1,800 film fans picked the best Spielberg movie — but this $100 million box office disaster was criminally overlooked

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Steven Spielberg is once again reigning supreme at the top of the global box office with his new sci-fi original, “Disclosure Day,” currently sitting pretty as the No. 1 movie in the world. The pricy original earned $93 million worldwide in its opening frame and has reminded moviegoers all over again that Spielberg remains one of cinema’s greatest filmmakers.While it remains a long way from profitable, thanks to its $115 million budget and estimated $80 million marketing spend (per The New York Times), it’s a strong start for a blockbuster movie enjoying a solid (but not quite spectacular) overall reception from critics and viewers alike. In the build-up to “Disclosure Day’s” release, we asked Tom’s Guide readers to pick the best Steven Spielberg movie, which any film fan knows is an extraordinarily difficult question to answer definitively.The American director has helmed some of the most legendary movies of the last five decades and even coined the term “blockbuster” as we know it today with his 1975 classic “Jaws.” The sheer quantity of quality across his filmography was clear in just how close the poll results were. After 1,800 votes, the top three were separated by just a single percentage point.However, I was disappointed to see that one of Spielberg’s more recent efforts was overlooked in our readers' poll. It was also largely ignored when it arrived in movie theaters back in December 2021. So, let’s dive into the results and also give some love to Spielberg's $100 million box office bomb.Best Steven Spielberg movie poll — the resultsSwipe to scroll horizontallyRow 0 - Cell 0 Total votes (1,801)Percentage of votesSaving Private Ryan (1998)32018%Schindler's List (1993)30317%Jaws (1975)29416%Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)23013%E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)19211%Jurassic Park (1993)18710%Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)1207%Catch Me If You Can (2002)633%Lincoln (2012)503%West Side Story (2021)422%As the table above shows, the poll quickly became a slugfest between 1998’s “Saving Private Ryan” and 1993’s “Schindler’s List.” Most directors would be delighted to have just one of these titans in their filmography; for Spielberg, they both came in the same decade. And both movies scooped Steven Spielberg a Best Director award at the Oscars.It was “Saving Private Ryan” that won, but by a whisker. After 1,800 votes, the war drama won out by a mere 17 votes over Spielberg’s lone Best Picture winner. How’s that for a photo finish? “Jaws” wasn’t far behind, rounding out the top three with nine fewer votes than “Schindler’s List.”