1984–1990: Early success Columbus' career began in the early 1980s as a writer for the screenplay of the feature film
Reckless (1984). Columbus later admitted, "it wasn't my best work. I intended it to be semi-biographical ... and the film was based on my attempts to break free. But the director turned it into a clumsy teen sex drama and the experience was so degrading." Dissatisfied, Columbus conceived a new screenplay while living in an apartment loft, a comedy-horror titled
Gremlins (1984). In late 1981, he eventually received a phone call from
Steven Spielberg, who expressed an interest in buying the script. Upon release, the film was a critical success. Columbus then moved to
Los Angeles to work for Spielberg's
Amblin Entertainment, writing more scripts including
The Goonies and
Young Sherlock Holmes (both 1985). He decided to move back to New York City. He wrote episodes for the animated series
Galaxy High (1986) and received screenwriting credit for
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989). Columbus then started his directing career with the teen comedy
Adventures in Babysitting (1987). The film received mixed reviews from critics and was regarded as a "mediocre debut". Next, he wrote and directed
Heartbreak Hotel (1988) which is a story about
Elvis Presley being abducted and finding himself offering counsel and help to a small-town family. The film was a commercial failure at the box office and it also received mixed-to-negative reviews. Columbus particularly enjoyed the Christmas theme of the
Home Alone script and quickly accepted the offer. Subsequently, Columbus hired
Macaulay Culkin,
Joe Pesci,
Daniel Stern,
John Heard, and
Catherine O'Hara as the principal cast. Filming took four months between February and May 1990 and the film was released to theaters on November 16, 1990, to commercial success.
Home Alone grossed $285 million in North America and $190 million elsewhere for a worldwide $476.7 million, against a budget of $18 million. Nominated for two
Academy Awards and two
Golden Globe Awards, the film served as Culkin's breakthrough role.
Dave Kehr of
Chicago Tribune praised Hughes for writing recognizable characters, and Columbus for direction with "wit and warmth".
Home Alone has since been regarded as a "classic" to watch during the holiday season.
1991–2000: Comedies and romances In 1991, Columbus wrote and directed the romantic comedy-drama
Only the Lonely (1991), with John Hughes serving as co-producer. In 1992, Columbus returned to direct the sequel to the first film, titled
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Featuring the same principal cast of its predecessor, the plot takes place one year after the events of the first film. The film follows Kevin McCallister as he accidentally boards the wrong flight to New York City and finds himself confronted by the two same burglars in the first film.
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was released on November 20, 1992, to mixed reviews, but strong box office results, grossing $359 million worldwide.
Janet Maslin for
The New York Times wrote that "
Home Alone 2 may be lazily conceived, but it is staged with a sense of occasion and a lot of holiday cheer. The return of Mr. Culkin in this role is irresistible, even if this utterly natural comic actor has been given little new to do. Mr. Pesci and Mr. Stern bring great gusto to their characters' stupidity". Columbus' next directorial feature was
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), an adaptation of
Anne Fine's novel
Alias Madame Doubtfire about an unemployed father who disguises himself as a nanny so he can spend time with his children. Starring
Robin Williams,
Sally Field and
Pierce Brosnan, Williams was given creative freedom to improvise his lines, provoking amusement to all of the cast and crew. The film was released by
20th Century Fox in November 1993 to mixed and positive reception. Film review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 72%, praising Williams.
Roger Ebert calls Williams "a mercurial talent who loves to dart in and out of many different characters and voices", but thought
Mrs. Doubtfire "has the values and depth of a sitcom". However, the film performed well at the box office, earning $441.3 million worldwide. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Makeup,
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and
Golden Globe Award for Best Picture. In 1995, Columbus co-founded his own production company,
1492 Pictures, named after the year that
Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, as a pun on his own name. He then wrote and directed another film, a remake of the French film
Neuf mois titled
Nine Months (1995), which was produced by 1492 Pictures. A romantic comedy,
Nine Months starred
Hugh Grant,
Julianne Moore,
Tom Arnold,
Joan Cusack,
Jeff Goldblum, and Robin Williams. The story centers on a man who finds out that his longtime girlfriend is pregnant and has to change his lifestyle. Although the film was criticized for being "mismanaged", Columbus followed up on this effort with
Stepmom (1998), a comedy-drama starring
Julia Roberts,
Susan Sarandon, and
Ed Harris. Writing for the
Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan praises Roberts and Harris' performances despite the script having a "tiny handful of honest moments". With an estimated budget of $50 million, the film grossed a healthy $159.7 million worldwide. Sarandon also earned a Golden Globe nomination for
Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. Columbus collaborated again with Robin Williams for his next project, 1999's
Bicentennial Man. Based on the novel
The Positronic Man, by
Isaac Asimov and
Robert Silverberg, the film tells the story of a
robot who becomes human-like and acquires emotions. The supporting cast included
Sam Neill,
Embeth Davidtz,
Wendy Crewson, and
Oliver Platt. The film was released on December 17, 1999, and was a commercial failure, grossing $87.4 million from a budget of $100 million. Critical response to the film were mixed, with Ben Falk of the
BBC describing it as "the worst kind of movie – one with no direction, no identity, and above all no heart". Peter Stack of
San Francisco Chronicle opined of the film, "It's a bit strange, and strained. More syrupy melodrama than comedy [...] doesn't have much of the usual Williams manic antics", but compliments the
computer-generated imagery.
