Sam Raimi and Gore Verbinski are mostly known for their franchises (Evil Dead, Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean), and their last names both end in "i". But who has had the more successful directing career so far?
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Gore Verbinski leads in total adjusted box office and average adjusted box office, thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise ($1.1B). Sam Raimi has the Spider-Man franchise ($1.1B) under his belt, but he also has a few box office weaklings, like A Simple Plan and The Gift.
Edge: Gore Verbinski
Critical Success 
Score is based on critics' scores as aggregated on Rotten Tomatoes and user scores from IMDB.
Verbinski is no contest for Raimi in this category. Raimi's films, lead by Spider-Man 2 and A Simple Plan average higher than Verbinski's, lead by Rango and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Edge: Sam Raimi
All of Gore Verbinski's Oscar nominations come from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Sam Raimi garnered nominations for A Simple Plan (2 noms, 0 wins) and Spider-Man 2 (3 noms, 1 win). The AFI and NFR lists are Verbinski and Raimi free. Verbinski has written 1 of his 8 films, Raimi has written 6 of his 12, which gives him the edge in this category.
Edge: Sam Raimi
Final Verdict! Final showdown score is the sum of the three categories' scores.
Gore Verbinski, from inauspicious beginnings (Mousehunt), to horror meastro (The Ring), to pirate captain (Pirates of the Caribbean). Versus Sam Raimi, from independent origins (The Evil Dead), to classic cheeseball western (The Quick and the Dead), to franchise filmmaker (Spider-Man). Thanks to Raimi's critical success, he wins this battle.
Winner: Sam Raimi
