James Cameron is a madman, right? Twice in history, the filmmaker took on two ambitious films that pundits had written off as probable flops. Instead, “Titanic,” went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time. Then years later, “Avatar” did the same (and it should be noted, “Avengers: Endgame” briefly became the highest-grossing film of all time until Cameron re-released “Avatar” worldwide and has reclaimed that throne). So we’ve always said, don’t bet against and or don’t ever count out James Cameron.
That said, Cameron isn’t really making it easy on himself. In a new interview with GQ, Cameron said his upcoming movie, “Avatar: The Way Of Water,” needs to be a massive hit to break even. How expensive was the movie? “Very fucking [expensive],” Cameron said. The filmmaker even informed the studio that the film represented “the worst business case in movie history.” In order to be profitable, he’d said, “you have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history. That’s your threshold. That’s your break even.”
Yikes. And look, if anyone can pull it off, it’s James Cameron. Still, in the post-pandemic era where cracking $1 billion at the box office feels like a miraculous achievement, one has to be worried for Cameron and Disney given that third or fourth-highest-grossing film in history means what he’s talking about is the $2.1 billion-$2 billion range.
“I like difficult,” Cameron said about the insurmountable challenges he always seems to take on with each film. “I’m attracted by difficulty. Difficult is a fucking magnet for me. I go straight to difficult. And I think it probably goes back to this idea that there are lots of smart, really gifted, really talented filmmakers out there that just can’t do the difficult stuff. So that gives me a tactical edge to do something nobody else has ever seen because the really gifted people don’t fucking want to do it.”
He certainly has an ego, that’s for sure. But this is his m.o. for better or worse, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “True Lies,” and “Titanic” were all the most expensive films ever made during their day. Now Cameron leans into that ambition and scale and doesn’t apologize for it.
“And I used to be really defensive about that because it was always the first thing anybody would mention,” Cameron said. “And now I’m like, if I can make a business case to spend a billion dollars on a movie, I will fucking do it. Do you want to know why? Because we don’t put it all on a pile and light it on fire. We give it to people. If the studio agrees and thinks it’s a good investment, as opposed to buying an oil lease off of the north of Scotland, which somebody would think was a good investment, why not do it?”
Cameron has already said his five-film “Avatar” depends on if ‘Way of Water,’ and the third film, which has already been shot, are hits. For the sake of the movie industry, which feels like it’s in the middle of a crisis right now, we hope that “Avatar: The Way Of Water” is a huge hit, but can magic strike twice?