Bicentennial Man was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Makeup at the
72nd Academy Awards.
2001–2010: Harry Potter and other film series After his daughters request to read J. K. Rowling's 1997 fantasy novel ''
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', Columbus expressed a strong desire to direct the film adaptation. In 2000, he convinced
Warner Bros. to select him as director for it. Filming began on September 29, 2000, and lasted for 180 days. The film premiered at the
Odeon Leicester Square in London on November 4, 2001, to critical and commercial success, grossing $975.1 million worldwide. The film was praised for its sets, costumes, casting, musical score, cinematography and special effects. In addition, it was nominated for three Academy Awards for
Best Original Score,
Best Art Direction and
Best Costume Design. In 2002, Columbus returned to direct the second installment,
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), based on Rowling's second novel. Featuring much of the same cast from the first film, the story follows Harry Potter's second year at the school when a
chamber is opened unleashing a monster. Producer David Heyman said, "Fortunately, we benefited from the experience of the first film ... [the cast] have maintained their enthusiasm, sense of wonder". Columbus also opted to use more handheld cameras for freedom of movement.
A. O. Scott of
The New York Times observed that the film was long but praised it for the special effects and "thrilling" sequences. At the 2003
BAFTA Awards, the film garnered nominations for
Best Production Design,
Best Sound, and
Best Special Visual Effects. In 2004, Columbus wrote and produced
Christmas with the Kranks, a Christmas comedy based on the 2001 novel
Skipping Christmas by
John Grisham; the film was a box office success but received mostly negative reviews. In the same year, Columbus returned for the third installment of the
Harry Potter series,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Physically exhausted from the first two films, he decided not to direct but serve as producer alongside Heyman and director
Alfonso Cuarón. The film premiered on May 31, 2004, in the United Kingdom to strong critical praise and earned $796.9 million worldwide. After returning to the United States in 2005, Columbus intended to produce a superhero film,
Fantastic Four, but due to disagreements with director
Tim Story, he was fired. Next, he directed 2005's
Rent, a musical drama adapted from the 1996 Broadway
musical of the same name. The film, starring six of the original Broadway cast members, depicts the lives of several
Bohemians and their struggles living in
East Village of New York City from 1989 to 1990. The film had mixed reviews and a poor box office performance. In 2006, Columbus served as a producer for
Night at the Museum, a fantasy film based on the 1993
children's book of the same name by illustrator
Milan Trenc, and is the first installment in the
Night at the Museum series. The film stars
Ben Stiller as Larry Daley, a father who applies for a job at the
American Museum of Natural History and subsequently discovers that the exhibits come to life at night. Next, he served as an executive producer for
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), a sequel to the first film which was also a commercial success. In 2009, he produced
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, the second installment of the series. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a box office success, earning $413.1 million worldwide. That same year, he directed
I Love You, Beth Cooper, a comedy starring
Hayden Panettiere and
Paul Rust, based on a
novel by
Larry Doyle. The film was released in July 2009 to negative reviews;
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone wrote that Columbus "flattens every joke and sucks the life out of the actors", adding it is "super bad". Despite this setback, Columbus was hired by 20th Century Fox to direct
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), which he also produced. The film is the first installment in the
Percy Jackson series and is based on fantasy
Greek mythology: the 2005 novel
The Lightning Thief by
Rick Riordan. Starring an ensemble led by
Logan Lerman, the film received mixed reviews (and was panned by fans of the original series) but found box office success upon its release in February. The film grossed $226.4 million worldwide. Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times described it as "unadventurous and uninteresting" and criticized screenwriter
Craig Titley for changing the original story. The
Toronto Stars Linda Barnard praised Columbus' ability to "woo a young audience" but thought the film lacked
Harry Potter charm.
