If a film has displayed the Amblin Entertainment logo in the past four decades, there's an excellent chance Steven Spielberg was a producer.
Many recognizable Hollywood directors are often producers as well, and Steven Spielberg is no exception. Several high-profile franchises like Transformers have enjoyed enormous success thanks to his creative input and name recognition as a producer as opposed to a director.
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If a film has displayed the Amblin Entertainment logo in the past four decades, there's an excellent chance Spielberg and his creative partners, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, were involved. Most recently, he attached his name to produce the Jurassic World series, which is a part of the Jurassic Park franchise that he is well known for. Whether as a director or a producer, Steven Spielberg has helped create some beloved classics in cinema.
Flamboyant Used Cars salesman Rudy Russo uses unconventional means to draw attention to the small lot that he inherited from his boss. His boss happens to be the brother of the proprietor of the neighboring lot, who is angered by the arrangement. The competitors use aggressive sales tactics to try to surpass the other in terms of business.
Spielberg's collaboration with writer Bob Gale and director Robert Zemeckis led to the Back to the Future franchise a few years later. At the time, he worked almost exclusively with Universal Pictures, but this title was released through the Columbia Pictures label, with whom he directed Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
They begin as minor disturbances, laughed off by a nuclear family living in suburban Southern California. When they are tormented by demonic spirits and ghosts that kidnap their youngest daughter into the spirit realm, the Freelings call on a team of supernatural specialists to help retrieve her.
In addition to producing, Spielberg wrote the script for Poltergeist. Tobe Hooper's nightmarish film is remembered fondly for its intense PG-rated horror elements. However, Poltergeist is considered "cursed" because of the tragedies that surrounded the film and some of the people who were a part of it. A remake was released in 2015.
When a father is desperate to find a unique gift for his son at Christmas, he buys him a "mogwai." His ignorance of the seller's warning to not expose the creature to light, water, or food after dark results in "Gizmo" becoming malevolent and multiplying into the creatures beginning a reign of terror the town of Kingston Falls will never forget.
Joe Dante's classic horror-comedy is a different kind of Christmas movie. It was written by Chris Columbus, a future director of many holiday classics like Home Alone, who also collaborated with Spielberg to write The Goonies.
Several teenage friends, considered outcasts by their peers, call themselves The Goonies when they discover an old pirate treasure map hidden in the attic of one of their members. With two brothers in the group at risk of being evicted, they decide to embark on a quest to track down the treasure. While in pursuit, the kids discover the Fratelli crime family is hot on their trail.
Richard Donner's coming-of-age movie, featuring young actors Josh Brolin (Deadpool 2) and Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings), became a cult classic as the years passed. Spielberg had previously directed Ke Huy Quan (Data) in 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as Indy's sidekick, Short Round.
A teenager boards a time machine within a DeLorean sports car and accidentally maroons himself in 1955 when his parents were in high school. His presence disrupts their initial relationship, and he must find a way to correct it and return to 1985. His only hope is a younger Emmett "Doc" Brown, a mentor in his present and the time machine's inventor.
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Spielberg oversaw each production in the three-film trilogy. The series spawned a cartoon spin-off, a theme park attraction, and a 2010 video game. It is also classified by the American Film Institute as one of the best science fiction films ever made.
Joe Banks is an underappreciated factory clerk who would like nothing better than to quit his job. After a terminal diagnosis, he is given the opportunity by a wealthy individual to live the remainder of his life in relative comfort in exchange for ending his life inside a volcano. While on route to his final destination, Joe encounters Patricia, causing him to reconsider the deal.
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Joe Versus the Volcano was the first of three pairings between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan on the big screen in the 1990s. They would follow up with Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You've Got Mail (1998). The outright silliness of the plot makes it one of the more noteworthy Spielberg producing efforts. He and Hanks have collaborated several times since 1998's Saving Private Ryan.
An unknown form of spider is accidentally shipped back to a small town in California. Through mating, the spider's offspring quickly causes a rapture of the town's inhabitants. A recent arrival, Dr. Ross Jennings, must combat his Arachnophobia by fighting alongside a hard-nosed exterminator before it's too late.
The hair-raising suspense thriller was directed by Spielberg's fellow producing partner, Frank Marshall. It was a homage to classic b-level science fiction films featuring insect monsters. Character actor Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom) starred as Jennings.
A paranormal psychologist and his daughter move to an obscure Maine town to live in a manor house whose benefactor believes he can rid it of the stubborn spirit occupants. Young Kat befriends the ghost of Casper, the young son of the house's original owner and inventor. While Casper is eager to embrace her friendship, his ghostly trio of uncles has different plans.
Spielberg's involvement with cartoon productions dates back to the 1990s with Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs. He served as executive producer of the 1988 hybrid animated live-action feature Who Framed Roger Rabbit? The beloved film is inspired by two children's cartoons from the 1940s and '60s.
A scientist and her ex-husband lead their team of storm chasers attempting to deploy their proprietary technology to help further define the behavior of tornadoes in the heart of Kansas. At the same time, a former colleague of theirs is looking to beat them to the score, making one 24-hour marathon of superstorms a perilous race against time and each other.
This film comes from a script by Michael Crichton, who previously adapted his novel Jurassic Park for Spielberg to direct. They also collaborated on Crichton's hit medical TV drama ER through Amblin. According to Box Office Mojo, Twister was the second highest-grossing film of 1996 behind Independence Day, with nearly $250 million at the box office.
In Men in Black, an enthusiastic New York police officer has a chance encounter with an extraterrestrial, drawing the attention of Agent K and a secret government agency devoted to suppressing knowledge of alien existence on Earth. When an interstellar threat emerges, it will test whether the newly minted Agent J is up to the task.
The Barry Sonnenfeld-directed sci-fi comedy topped the box office charts in 1997, according to Box Office Mojo, making it another exceptional edition to Spielberg's resume. Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith reprised their roles for two sequels in 2002 and 2012. A spin-off, Men in Black: International, debuted in 2019.
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