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Steven Spielberg movies in order

Fifty years and more than thirty features. Here are the ones that matter, and where to start.

Updated 5 August 2026 · 16 titles tracked

Spielberg has directed more films than anyone else on this site, across more genres, for longer. Any list is a selection, and this one covers the major works.

There are effectively two Spielbergs, and which one you meet first shapes everything.

Spielberg films, in a suggested starting order

His major works rather than every credit. An entry path — toggle to release order on the filmography page.

  1. 1Jaws1975 · Major work
  2. 2Raiders of the Lost Ark1981 · Major work
  3. 3Jurassic Park1993 · Major work
  4. 4Schindler's List1993 · Major work
  5. 5E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial1982 · Major work
  6. 6Saving Private Ryan1998 · Major work
  7. 7Close Encounters of the Third Kind1977 · Major work
  8. 8Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade1989 · Major work
  9. 9Minority Report2002 · Major work
  10. 10The Color Purple1985
  11. 11Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom1984
  12. 12Catch Me If You Can2002
  13. 13Munich2005
  14. 14Duel1971
  15. 15Lincoln2012
  16. 16The Fabelmans2022 · Major work
Open the full Steven Spielberg filmography

Start with Jaws or Raiders

Jaws invented the summer blockbuster, largely by accident — the mechanical shark kept failing, so he shot around it, and the film is terrifying precisely because you barely see it.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is the other answer, and very nearly a perfect adventure film. It also sits in the Indiana Jones order if you want the whole series.

Then Jurassic Park, then E.T. That is the popular Spielberg, and it is the half most people already half-know.

The other Spielberg

Schindler's List came out the same year as Jurassic Park — 1993, both directed by the same man, which remains one of the strangest facts in film history. It won him Best Director.

Saving Private Ryan rewrote how war is filmed; the Omaha Beach opening is still the reference point. Munich is his most morally uncomfortable film and the better for it.

Save these for after the blockbusters. They land differently once you know the register he is departing from.

Watch The Fabelmans last

It is a lightly fictionalised account of his own childhood — the divorce, the camera, the discovery that film can lie. It is a good film cold and a genuinely moving one if you already know the fifty years it produced.

Common questions

What order should I watch Spielberg movies in?

They are standalone, so any order works. Start with Jaws or Raiders of the Lost Ark, then Jurassic Park and E.T., then the dramas — Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan.

Which Spielberg movie should I watch first?

Jaws. It invented the modern blockbuster and still works completely.

How many movies has Steven Spielberg directed?

More than thirty features across five decades. This guide covers the major works rather than every credit.