He is best known for directing the films The Rookie (2002), The Alamo (2004), The Blind Side (2009), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), The Founder (2016), The Highwaymen (2019), The Little Things (2021), and Mr. Harrigan's Phone (2022).

After a five-year absence from directing spent honing his screenwriting skills, Hancock returned to both his football and Christian roots with 2009's The Blind Side, a biographical sports drama film starring Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher, a homeless, 350-pound African-American teenager who ended up becoming the Baltimore Ravens' first-round pick in the 2009 NFL draft, and Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, a well-off Memphis woman who makes room in her life for Oher.

[8] His latest film is The Little Things, a 2021 neo-noir crime thriller written, directed and produced by Hancock and Mark Johnson.

The plot follows two police officers (Denzel Washington and Rami Malek) who try to catch a serial killer in 1990s Los Angeles; the film also stars Jared Leto as their top suspect and Natalie Morales as another detective.

Based on a short story by Stephen King, which appears in the collection If It Bleeds, the film follows a boy who befriends an older billionaire who lives in his small town.