TITANIC
What is James Cameron’s net worth?
Titanic director Cameron is already a Hollywood icon as the creative talent behind three of the top five highest grossing films of all time.
James Francis Cameron is the creative talent behind some of Hollywood’s most iconic films. Two of his movies have gone on to become the highest grossing movies of all time, a third is in the top five and still rising. His savvy business decisions have helped him amass a fortune.
According Celebrity Net Worth, he currently has a net worth of $700 million. Not bad for someone who dropped out of college and did blue-collar jobs until seeing Star Wars thrust him into the film industry. Here’s a look at how he made his fortune.
Where is James Cameron from?
Cameron was born in Ontario, Canada in 1954 but moved to California with his family when he was 17. He attended Fullerton College, a community college in the Golden State, in 1973 but only lasted a year. He took on blue-collar jobs as a janitor and truck driver to support his screenwriting ambition. That is until he saw the first installment of Star Wars in 1977. The movie spurred him to quit his job and put his hobby of writing to work in the film industry.
James Cameron’s breakthrough in Hollywood, ‘Terminator’
After getting his start in Hollywood, he wrote and directed ‘Terminator’. The low budget independent film became a surprise mainstream success. However, the film itself, which was made with a $6.4 million budget but took in $78 million at the box office, didn’t make him rich.
He sold the rights to his story concept for $1 to his future second wife, the producer Gale Anne Hurd. He also missed out on future revenue streams from the movie and its sequels until he regained the rights in 2019. However, as part of the deal he got to direct the movie which gave him name recognition that would jump start his career.
Where James Cameron made his fortune
The Canadian-born director would go on to make box office successes such as ‘Aliens’, ‘The Abyss’, ‘Terminator 2′ and ‘True Lies’. However, his major paydays came with two movies that would go on to become the highest grossing movies at the box office of all time.
The first movie that would shoot his earnings into the stratosphere was ‘Titanic’ in 1997. When the movie went over budget he traded in his $8 million salary for backend profits. The critically acclaimed movie, which was nominated for 14 Oscars, winning 11, has raked in over $2.25 billion at the box office. Cameron so far has received a cool $650 million payday from the worldwide phenomenon.
‘Titanic’ was the highest grossing movie of all time until 2009 when it was unseated by another Cameron creation, ‘Avatar’. The revolutionary 3D movie wowed audiences worldwide with its stunning visual effects. The movie is still the highest grossing movie to date having brought in over $2.9 billion, and so far its director has pocketed around $350 million of that.
His latest release will surely add to his bank account, it has currently earned $2.28 billion to become the third highest box office take of all time according to Box Office Mojo.