2011–present: Focus as a producer and Pixels As early as 2009,
Variety magazine reported that Columbus,
Michael Barnathan, and Mark Radcliffe were working on a film adaptation of
Kathryn Stockett's novel
The Help. Released in 2011, the film of the
same name was directed by
Tate Taylor with Columbus serving as producer. The film and novel recount the story of a young white aspiring journalist, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, and her relationship with two black maids, Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, during the
Civil Rights Movement. The film received critical and commercial success, earning $216.6 million worldwide. Roger Ebert described it as "involving and wonderfully acted", and Amy Biancolli of the
San Francisco Chronicle called it "a film that makes us root for the good guys, hiss at the bad and convulse in laughter when good wreaks vengeance with a smile". At the
84th Academy Awards,
Octavia Spencer won the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role. The film also received three other nominations:
Best Picture,
Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress for
Jessica Chastain. The film won the
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. {{CSS image crop In 2013, Columbus co-authored the
House of Secrets book series with
Ned Vizzini. Shortly, Columbus returned to the
Percy Jackson series, as an executive producer for the sequel titled
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Directed by
Thor Freudenthal, and starring much of the cast from the previous installment, the film grossed $200.9 million worldwide. However, it received a divided critical reaction. Columbus next produced
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, the final installment in the
Night at the Museum series. Released in December 2014, the film was a financial success, grossing $363.2 million at the box office. It was also Robin Williams' final film appearance before his death. In 2014, Columbus cofounded production company Maiden Voyage Pictures with his daughter, Eleanor. He also co-founded an animation studio called ZAG Animation Studios with
Saban Capital Group and ZAG Entertainment. Columbus directed the science fiction comedy
Pixels (2015). He first learned about the project from
Adam Sandler; Of that encounter, he said, "He gave me the
Pixels script after we hit it off. My daughter read it and said, 'You have to read this movie. It's completely fun and unexpected'". The film is based on Patrick Jean's 2010 short film of the
same name, which depicts aliens who attack the Earth in the form of
arcade video games. Principal photography took three months in
Toronto, after which computer-generated imagery and visual effects were then applied. Starring Sandler,
Kevin James,
Michelle Monaghan,
Peter Dinklage,
Josh Gad and
Brian Cox,
Pixels was met with mixed reviews but earned $244.9 million at the box office. Marjorie Baumgarten of
The Austin Chronicle said the film is "flat-footed and grows tedious after the first hour" but praised the 3D effects which "enhances the action". Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone gave the film one star out of four, calling it "a 3D metaphor for Hollywood's digital assault on our eyes and brains [...] relentless and exhausting". Also in 2015, Columbus served as a producer for three films: supernatural horror
The Witch, Italian drama
Mediterranea, and a comedy titled
It Had to Be You. During 2016, Columbus produced small-scale and independent features. First,
The Young Messiah, a fictional story of a seven-year-old
Jesus who tries to discover the truth about his life when he returns to
Nazareth from
Egypt. Second,
Tallulah, a comedy drama starring
Elliot Page,
Allison Janney, and
Tammy Blanchard; the film is about a young woman who takes a baby from its negligent mother and pretends the child is her own.
Tallulah premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2016, and was released on
Netflix on July 29, 2016. In 2017, Columbus served as an executive producer for
Menashe, and a producer for
Patti Cake$ and
I Kill Giants. Columbus also produced
The Christmas Chronicles (2018), a family film directed by
Clay Kaytis. In 2018, Columbus was announced as director of a
''Five Nights at Freddy's film adaptation, but he backed out of the project by September 2021. In 2019, Columbus joined the producers of
The Lighthouse, a film directed by Robert Eggers and starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as two lighthouse keepers who lose their sanity. In 2018 it was announced that Columbus would serve as an executive producer for Scoob!, an animated adventure film featuring characters from the Scooby-Doo franchise; it was released on May 15, 2020. He has also directed The Christmas Chronicles 2'', a sequel to the film he had co-produced. On April 18, 2024, it was announced Columbus would direct a film adaptation of the
Richard Osman novel
The Thursday Murder Club for
Amblin Partners. The movie - with a cast including
Helen Mirren,
Pierce Brosnan,
Ben Kingsley and
Celia Imrie - was co-produced by Steven Spielberg and received positive reviews from critics.
Upcoming projects Columbus has been attached as a director to a
Hello Ghost remake, announced in 2011. In 2017, Columbus said he had written a script for
Gremlins 3. In January 2025, it was reported by
Deadline that Columbus was writing sequels to
Gremlins and
The Goonies for
Warner Bros., which were later confirmed by the studio and also will have
Steven Spielberg involved as a producer. In November 2025, it was confirmed that Columbus would be co-writing the script along with
Zach Lipovsky and
Adam Stein and that Columbus would also direct and produce
Gremlins 3 replacing director
Joe Dante who directed the first two films.
Gremlins 3 is currently scheduled for release on November 19, 2027. == Filmmaking style ==