Who is the Best Director of Century?

Who is the greatest director of the 21st century? We scored the best directors since 2000 on 16 numbers: Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, Alfonso Cuarón, Ryan Coogler, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sam Mendes, James Mangold, Todd Phillips and Rob Marshall, across five rounds: box office, critics, the Oscars, consistency, and the lists people actually remember. First, the rules. Why don't Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, James Cameron or Peter Jackson count? Why are Quentin Tarantino, Greta Gerwig, Paul Thomas Anderson, Guillermo del Toro, Chloé Zhao and Bong Joon-ho out? And how did Damien Chazelle nearly get in through a box-office glitch? Then nine directors face five rounds on a running scoreboard, and the last round counts double. Every number is checked: grosses from Box Office Mojo and The Numbers (with Box Office Mojo's duplicate "re-release" rows removed), reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, the Academy Awards database, IMDb's Top 250, Letterboxd's Top 250, and The New York Times' 100 best movies of the 21st century (critics' and readers' lists). Who's your greatest director of the 21st century? Tell me in the comments. 0:00 Who owns the 21st century? 0:25 Rule 1: why Spielberg and Scorsese don't count 2:04 Rules 2 and 3: Tarantino, Gerwig, Bong Joon-ho and the $500M bar 3:29 The tenth man: La La Land's box-office glitch 4:43 Rule 4, and the final nine 5:57 Round 1: the box office 7:09 Everyone else's money 8:32 Round 2: the critics 9:47 The critics' scoreboard 10:56 Round 3: the Oscars 12:15 Villeneuve's zero 13:33 Round 4: consistency 15:04 Hits without reviews 16:34 Round 5: what people remember 17:52 Zero lists 18:55 The tie 19:47 Stress test: seven ways to score it 20:32 The verdict #ChristopherNolan #BestDirectors #TheOdyssey