James Cameron
has directed the biggest blockbuster films in the world on two separate occasions, but not every movie by the director has performed quite as extraordinarily well. Cameron has been making feature-length films since the 1980s, and while that decade did see him deliver incredible, enduring works of art like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Aliens, they were not his first contributions to the world of cinema. However, for Cameron, creativity and imagination have always played an essential role in his films.
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While Cameron has been a producer for nearly 50 different films, and written or contributed to the writing for more than 50, he has only directed eleven feature films, with two of these titles being documentaries. He also puts a lot of time and energy into his films, with some projects like Avatar and the sequels taking literal decades to create. And with three of the top four highest box office movies of all time being a product of his direction, it’s worth studying his work and the process that led to this remarkable streak.
11
Piranha II: The Spawning (N/A)
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Budget: Unknown
Going back to the very beginning of Cameron’s journey as a director, his first movie was a small-scale sequel which he worked on and released in 1982. Interestingly, two of the first three films that Cameron was assigned to direct were sequels. However, Piranha II: The Spawning stands out as both the least successful financially, and the least notable of these works. It is in the family of bizarre and wacky horror movies which includes Sharknado, Velocipastor, and Llamageddon.
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For Cameron, the opportunity to direct Piranha II came thanks to the disorganization and discord behind the scenes, as the film actually hired and fired two other directors along the way. Initially, Cameron was set to lead the special effects for the film and was thrust into the role after the writing was finished, and some time before principal photography. Perhaps fortunately, it appears that almost no one watched the film, which probably helped Cameron avoid a negative reputation as a director.
10
Aliens of the Deep ($12,765,684)
Budget: Unknown
After his monumental success with Titanic, Cameron shifted his focus away from producing major motion pictures. Instead, Cameron worked on some projects for TV, which included documentary-style TV movies. He also developed a fascination with the sea that likely stemmed from his numerous trips to the ocean floor in order to visit the decaying Titanic. In collaboration with NASA scientists, Cameron created a documentary called Aliens of the Deep, which focused on the Mid-Ocean Ridge, and the incredible deep sea creatures that live in this mysterious and vast region.
Water, exploration of the ocean, and exposing unique and extraordinary new life would become a theme in Cameron’s career, and Aliens of the Deep was certainly another step forward in this direction. However, as a documentary, it failed to generate any significant revenue at the box office. Regardless, it stands out as one of Cameron’s great passion projects.
9
Ghosts of the Abyss ($28,742,313)
Budget: Unknown
Before Cameron moved on to exploring the Mid-Ocean Ridge, he spent a long time after the release of Titanic repeatedly returning to the site. This led to Cameron creating the 2003 documentary, Ghosts of the Abyss. As the person who has visited that site more than anyone else in the world, having wracked up a total of 33 visits to the site and likely spending more time on board than the actual captain of the ship (via Business Insider), Cameron was uniquely qualified to deliver a documentary on the haunting reality that now sits at the bottom of the ocean.
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Using the extensive footage he acquired on his trips, and working alongside actor Bill Paxton, who appeared in the 1997 film, Ghosts of the Abyss tells the story of this haunting incident in incredible detail. It’s haunting, and incredibly insightful, and it managed to earn more than double the total box office of his subsequent documentary, but Ghosts of the Abyss remains one of Cameron’s lowest earning films of all time.
8
The Abyss ($54,793,434)
Budget: $70,000,000
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Moving on to feature films, in 1989, with three previous titles under his belt as director, and managing to gain incredible success with The Terminator and Aliens, Cameron worked on another passion project which he wrote and directed. Considering the film was released nearly a decade before Titanic, Cameron has clearly always had some sort of draw to the water, which led him to create The Abyss. With his expertise in special effects, Cameron debuted the first fully computer generated character in this movie, which was a groundbreaking development in the world of cinema that led to the movie winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
However, despite the breakthrough innovations, and the compelling narrative of a deep sea diving team traveling to the depths of the ocean and encountering mysterious life forms, the film was a financial flop. With a sizable $70 million budget, The Abyss ended up losing money at the box office. However, in the years since it’s release, it’s developed a cult following, particularly among fans of Cameron’s other works.
7
The Terminator ($78,019,031)
Budget: $6,400,000
Early in Cameron’s career, the director found himself falling into the sci-fi niche. His second feature directorial effort was the incredibly popular The Terminator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which launched Cameron towards more mainstream success. On a shoestring budget of just over $6 million, Cameron managed to create something that was truly spectacular, and inspired a series of films that would continue to try and reignite the spark and magic of the original.
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Cameron also came up with the idea for The Terminator, which he initially wrote as a slasher horror film. However, with revision, and help from other writers, the script developed into a sci-fi film which was much more similar to the end product. This is the first film where Cameron’s unique tone of voice and style is seen clearly with the director having touched each part of the process, and making it uniquely his. And the result managed to rack up more than 10 times the total amount of the budget, making it a huge success for the small production and distribution companies that released the film.
