James Cameron, the filmmaker who will soon have more $1 billion box office hits than anyone else, now has a net worth of $1 billion himself.
According to Forbes, Cameron is now a billionaire, reporting his net worth at $1.1 billion just days before the release of his next film, “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
Cameron joins a very short list of billionaire directors, which includes Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Tyler Perry and Peter Jackson. “Fire and Ash,” which is expected to be Hollywood’s highest grossing film this year, is also expected to personally make Cameron around $200 million.
The third film in the “Avatar” franchise is considered a lock to gross at least $1 billion worldwide, with a chance to become the fourth film from Cameron to cross $2 billion alongside the two previous “Avatar” films and his Best Picture Oscar winner “Titanic.”
It will also make Cameron the first filmmaker to direct four $1 billion hits, passing Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed the Marvel box office hits “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame.” The Russos will have their shot to join Cameron in the four-timers club with “Avengers: Doomsday” one year from now.
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” is the third installment of a planned five-film saga set around Cameron’s sci-fi world of Pandora and Jake Sully, the hero who goes from paraplegic Marine to an alien warrior part of the Na’vi.
In an interview on “The Town with Matthew Belloni,” Cameron said that production of “Fire and Ash” cost “one metric f–k ton of money, which means we have to make two metric f–k tons of money to make a profit.”
“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 added. “I’ve been in Avatar land for 20 years. Actually 30 years because I wrote it in ‘95, but I wasn’t working continuously on it for those first 10 years. Yeah, absolutely, sure. If this is where it ends, cool.”
