James Cameron joined a small club of billionaire film directors as he prepared to release another instalment of the Avatar franchise.
According to Forbes, the filmmaker’s net worth crossed the $1bn mark, placing him alongside Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and Tyler Perry.
The Titanic director’s net worth comes almost entirely from his box-office returns, with several of his films among the highest-grossing releases in cinema history. He remains the only director to have made three films that each earned more than $2bn worldwide: Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009), and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).
Avatar still holds the title of the highest-grossing film in history with $2.9bn worldwide, and The Way of Water is the third highest-grossing film, bringing in $2.3bn.
In the first and second parts of the franchise, viewers were introduced to two different Na’vi clans, the Omaticaya and the Metkayina.
Collectively, his work has generated almost $9bn in global ticket sales, excluding revenue from re-releases, home entertainment, and ancillary rights.
He is now preparing for the release of the third instalment of the Avatar franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash. Early reviews from critics have been positive, and the film has been described as “the ultimate cinematic spectacle”.
With stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, and Kate Winslet reprising their roles, first reactions to Fire and Ash suggest that the instalment will bring another box office hit to the series. Fire and Ash is projected to make at least $200m at the box office, “assuming the movie lives up to its lofty box office expectations,” according to a Forbes estimate.
Cameron himself said he expects the new movie to make money, but that if it does not earn enough at the box office for Disney to say yes to the fourth and fifth movies in the franchise, he will write a book to wrap up the series.
“I have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?” he told Matt Belloni on The Town podcast before adding: “If this is where it ends, cool.”
The plan is for two more Avatar films to be released after Fire and Ash in 2029 and 2031.
Although the film hasn’t been released yet, it was announced last week that Fire and Ash is already nominated for the Golden Globes category of cinematic and box office achievement, a category meant to celebrate box office success. The movie is eligible for the award due to its projected success at the box office.
Beyond Avatar, Cameron’s career stretches back more than four decades and is marked by a series of commercially successful, technically ambitious films. He broke through with The Terminator (1984), a low-budget science-fiction thriller made for about $6m, that went on to gross nearly $80m worldwide and launched a long-running franchise.
He followed this with Aliens (1986), which expanded Ridley Scott’s Alien universe and went on to win two Academy Awards. The Abyss (1989), while more modest at the box office, was noted for its pioneering visual effects work, particularly its use of computer-generated imagery.
Cameron later returned to blockbuster territory with True Lies (1994), then one of the most expensive films ever made, which became the first film to carry a $100m production budget and still emerged as a global commercial success.
Avatar: Fire and Ash hits the theatres on 19 December.
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