How Avatar: The Way of Water Became the 6th Movie in History to Make $2 Billion. After being in theaters for just over a month, Avatar: The Way of Water—the long-awaited sequel to James Cameron's 2009 hit—has officially grossed over $2.024 billion.
The James Cameron-directed film was the first movie to cross $1 billion worldwide. At the time, it was the most expensive movie made. The film finally crossed $2 billion during its rerelease in 3D in 2012.
Over 30 of Cruise's movies have made over $100 million worldwide. Some of those $100 million movies include Jerry Maguire, Rain Man, and Cocktail, and it's hard to imagine those movies making as much money if they were released today or if they didn't star Tom Cruise.
In 1922, the silent film Foolish Wives became the first movie to surpass $1,000,000 for production, telling the tale of a man who rechristens himself Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin to woo rich women at the famous Monte Carlo.
1. Samuel L. Jackson - $5.72 Billion. While he also had a fairly significant role as Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, nobody can stand up to the vastly diverse career held by Samuel L. Jackson.
One of the most successful low-budget films was 1999's The Blair Witch Project. It had a budget of around $60,000 but grossed almost $249 million worldwide. It spawned books, a trilogy of video games, and a less-popular sequel.
It became the highest-grossing movie in history on January 25, 2010, after 41 days of release, and had become the second-highest-grossing movie worldwide 20 days after its initial release. After relinquishing the record to Avengers: Endgame in July 2019, Avatar reclaimed it in March 2021 with a re-release in China.
Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water has officially surpassed Titanic to become the third highest-grossing film of all-time and Titanic was, of course, also directed by the auteur.
