James Cameron Is The Only Director To Have Three Films Earning More Than $2 Billion

With over $2 billion in gross earnings, it’s a wrap for Avatar: The Way of Water.

The film has been an enormous success, without question, and it has also helped cement director James Cameron’s name as the only director of three films that all earned more than $2 billion at the worldwide box office.

According to TMZ, the Avatar sequel reached an impressive financial milestone last Sunday, six weeks after the movie’s premiere and release. It earned a whopping $2.024 billion in the previous check. This was against the budget of $350 to $460 million.

The other James Cameron films that are billion-dollar earners include the original Avatar, which was released in 2009. As of date, it is still the number one titleholder with a gross of $2.923 billion and a budget of $237. The second top-grossing film directed by James was the 1997 Titanic, which earned $2.195 billion against its budget of $200 million.

Apart from James’ three epic and historical films, only three have exceeded the $2 billion benchmark, all of which are Disney’s products.

Part of the list is 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which earned $2.798 billion against its budget of $356 to $400 million. Then there’s also Star Wars: The Force Awakens, released in 2015. It is currently ranked fourth, thanks to its total earnings of $2.071 billion against the film’s budget of $306 million.

The 2018 Avengers: Infinity Wars, which grossed $2.052 billion against its budget of $325 to $400 million, also makes an appearance.

 When Avatar 2 crossed the two billion benchmark last week, it bagged the sixth position in the list of highest-grossing movies ever.

While the original Avatar is still unbeaten, it took 47 days after its release to cross the $2 billion benchmark. In comparison, the second franchise took a shorter timeline to success—it achieved the same in 37 days.

Among all the movies on the list, Avengers: Endgame was the fastest to cross the benchmark, as it was able to do so in 11 days. Titanic, on the other hand, took its time of 5,233 days.

This means that fans can anticipate additional sequels of Avatar and The World Of Pandora.

Recall that James announced his plans for Avatar, including three more installments with an anticipated timeline of 2024, 2026, and 2028. Still, he mentioned that the future of these three movies would be based on the commercial reception of Avatar: The Way of Water.

And earlier this month, in James’ interview with HBO Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, the acclaimed director mentioned that the final two movies appear to be a go.

He stated, “It looks like with the film’s momentum now that we’ll easily pass our break even in the next few days, so it looks like I can’t wiggle out of this and I’m gonna have to do these other sequels.”

He added, “I know what I’m going to be doing in the next six or seven years.”