6
Aliens ($183,291,893)
Budget: $17,000,000
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Then, with The Terminator’s success positioning Cameron as a competent sci-fi director for dark and edgy projects, he was entrusted to direct the sequel to the popular Ridley Scott sci-fi horror, Alien. Cameron had been working on the script while making The Terminator, but he also wanted to direct, and it wasn’t until the success of The Terminator that Cameron secured the role. With that, the much larger Fox studio took a gamble on the up-and-coming director, and it paid off in a big way.
Despite a tight budget of just $17 million, which was the most the director ever had to work with at that point in his career, the film managed to eclipse this figure and exceed the original movie’s box office by a considerable margin. This confirmed that Cameron’s success was not a fluke, and helped him to land further big budget projects in the years to come. However, it would be several years until his next big hit movie.
5
True Lies ($365,300,000)
Budget: $100,000,000
True Lies marked another major turning point in Cameron’s career, as he reunited with Arnold Schwarzenegger to direct this high-octane action flick, and Cameron landed the first $100 million dollar budget to produce a film. This time, Cameron broke the mold and opted to create a highbrow comedy action film which was a tonal shift from his other work in sci-fi. However, with big name talent like Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis, a fun romp in an era where these types of movie were thriving, and the biggest film budget to date, Cameron created another smashing success.
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While the movie did not return a multiple of 10 times plus like some of his previous works, it did manage to secure more than $365 million dollars, which was an extraordinary amount of money at the time. To put that into perspective, this would be closer to $780 million with inflation today. On top of that, it managed to land the third-highest box office of the year with stiff competition like The Lion King and Forrest Gump being the only movies to earn more in 1994.
4
Terminator 2: Judgment Day ($515,344,899)
Budget: $94,000,000
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However, this level of success was becoming the norm for Cameron. In 1991, he directed the sequel to his hit film, The Terminator, which was granted a significantly larger budget. And with technology having advanced sufficiently, Cameron was able to implement ideas that he was unable to achieve in the original movie, namely with the introduction of a liquid terminator, known as T-1000. With the incredible visuals, and the original movies’ fanbase increasing since the original, Terminator 2: Judgment Day became the highest grossing film of 1991 at the Domestic Box Office, earning more than $200 million in North America alone (via The Numbers).
However, it also marked the moment that Cameron became a much larger global sensation, with the majority of the films’ earnings coming from internation markets. This would again become a trend in later films, as Cameron’s work became more ambitious, and he again pioneered new technologies in the world of cinema. But in 1991, this was a huge step-up for Cameron, and allowed the director to be a lot more careful, methodical, and selective with the projects he chose to work on.
3
Titanic ($2,223,048,786)
Budget: $200,000,000
In 1997, just three years after the release of True Lies, Cameron managed to break another budget record in Hollywood, securing a budget of $200 million for Titanic. This figure went towards the director coordinating numerous expeditions to the wreckage site, building a large scale replica of a portion of the ship, and securing some top talent to bring the movie to life. And while this was evidently a gamble from the studios, Cameron once again proved he was worth the risk when the movie became the highest grossing movie of all time.
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Not only did Titanic manage to land this phenomenal record, but it also held the title for over a decade, until Cameron released his next theatrical feature film, which was not a documentary, Avatar. Today, Titanic has managed to balloon the total gross to over $2 billion thanks to highly successful re-releases, but even the $600 million dollar figure the film made upon its initial release in 1997 is closer to $1.2 billion with inflation in 2024. However, the re-releases are responsible for keeping the movie in the top four grossing films of all time.
2
Avatar: The Way of Water ($2,315,589,775)
Budget: $460,000,000
Avatar: The Way of Water is Cameron’s second entry into his Avatar franchise, and despite plans to create a sequel being in place since before the release of Avatar, the film was not officially released until 2022, 13 years after the original. Today, blockbuster movies are commonly given budgets in the hundreds of millions, but even still, the $460 million dollar budget, nearly half a billion in total, is an astonishing figure.
Regardless, Cameron once again worked his magic to deliver a film that appealed to the masses, and attracted huge audiences around the world, with a particularly large fanbase for the films coming out of China. Avatar: The Way of Water is just the next step in Cameron’s epic saga, which has plans for five movies total from Cameron himself, and the potential for an Avatar 6 and 7 depending on the ongoing success of the franchise. However, it does appear that the movies are on a downward trend, and may not be able to sustain such monumental budgets in the future.
1
Avatar ($2,923,706,026)
Budget: $237,000,000
20th Century Studios
However, the biggest movie to come from Cameron in sheer numbers remains the original 2009 Avatar. The movie not only knocked Titanic from the top spot as the new highest grossing film of all time, but it also became the first movie to ever cross the $2 billion threshold at the box office, which it completely shattered on the original release, racking up $2.74 billion, and a further couple hundred million on re-releases.
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While Avengers: Endgame initially claimed the title of highest grossing title upon its release in 2019, Avatar strategically delivered theatrical re-releases in 2020, 2021, and 2022 that helped it claim back the record, and gain a significant lead. While the Avatar sequels are unlikely to overtake this figure, there is bound to be a movie that crosses the $3 billion dollar franchise at some point, and looking at James Cameron’s track record, it’s entirely possible that the director will manage to shatter the glass ceiling once again.
Source: The Numbers
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Category: Entertainment