolan is technically one of the most successful screenwriters ever, having made $5.93 billion.