Editor’s note: This article was first published in April 2010. The box-office figures, Avatar at $2.548 billion and Titanic at $1.843 billion, date from then. Both films’ totals rose later with re-releases, and the all-time ranking has shifted.
As Sun Tzu put it in The Art of War, every battle is won before it is fought. A sure success.
James Cameron is the director of Avatar, currently considered the most expensive film in the history of cinema.
The well-known director spent five years shaping his project and making sure it would succeed. He invested more than $300 million in Avatar, but before it reached cinemas he already knew he would earn it back many times over. He used visual effects never before seen in cinema, thanks to his new digital motion-capture system.
In the middle of the crisis, he charged more for tickets to see it in 3D. And he had a great idea: creating a planet and a solar system that any human being can identify with, as a more spiritual version of our own planet Earth.
All these factors, and a few more in his marketing strategy, are what have also made it the highest-grossing film in the history of cinema, with $2.548 billion, followed by Titanic, with $1.843 billion at the box office, which is also a James Cameron film.
James, now you really are the king of the world.
Featured image: Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
