James Cameron has long been king of the box office; now Forbes says he's a billionaire, too. The magazine pegs the 71-year-old director's net worth at about $1.1 billion, almost entirely from his film work—putting him in a small club of billionaire filmmakers that includes George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and Tyler Perry. Unlike those peers, who built fortunes partly through side businesses, Cameron's wealth is largely tied to his movies, which have taken in nearly $9 billion worldwide altogether. He's publicly pushed back on the idea he's that rich, recently quipping, "I wish I was a billionaire," and suggesting people overestimate his deals and underestimate his spending.
Forbes estimates his paydays have come from salaries, box-office profit participation, home video, licensing deals, theme-park attractions, and equity in his production company Lightstorm Entertainment. Titanic alone reportedly earned him about $150 million, while the first Avatar is believed to have delivered more than $350 million before taxes and fees. Avatar: The Way of Water, which grossed $2.3 billion, is thought to have added another $250 million to his haul. The next sequel, Avatar: Fire and Ash, due out Friday and already nominated for a Golden Globe box office achievement award, could bring him at least $200 million more (before taxes and fees) if it hits expectations.
Cameron's path to this point ran through a series of high-risk, high-budget projects that studios routinely fretted over and audiences routinely rewarded. After early hits like the Terminator and Aliens, he pushed costs to record levels with Terminator 2, True Lies, and Titanic, at times giving up or risking his own compensation to keep creative control. Titanic, widely expected to sink financially, instead became a global phenomenon and, for more than a decade, the highest-grossing film ever. It was Cameron's own Avatar that reset the ceiling in 2009, per No Film School, with nearly $3 billion in ticket sales, powered in part by technology Cameron helped invent for 3D and performance capture.
The money has also funded Cameron's long-running interests away from the camera: deep-sea expeditions, environmental philanthropy, and ventures like a plant-based food company and New Zealand farming operations in New Zealand, where he now lives on thousands of acres. Still, his focus remains on filmmaking. He has two more Avatar sequels in mind—but, as with much of his career, those plans hinge on whether Fire and Ash justifies another huge bet. As Variety reports, Cameron recently defended using a high-frame rate in the Avatar movies; the reporter suggested audiences don't like it, to which Cameron responded, "I think $2.3 billion says you might be wrong on that."
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