(L to R) Director James Cameron and Oona Chaplin on the set of 20th Century Studios’ ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’. Photo by Mark Fellman. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Almost 30 years after he first said it, James Cameron is still “The King of the World.”
Cameron is the highest grossing filmmaker in history having directed 3 of the top 4 highest grossing movies of all time including ‘Avatar‘, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water‘ and ‘Titanic‘, with each film making over $2 billion dollars each.
“The world of Pandora will change forever.”
Release Date: Dec 19, 2025
Run Time: 3 hr 18 min
Budget: $350,000,000
But will his latest film, ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash,’ be added to that top box office list? We’ll find out on December 19th when the film finally opens in theaters, which stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña and Oona Chaplin.
In honor of the new film, Moviefone is counting down every film James Cameron has ever directed, including his latest.
Let’s begin!
Related Article: James Cameron Says He Has Some Ideas for ‘Avatar’ Animated Spin-Offs
1982’s ‘Piranha II: The Spawning’. Photo: Columbia Pictures.
A scuba diving instructor, her biochemist boyfriend, and her police chief ex-husband try to link a series of bizarre deaths to a mutant strain of piranha fish whose lair is a sunken freighter ship off a Caribbean island resort.
“It started as a vacation…”
Release Date: Nov 5, 1982
Run Time: 1 hr 24 min
Budget: $145,786
1978’s ‘Xenogenesis’.
A woman and an engineered man are sent in a gigantic sentient starship to search space for a place to start a new life cycle. Raj decides to take a look around the ship. He comes across a gigantic robotic cleaner. Combat ensues.
(L to R) Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Ed Harris in ‘The Abyss’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
A civilian oil rig crew is recruited to conduct a search and rescue effort when a nuclear submarine mysteriously sinks. One diver (Ed Harris) soon finds himself on a spectacular odyssey 25,000 feet below the ocean’s surface where he confronts a mysterious force that has the power to change the world or destroy it.
“When you get there, you will understand.”
Release Date: Aug 9, 1989
Run Time: 2 hr 20 min
Budget: $43,000,000
(L to R) Jack Champion and Stephen Lang in director James Cameron’s ‘Avatar: The Way of Water.’ Photo: Walt Disney Studios.
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, learn the story of the Sully family (Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.
Release Date: Dec 16, 2022
Run Time: 3 hr 12 min
Budget: $350,000,000
(L to R) Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis in ‘True Lies’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
A fearless, globe-trotting, terrorist-battling secret agent (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has his life turned upside down when he discovers his wife (Jamie Lee Curtis) might be having an affair with a used car salesman (Bill Paxton) while terrorists smuggle nuclear war heads into the United States.
“When he said I do, he never said what he did.”
Release Date: Jul 15, 1994
Run Time: 2 hr 21 min
Budget: $115,000,000
Varang (Oona Chaplin) in 20th Century Studios’ ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
In the wake of the devastating war against the RDA and the loss of their eldest son, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) face a new threat on Pandora: the Ash People, a violent and power-hungry Na’vi tribe led by the ruthless Varang (Oona Chaplin). Jake’s family must fight for their survival and the future of Pandora in a conflict that pushes them to their emotional and physical limits.
“The world of Pandora will change forever.”
Release Date: Dec 19, 2025
Run Time: 3 hr 18 min
Budget: $350,000,000
(L to R) Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña in ‘Avatar’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
In the 22nd century, a paraplegic Marine (Sam Worthington) is dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission, but becomes torn between following orders and protecting an alien civilization.
“Enter the world of Pandora.”
Release Date: Dec 18, 2009
Run Time: 2 hr 42 min
Budget: $237,000,000
Arnold Schwarzenegger in ‘The Terminator’. Photo: Orion Pictures.
In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the “Terminator” (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgents against 21st century mechanical hegemony. Meanwhile, the human-resistance movement dispatches a lone warrior (Michael Biehn) to safeguard Sarah. Can he stop the virtually indestructible killing machine?
“Your future is in its hands.”
Release Date: Oct 26, 1984
Run Time: 1 hr 48 min
Budget: $6,400,000
(L to R) Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in ‘Titanic’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose (Kate Winslet) boards the ship with her mother (Frances Fisher) and fiancé (Billy Zane). Meanwhile, Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Fabrizio De Rossi (Danny Nucci) win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic’s departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.
“Nothing on earth could come between them.”
Release Date: Feb 10, 2023
Run Time: 3 hr 14 min
Budget: $200,000,000
(L to R) Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn in ‘Aliens’. Photo: 20th Century Fox.
Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the sole survivor of the Nostromo’s deadly encounter with the monstrous Alien, returns to Earth after drifting through space in hypersleep for 57 years. Although her story is initially met with skepticism, she agrees to accompany a team of Colonial Marines back to LV-426.
Release Date: Jul 18, 1986
Run Time: 2 hr 17 min
Budget: $18,500,000
Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator in ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day.’
Ten years after the events of the original, a reprogrammed T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger)is sent back in time to protect young John Connor (Edward Furlong) from the shape-shifting T-1000. Together with his mother Sarah (Linda Hamilton), he fights to stop Skynet from triggering a nuclear apocalypse.
Release Date: Jul 3, 1991
Run Time: 2 hr 17 min
Budget: $102,000,000
