Rob Reiner Directed Movies in Order
Rob Reiner directed movies in order starting with his debut feature, the semi-autobiographical coming-of-age comedy This Is Spinal Tap (1984), which became a cult classic and is widely cited as a landmark mockumentary. The film was produced by Embassy Pictures and later distributed by MGM, and it grossed roughly $16 million worldwide against a modest budget, cementing Reiner as a director with a sharp eye for ensemble comedy and improvisational structure Forbes.
The next Rob Reiner directed movie in order was the romantic comedy The Sure Thing (1985), followed by the acclaimed coming-of-age drama Stand By Me (1986), an adaptation of a Stephen King novella that became one of the highest-grossing films of its year and is frequently ranked among the best films of the 1980s by outlets such as the American Film Institute and Rotten Tomatoes. These early films established Reiner as a director who could blend humor with emotional depth, working with writers like Rob Reiner and Andrew Scheinman on multiple projects.
Breakout Blockbusters and Career Milestones
In 1987, Reiner directed the fantasy comedy The Princess Bride, which underperformed at the box office on release but grew into a massive home-video and cult phenomenon, now regularly cited in polls of the greatest fantasy films ever made. The following year he helmed When Harry Met Sally... (1989), a romantic comedy starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan that grossed more than $92 million in the United States and became a benchmark for the modern rom-com genre Box Office Mojo.
Reiner then directed the political satire Misery (1990), an adaptation of Stephen King's novel that earned Kathy Bates the Academy Award for Best Actress and grossed over $61 million in the U.S., proving Reiner could handle intense, single-location thrillers as effectively as ensemble comedies. The next Rob Reiner directed movie in order was the family comedy North (1994), which received mixed reviews and is often noted as a commercial misstep despite its all-star cast, followed by the courtroom drama A Few Good Men (1992), which grossed more than $141 million in the U.S. and remains one of his highest-grossing films The Numbers.
Later Films and Recent Work
In the 2000s and 2010s, Reiner directed a string of comedies including The Story of Us (1999), Alex & Emma (2003), and The Bucket List (2007), the latter of which grossed over $175 million worldwide and starred Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. His more recent work includes the HBO Max series The Stand (2020), an adaptation of Stephen King's post-apocalyptic novel, and the 2023 film Shock and Awe, a drama about the lead-up to the Iraq War that was acquired by vertical entertainment platforms and screened at multiple festivals